Jackson's Dilemma

"...'Jackson's Dilemma' is typical Murdoch fiction, only more so: tense with dichotomy, teased by intellectual puzzling, rich in allusion...With sheer Shakespearean wackiness, Murdoch has concocted a role-switching farce and cast it with contemporary upper-class twits...Clever and complex as this all is, ultimately there's too much of a muchness. A longtime fan of Iris Murdoch, I may finally have overdosed--or perhaps she has. Throughout the novel, Murdoch displays her usual charming, fussy impatience with narrative graces. But she also lapses into elaborate explanation, wooden conversation, mythic shorthand, and cultural stereotype. In her other fiction, people are driven by ideas. in 'Jackson's Dilemma' characters ARE ideas."Murdoch, Iris is the author of 'Jackson's Dilemma' with ISBN 9780140261899 and ISBN 0140261893.