I, well, I tried. I really did. I read more than 3/4 of the book. But I just don't give a flying duck for the plot or the characters. The plot seemed to drag on and on, without any real excitement or surprises. The characters, too, felt rather flat and uninteresting. I just couldn't seem to connect with them on any level.

The one thing that kept me for so long was the truly beautiful writing style of the writer. The words just seemed to flow off the page, creating a vivid and engaging world. It was like reading a poem, rather than a novel. The descriptions were so detailed and the language so rich that it was in itself just mesmerizing.

But despite the beautiful writing, I just couldn't bring myself to care about the story or the characters. I found myself skimming through the last few chapters, just to see how it ended. In the end, I was left feeling rather disappointed. I had expected so much more from this book, but it just didn't deliver.

This is the first Iris Murdoch book that I’ve read, and it won’t be my last.

I firmly believe that the concepts of “Nice” and “Good” can vary from person to person. Ducane and Paula, among many others, make choices based on what they perceive as good for others. However, choices made for the benefit of others aren’t always the best for us. Ducane, the central character, grapples with daily moral dilemmas as he encounters them.

There are an abundance of characters and personalities in this book, making it a challenge for me to keep track of them all. Although they are all essential for the story and for what we can learn, at times I felt as if I had walked into a play in the middle of the second act and wanted to constantly whisper to those around me, “Who’s that?” While each character provides crucial clues for the progress of the work, it might be beneficial for some readers to diagram who’s who just to stay organized.

There is a humorous conversation in the book about “cuckoo” and “cuckold” precisely when I’m wondering “Who’s doing who?” The question with the shorter answer might be “Who’s not?” For every deeply thinking character, there is a complementary character who “has their cake and eats it too” – shallow yet true. Such is life – where some consider how their choices will impact others, there are those who don’t give it enough thought to care.

There is a sense of playfulness in this book, along with different kinds of magic, mermaids, and flying saucers, which allows us to take the morality story seriously while also enjoying the light comedy that lies beneath.

This book truly offers a unique and engaging reading experience.

About three-fourths of the way through, I was inclined to rate it four stars. However, by the conclusion, every single subplot was neatly tied up in a positive manner. It was as if people suddenly and magically decided they were in love with each other, which strongly reminded me of the style in Dickens' works. Here we are, approaching the end of the book, and all of a sudden, it's all about getting married and living happily ever after. I don't believe the relationships were realistically depicted. I couldn't find any valid reason to think that anyone had a legitimate cause to love anyone else. In fact, without the subplot regarding the suicide, I probably would have abandoned the book for good. It felt like the author was trying too hard to create a perfect and happy ending, rather than presenting a more authentic and believable story.

I don't think you can actually categorize this book. It isn't really any one genre.

The story has a unique charm. It subtly turns and shifts, causing your view of each character to be almost opposite from the one you started with.

However, as with all the older books I have read, the sort of casual reference to quite triggering subjects, in this case pedophilia, is quite jarring.

It makes you stop and think about the context and the times in which the book was written.

Despite this, the overall story and character development are so engaging that it's hard to put the book down.

You find yourself drawn into the world of the characters, eager to see how their stories unfold and how their relationships change.

It's a book that challenges your perceptions and makes you question your own beliefs and values.

In the end, you're left with a sense of satisfaction and a newfound appreciation for the power of storytelling.

When the mysterious Radeechy takes his own life at the office,

he unknowingly sets off a tempest of emotions and intrigues in both London and Dorset, during a sweltering long summer.

Poor, amiable Octavian is burdened with the tiresome task of looking into the incident and promptly delegates it to the worried John Ducane.

Although Ducane is presented as the lover of Kate, Octavian's wife, within her family of misfits and strays in Dorset, it can be contended that he is the moral core of the novel. He maneuvers through the fractured relationships of himself and his friends and maintains a steady hand in unearthing the truth behind the mysterious affairs at Whitehall.

This novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 1969. Despite the fact that the writing firmly locates it in this time period, the story still feels novel and pertinent.

It offers a captivating exploration of human nature, relationships, and the search for truth, making it a timeless piece of literature.

