Too dense for a novel. The only Iris Murdoch book I did not wish to finish (contrasting with nine others I read and enjoyed immensely). ( )

John Robert Rozanov is a philosopher from the small town of Ennistone, an English town noted for its healing hot spring and spa. The McCaffrey family is connected in strange ways to the eccentric philosopher, and George is the obsessed former pupil of Rozanov. It’s a bit of a rambling tale, as the McCaffreys and Rozanov dance around their shared issues of love and family and admiration. As the somewhat omniscient narrator, N observes that “we are mostly narcissists, and only in a few, not always with felicitious results, is narcissism overcome (broken, crushed, annihilated, nothing less will serve) by religious discipline or psycho-analysis.” ( )