Bonnie A. (Mizzou) - reviewed on 5/7/2009 + 27 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

The intimate and insightful account of the marriage of two British intellectuals, the philosophical novelist Iris Murdoch, and the eminent academic, literary critic, and writer John Bayley. Reading this account by the widower Bayley reveals how and why the marriage succeeded and endured for decades, in part because neither partner demanded concessions from the other's individual integrity, as artist, or as scholar. Bayley's musings about the changes Alzheimer's disease caused in his brilliant novelist-wife are poignant to read. He is forthright about the vexations that led to occasional outbursts on his part, but even when he recounts such moments, the reader can plainly understand that his love is unfaltering, and so it remained, to the end. Iris Murdoch died in February of 1999.

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