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the complete review - biography

Elegy for Iris


also known as:
Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch

by
John Bayley

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B+ : an account of Bayley's wife, Iris Murdoch, that is generally touching and interesting

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries

Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
Boston Globe	A	3/1/1999	Gail Caldwell
The LA Times	A	14/2/1999	Abraham Verghese
The NY Rev. of Books	A	4/3/1999	Rosemary Dinnage
The NY Times	A-	24/12/1998	C. Lehmann-Haupt
The NY Times Book Rev.	A+	21/12/1998	Mary Gordon
The Observer	.	26/9/1999	Sally Vincent
Publishers Weekly	A	19/10/1998	.
The Sunday Times	A	1/11/1998	Caroline Gascoigne
The Times	A-	17/9/1998	Roy Porter
TLS	A+	9/10/1998	K. Duncan-Jones
The Village Voice	B-	12/1/1999	Dale Peck
The Washington Post	A	7/2/1999	Carolyn See

  From the Reviews:

• "Elegy for Iris is beautiful and heartbreaking, though it isn't really elegiac -- it's more a love poem writ in melancholy, an ode to the past and the stratosphere of commitment that such a past ensures." - Gail Caldwell, The Boston Globe
  
  
• "In its evocation of the lyrical, the comic and the tragic, this splendid book enlarges our imagination of the range and possibilities of love." - Mary Gordon, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "There is no great guffaw in this memoir, and nowhere does it stoop to tear-jerk. It moves in mysterious ways but never manipulates." - Sally Vincent, The Observer
  
  
• "It is hard to do justice to the tenderness with which, in exquisite, measured prose and surprising detail, he evokes their marriage" - Caroline Gascoigne, The Sunday Times
  
  
• "Bayley wisely avoids voyeuristic wallowing in the morbid. Mostly his book reads as a joyous paean to his beloved." - Roy Porter, The Times
  
  
• "This is a brave and a brilliant book, which makes Iris's fading seem only the latest and worst of many accidents that have somehow come right. The totality of her fiction is enriched, not diminished, by the addition to it both of John's own fiction and of his Memoir" - Katherine Duncan-Jones, Times Literary Supplement
  
  
• "Ostensibly a genuflection, Elegy for Iris is actually composed of equal parts adoration and hubris" - Dale Peck, The Village Voice

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Iris Murdoch, one of the great figures of postwar English literature, died in 1999, shortly after publication of this book. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease her decline was fairly abrupt and rapid, first noticed by Bayley in 1994 when Murdoch found herself incapable of responding to an audience in Israel. This book chronicles her sad decline, as well as recounting much of Bayley and Murdoch's relationship.
       Switching between the present and the past, Bayley adeptly relates her state as he writes this book, as well as her previous self. It is an interesting, though necessarily one-sided and cursory overview of Murdoch's life, with a great deal of insight and some fascinating detail. It is a very generous book, and Bayley describes the difficulties of dealing with an Alzheimer's patient well. Both in his book and in life (so it would appear, at least) Bayley is extremely generous. They make a happy couple, or so it would seem, and seem to have led a happy life.
       Bayley writes well, and he handles the difficult subject of Alzheimer's with considerable aplomb. Nevertheless, the book does not always stand on sure footing. Their courtship is well-related, but other aspects of their lives together are flung in or ignored without sufficient reason. Bayley also has a peculiar gossipy streak, which would be less bothersome if not for the curious obliqueness he affects on occasion. An unnamed German Dichter plays a fairly prominent role, fodder for a few anecdotes. Described so specifically that there can be no doubt that it is Elias Canetti, why does he remain unnamed ?
       The details of Ms. Murdoch watching the teletubbies and such similar information is not as awkward as one might expect. Bayley handles his material decorously and his affection for his wife shines through. We felt slightly uneasy for almost all of the book, but it is a fine effort.
       We do recommend the book, certainly to anyone interested in Murdoch (or Bayley). It is a small, gentle, memoir, and makes for quite good reading. We do not know that anyone involved in an Alzheimer's case will be able to take much comfort from it, but then people do enjoy reading about others miseries and so this too might appeal (though for all of Bayley's generous spirit the inevitable outcome lurks on every page).

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Links:

• Picador publicity page
• Q & A

• Brimmings: up from the well
• The Harbinger
• Kirkus Reviews
• The Observer
• Publishers Weekly
• The Washington Post

• IMDb page

• Iris Murdoch at books and writers
• Iris Murdoch at Guardian Unlimited
• The Iris Murdoch Society

• An Accidental Man
• The Flight from the Enchanter
• The Sandcastle
• The Sea, the Sea
• A Severed Head
• The Time of the Angels
• Under the Net
• The Unicorn
• An Unofficial Rose

• See Index of Biographical works under review

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About the Author:

       John Bayley was born in India in 1925. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he became a fellow of New College in 1955 and Professor at St. Catherine's College in 1973. A noted literary critic and former chairman of the Booker Prize Committee he has published several works of criticism, as well as works of fiction. He was the husband of Iris Murdoch, whom he married in 1956.

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© 1999-2021 the complete review

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