false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182550863m/1294370.jpg 1294370 6 Novelist Iris Murdoch died in 1999 after a three-year battle with Alzheimer's disease. Her husband, writer John Bayley, who wrote movingly of the impact of her illness in <I>Elegy for Iris</I>, tells in this book of the final year of his wife's life, when she was visited more by her own imaginary "friends" than by the exigencies of real life. In <I>Iris and Her Friends</I>, Bayley recalls his own increasingly precarious hold on reality and subsequent breakdown, Murdoch's final happy weeks in a home for the terminally ill, and finally her quiet death. Although closely linked to <I>Elegy</I>, <I>Iris and Her Friends</I> focuses more on Bayley's experience of Murdoch's illness: the memories he discovered just as his wife lost her own--of his childhood, his army years and first loves, and of their long marriage. One of Bayley's "friends" is a subject he holds dear: "The old Eng. Lit. again. I taught it for nearly fifty years and feel detached from it now." Nonetheless, literature emerges here as the one remaining constant in his life. Scarcely two pages go by without a reference, almost involuntary, to Hardy, Coleridge, Austen, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Thurber, James, Lawrence, Woolf--or Murdoch. Sometimes Murdoch appears to respond to the shared literary in-jokes, but more often the pair are like "two animals pushing together, nudging and grooming each other, grunting together as they bask in a mutual doze." This is an incredibly intimate glimpse into a personal life, but as Bayley tellingly observes: "There is a surreal sense in which Alzheimer's has turned Iris herself into art. She is my Iris no longer, but a person in the public domain." <I>--Alan Stewart, Amazon.co.uk</I> 1283476 19 9 1999 Iris and Her Friends: A Memoir of Memory and Desire total:14|5:3|4:6|3:3|2:0|1:2| 14 50 29 3 3 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Feb 27 07:22:38 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 07:24:14 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Mon Feb 09 14:17:13 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 14:17:24 -0800 2009 1 0 false false Thu Jun 19 20:09:20 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 08:29:47 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Fri Nov 20 14:20:46 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 09:24:41 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 08 21:01:12 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 21:18:06 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Nov 07 10:00:22 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 10:00:22 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 04 04:17:37 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 04:17:37 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 07:37:49 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 07:37:49 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 20 14:52:48 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 14:52:48 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Jul 16 20:20:37 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 20:20:37 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 26 18:53:48 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 18:53:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 12:14:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 12:15:10 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Apr 11 18:54:18 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 18:54:18 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Mar 05 08:25:07 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 08:25:07 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jan 15 12:24:02 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 12:24:02 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jan 14 05:55:56 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 05:55:56 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Dec 02 13:20:23 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 13:20:23 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Thu Oct 02 02:05:11 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 02 02:05:11 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Oct 01 13:58:49 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 01 13:58:49 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Wed Sep 03 02:46:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 02:46:00 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1294370