Volume 21, Number 20 · December 12, 1974
Winter's Tales
By Roger Sale
The Sacred and Profane Love Machine
by Iris Murdoch
Viking, 374 pp., $8.95
The Siege of Krishnapur
by J.G. Farrell
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 343 pp., $7.95
The Last Days of Louisiana Red
by Ishmael Reed
Random House, 177 pp., $5.95
Winter in the Blood
by James Welch
Harper & Row, 176 pp., $6.95
One takes one's chances with Iris Murdoch. I read her first ten novels as they appeared, but gradually realized that both success and failure with her seemed like accidental results of her need to keep writing, and so missed a few after that. Bruno's Dream has some good moments, and her next-to-last, The Black Prince, has been praised by people I respect; her latest, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, is a dreadful mess. There are some excellent scenes, but much wasteful floundering, too. As she begins a novel, Murdoch seems to commit herself to a central situation and then to rely on her talent to uncover what exciting scenes lie inherent in that situation. If it works out, fine; if not, start another novel.
Review, 3625 words
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