The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch

This is one of Iris Murdoch's very late novels (1993), and I'm often a little annoyed by the way she tries to 'update' her novels. There is nothing 'modern' about any of her writing, it always exists in its own world, so she might as well leave it there. This is the first time I've read a sex scene she's written and frankly, I would have been better without it. But in all other respects, I loved it. The first half of the novel is remarkable for its plot twists and at one point, I was so shocked and frightened by what was happening, it was better than any horror/suspense movie. As the title indicates, the novel plays very cleverly with the romance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which I of course really appreciated. Murdoch's novels always remind me of medieval romances transplanted to a vaguely undefined modern time, and this one made it even more explicit. Unusually for Murdoch, this novel has a few characters that come in later in the story, disturbing that insular world that she so masterfully creates, not sure if I liked that or not. I always love the way she can put a set of characters in the middle of London (this is yet another London novel), and yet have them completely isolated from the entire world, as if they're in some sort of cloister. Of course there's the usual incredible philosophical and allusive depth, at this point, that goes without saying. That aspect of Murdoch's work is always so perfect, there's no point my wasting space trying to praise it sufficiently.