This was my second book by the author, with "The Sea, the Sea" being the other one.

Just like "The Sea, the Sea", "The Nice and the Good" seemed to be composed almost entirely of intricate love entanglements. Virtually every character was neurotically yearning for or fleeing from the affections of some other character.

However, unlike "The Sea, the Sea", the degree of these love entanglements was less intense, or at least less obsessively centered on. As a result, the overall plot flowed much better, especially in the second half of the book.

In fact, once I got over my initial irritation with its central theme, I could hardly put this book down.

Nevertheless, I can't award it five stars because the various plot "resolutions" all struck me as a bit trite. Particularly, many of them come suddenly, all squeezed into the last few chapters without proper development. (Some might refer to it as a "Hollywood ending").

Overall, it was an engaging read, but it had its flaws.

4,5 stele. This is a unique erotic novel, intense yet well-balanced. It combines diverse elements such as the investigation of a suspected suicide of a government department official, subtle references to ancient mythology, reflections on morality, and the description of the specific lifestyle of those in high positions in the British government organizations in the 1960s. To which we must add the analysis of a famous painting, full of mystery, namely Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time by Bronzino, which can be admired at the National Gallery in London.

The atmosphere of this novel seems to be taken from Shakespeare's comedies, and the end of the novel can be best summarized by the famous title of one of his comedies: All's Well That Ends Well. The writing is, as expected, superb, making the reading a real pleasure, despite the fact that the action is relatively monotonous and there are relatively few truly memorable events. Besides the suicide of Joseph Radeechy, which we have already mentioned, there are also the two symbolic descents into "hell" of John Ducane (the first into the sewers of London with the intention of understanding the occult practices of the suicide and the second, infinitely more dangerous, into the cave covered by the sea on the estate of Trescombe with the aim of saving the fifteen-year-old Pierce, Mary Clothier's son) and an unusual erotic instability that seems to characterize all the characters without notable exceptions. In this last sense, the mysterious thought of Kate, the wife of Octavian Gray - the head of the government department where the suicide occurred and the owner of Trescombe - regarding the fact that "there isn't much difference between us and apes - only that we are monogamous and good - and they are polygamous and bad!" turns out to be rather a form of irony.

In conclusion, the novel gathers the experiences, emotions, and thoughts of a female trio, of some men, and of a quartet of children who live, permanently or temporarily, together at the estate made available with an unusual generosity by Octavian, the "lazy and fat man" who resembles a modern Buddha. All these must be discovered by each reader individually. Enjoyable reading!

Maybe the most British novel I’ve ever read.

Loved the murder plot, which was full of twists and turns, keeping me on the edge of my seat. However, I could not follow the conversations between the various love interests at the country villa. They seemed so convoluted and complex.

But when it finally cohered into the John Ducane Story, I was able to follow it. It was like a lightbulb moment for me.

Conceptually, it's great. Iris Murdoch has a unique way of presenting ideas. I'd love to read more of her philosophy.

The best parts were the more metaphysical passages in which Murdoch explores what it means to love the good. These passages made me stop and think, and they added a depth to the novel that I really appreciated.

Overall, it was a great read, despite the initial confusion with the love interests. I look forward to reading more of Murdoch's works in the future.

Is there a way to determine whether we are innately good or bad? Is there a clear line of demarcation, a conclusive answer considering all the diverse people and their actions and intentions that we observe? What is it that truly motivates us at our core?

In my view, like many others, this is not a simple black-and-white question. We humans are driven by an incredibly wide range of motives. Whether it's the desire to spend intimate moments with someone, or the urge to ease our own pain in a situation while causing another to suffer, or even ruining someone else's life for our own sense of competence, or attempting to avoid all of these for a puritanical way of life, free from worries and guilt about our actions that might seem bad rather than good. The goal is to live a life that one can consider essentially good.

But are the puritans really good? Deep down? If they were, there would be no need or intention to avoid or suppress these rather bad intentions, would there? Since those who are truly good have no bad or selfish intentions, only good ones. Are these people just... nice? Does good really exist?

