1. It's important that no character in Iris Murdoch's Under the Net (1954) has a backstory involving the war. None seem to have been soldiers or otherwise employed by the services. Given the novel's date this seems improbable but it is worth recalling that the central character, Jake (who's 34) is, I think, Irish (and Ireland was neutral of course) and more to the point that the characters don't have much backstory at all. After all, back story (and the kind of naturalist explanations that comes with it) don't suit what we might call Murdoch's caper Wittgensteinean and socialist existentialism.
2. What's the best literary description of being very drunk? The one in the last few pages of chapter five in Lucky Jim?
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39 Books: 1986
14 hours ago
