false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169282107m/39261.jpg 39261 1 <blockquote> <I>"Like being chained to a corpse, isn't it?"</I> </blockquote> This is a memoir, not a biography, with obvious resonance. John Bayley, former Professor of English at Oxford, and Iris Murdoch, philosopher and author, have been married for more than 45 years. She has shown the degenerative effects of Alzheimer's Disease for the last four years. The words quoted above were not, needless to say, his. He chronicles a shared experience that can no longer be shared except with those outside of it, and as such is vital for him as he copes, rather than grieves. He purposefully blurs the boundaries of past and present as he describes the marriage of two brilliant intellectuals, determinedly unworldly and collegiate, mixing wine and water (they are serial dippers) throughout Europe as they serenely move "closer and closer apart". <P> When Iris's intellect deteriorates her dependency inevitably increases, and they are "sailing into the dark" (her words) until the end of the book, when Bayley contends that the voyage is over, and they have both arrived somewhere. It is the spiritual answer to her perpetual question: "When are we going?", and provides a quietly uplifting resolution. John Bayley has written a magnificent paean to their love. Without underplaying the realities of living with someone with Alzheimer's, he writes in a moving and dignified way, without sentimentality, of a woman rather than a condition, who is still every bit his wife, if even more his dependent. He believes that their marriage released the child in Iris; now they watch Teletubbies together, wordlessly secure. --<I>David Vincent</I> 38971 10 1 2002 Iris total:3|5:1|4:2| 3 13 5 1 39261 0715631594 9780715631591 3 1 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169282107m/39261.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39261.Iris 5 0 false Mon Apr 16 10:56:43 -0700 2007 Mon Apr 16 10:57:16 -0700 2007 39261 0715631594 9780715631591 3 1 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169282107m/39261.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39261.Iris 4 0 false Thu Jun 25 10:58:02 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 10:58:02 -0700 2009 39261 0715631594 9780715631591 3 1 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169282107m/39261.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39261.Iris 0 0 false Tue Jun 02 10:41:13 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 10:42:00 -0700 2009 39261 0715631594 9780715631591 3 1 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169282107m/39261.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39261.Iris 0 0 false Mon Oct 06 12:04:46 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 06 12:04:46 -0700 2008 39261 0715631594 9780715631591 3 1 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169282107m/39261.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39261.Iris 4 0 false Sun Aug 17 14:57:51 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 17 14:57:51 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=39261