I believe it does, just as bad does, and they are both present within each and every one of us. On a dynamic scale that constantly places us at different points along a spectrum between good and bad based on the choices we make. And that scale is influenced by the greatest gift and burden of humanity, consciousness.

After all, what differentiates us from animals, creatures that are mainly driven by instincts related to eating, sexual behavior, etc.? It is that we are aware of these drives and can see them in relation to our environment. We realize when our drives and intentions cause harm and how to formulate an intention and action that will result in the creation of something good in the world, something that we cause.

The recognition and utilization of consciousness give us the power to be both good and bad. It's not a guarantee, a law, but simply an opportunity.

However, this struggle to do good, even the best, may turn us into egotistical opportunists in our pursuit of goodness. We may direct our path towards something that is better described as niceness when we live our lives once again for our own satisfaction, regarding our need to be good. That sounds rather animalistic, doesn't it?

In Iris Murdoch's novel, we are introduced to the complexities of London's bureaucracy and the Dorset community filled with troubled and aching hearts, burdened by the sorrow of the past, present, and future. The greatest emphasis is placed on John Ducane, whom everyone views as the perfect example of a good man, someone who always makes the morally right decision. Through his stories of justice, love, and providing, we are privy to his internal struggles as he tries to fit into the mold of a good man that has been imposed on him by his environment and by himself, even if it means risking his life. Through these stories, the difficulties and the gray area of the question of human nature unfold, offering an exceptional perspective on the matter.

The book has multiple focal points, including reconciliation, love, growing up, suicide, black magic, and interesting complexes for those who are seeking something other than the old, unresolved (and perhaps forever unresolved) question of goodness and badness that continues to captivate me. It's an overall great read!

I really liked this book!

And as I was reading it, I felt a sense of erudition. It's truly a win-win situation.

This is indeed a strange book that features a plethora of strange characters. I'm not entirely certain that I fully grasped the premise. It seems to be something about people being nice but not good, or perhaps good but not nice.

Nevertheless, the plot just kept going strong. It was filled with elements such as sex, affairs, S&M, detective work, suicide attempts, love, and good times at the beach.

All of these were presented in wonderful descriptions, with great vocabulary and pacing. It was very well done. Kudos to the author!

Bravo!

A group of family and friends share the common pleasure that lies behind love and cheating. John Ducane, a civil servant, redirects his energy to investigate the cause of Radeechy's supposed successful suicide.

As the plot unfolds, the reader uncovers a series of events in which most of the characters are found to be cheating on their first lovers, whom they had sworn to love until death in the eyes of God. Ducane, the main character, is a man of wealth and with love ambitions. He is characterized as cold, loving, and ambitious.

This book presents characters who succumb to pleasure, oblivious to the possibility of forming good relationships, and instead focusing on a nice and short-lived one. The main character experiences this most acutely. "The Nice and the Good" is aimed at those who wish to experience the rawness of choosing a nice relationship through sexual relations rather than a deep and meaningful one.

A quote that exemplifies the theme of this book is from Ducane's situation: "However he easily forgave himself, so completely forgetting the matter as to feel blameless, and as he frequently decided that each occasion was the last he did not view himself as a deceiver of his wife" (352). This quote highlights Ducane's self-justification and his inability to see the harm he is causing in his relationships.

An unholy mess with an abundance of delicious morsels.

It makes one wonder if someone could invent a 'Murdoch diagram' that vividly depicts who is sleeping with whom at the beginning compared to at the end.

I find myself pondering whether Ducane would be suitable as a James Bond-like figure tracking double agents.

Moreover, he seems to have a penchant for bedding every person he encounters, accompanied by a plethora of philosophical rationalizations to justify his actions.

This creates a rather complex and somewhat scandalous scenario that leaves one both intrigued and perhaps a bit shocked.

The combination of these elements makes for a story that is full of mystery, drama, and a touch of the absurd.

It's a narrative that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, eager to discover what will happen next and how all these relationships and intrigues will ultimately play out.

Whether Ducane will succeed in his supposed role as a double agent tracker or simply get lost in a web of his own making remains to be seen.

But one thing is for sure, this unholy mess is anything but dull.