the winner of the free book.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n![](\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-1FbdY4mXlWA\/U4pd6_l0snI\/AAAAAAAABWA\/7YUWFsvq600\/s1600\/pink+flowers.JPG\")
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<\/a><\/div>\nThe winner is Fredrik J. <\/span>CONGRATULATIONS<\/b><\/span>, Fredrik. Please contact<\/a> me as soon as possible to let me know whether you want an e-Book copy or a proper book. I will also need your contact details.<\/div>\n
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There will be another giveaway later in the year, so keep your eyes open. <\/div>\n
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The book being reviewed this week is <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>Ir<\/span>is: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch <\/i>by John Bayley.<\/span> I read the book many years ago, and I was disappointed that the book concentrated more on the person Iris had become and not on the person she had been.<\/div>\n
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On the front cover are the words: ‘The greatest love story of our age; incomparable’. I have read a few of the editorial reviews, and the feeling seems to be very much the same: a wonderful tribute to Iris Murdoch. I love Iris Murdoch’s writing, and, over the years, I have read many of her novels. She was a gifted person, intellectually surpassing many of her peers. Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch<\/i> interlaces all that was so positive about Iris Murdoch with the sadness and the degradation of the illness that finally ended her life. In fact, at times, I feel that, in the book, the greatness of Iris Murdoch becomes obliterated by long descriptions of her inability to think and\/or communicate as she used to be able to think\/communicate. The book is frightfully sad, and it left me wondering as to what its main purpose might have been. Perhaps it is a love story, but I feel that a true love story would have concentrated much more on Iris as she really was, not on the person she became because of a devastating illness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![](\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-GUi0tMfTQ0g\/U4pgutBwVLI\/AAAAAAAABWM\/TVHvJ63r_LE\/s1600\/Iris+and+John.jpeg\")
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