Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

The protagonist of this book could be compared to Henry Chinaski in Bukowski's novel Post Office or Sebastian Dangerfield in Donleavy's novel The Ginger Man: all three go from woman to woman, drink too much, and live rather aimless lives. The difference is that this hero, Jake Donahue, is actually a decent human being, albeit somewhat misguided. The novels could be considered similar, also, in that they are all comic (or aim to be) and feature fantastic escapades. The difference is that this novel is actually funny. Very funny, in fact.

Jake claims to be a writer, but he actually spends all his writing time translating French novels into English. Ousted from his free lodgings by a lady friend, he goes in search of new digs, and returns to a former love, discovering that maybe he still loves her. But it seems that she has become involved with another old friend of his, Hugh, with whom he had once had grand discussions about philosophy. Jake becomes obsessive about finding Hugh again. The plot from here is complicated, but logical, and comes to a very satisfactory conclusion. It includes laugh-out-loud accounts of the kidnapping of a movie star who happens to be a dog and a fist-fight in a film-set of ancient Rome. All this mayhem seems logical and inevitable, surprisingly.

Jake's fault, which he finally realizes, is of "having conceived things as I pleased and not as they were."

I really enjoyed this book. It is #95 on the Modern Library Top 100 (only 9 more to go!) and is also included in Time's Top 100. Recommended.