A Must Read - and no I'm not kidding

The Good Apprentice - Iris Murdoch
One of the top five books I would recommend reading (Red Sky at Morning, Franny and Zooey, The Blind Assassin, and Catch-22 are the others).

Far from a conventional novelist Murdoch pulls from her strong psychological and philosophical background to convert the characters into works of fiction-history-psyche and sexuality. This is not necessarily a great coming of age novel like Catcher in the Rye, or Red Sky at Morning, but rather a great story of consequences and connections, family and cognitive dissonance (just read the book and find out what I mean). The writing is absolutely brilliant, and the story engages from the first page to the last. To me I found the total suspension disbelief to be so complete that I could almost see the characters and their many foibles. It's truly difficult to find comparisons for this novel, and as such a unique and exemplary piece of writing it is well worth the read.
Rating A(+)
Related:
The Green Knight - same author