I was completely gripped by this astonishing monologue, but the next person to pick up my review copy said it looked like one long run-on sentence. What is it, besides a monologue? 'How weird your categories are! It's philosophy, if you like - but what does that mean it's thinking, and it's a programme of action.' That's Crimond, the high-flyer, in Iris Murdoch's 1989 The Book of the Brotherhood, replying to a question about his projected book. His envious interlocutor Gerrard asks:

LRB 17 December 1992 | PDF Download