Bruno's dream Book

She has somehow missed the bus of life.

I admit to being amazed by how I connected to this novel, the prose and plot are likely 4.5 stars by whatever arbitrary metric is at hand but Bruno's Dream certainly had an open throttle impact on me. That result was not expected. The innocuous title and the standard Murdoch dilemma concealed its power. My own age and philosophical resignation left me in lockstep with many of the characters.

Again, the plot is similar to much of Murdoch's other output: a number of couples, an aged protagonist reflecting under the tyranny of memory and guilt. The couples disengage and seek others -- etcetera. Somehow this was much more. It is a discussion of perception and resemblance. There are a number of occasions where the gaze lingers, a certain light and a remembered smell. It isn't Proust but somehow a plumbing of intelligibility in the key of Heidegger. The concluding 30-40 pages were disappointing, but how does one end the infernal rotation, what halts the charade? Acts of God and 19C Romanticism aren't the best candidates, especially not in a contemporary novel.