I read most of Muriel Spark's short stories back in November last year but as I already owned these two collections and the library wanted their book back, I left the duplicated stories (8 out of 41) until later. As in all Muriel Spark, be wary of similar sounding names or people who look alike, and listen for the voice of God.moreīang Bang You're Dead by Muriel Spark and Selected Stories by Muriel Spark - both Good Part two of my cheating. The girls whose violent childhood game is reenacted in adulthood with dire consequences. The mental patient who befriends his own ghost - which is quite sane. The dim wife of an Afrikaans jailbird who reinvents herself as a socialite just in time to have him come home and murder her. And begins with a man who "looked like Rupert Brooke, whose portrait still hung in everyone's imagination." A dozen stories, never foregathered before, chosen by Granada for a 1982 anthology when they'd just reissued a bunch of her other stuff in paperback. The mental patient who befriends his own gh Mrs Spark presents: a cast of characters. Mrs Spark presents: a cast of characters. It is heartening to see, therefore that her complete stories have recently been published in a new edition by Canongate, one of the more enlightened of British independent publishers (another of their recent titles was Life of Pi).more This kind of narrative power should never go out of fashion. Muriel Spark seems to be regarded as old-fashioned by some readers these days. Nothing could have wrenched me from my seat. I was totally gripped by the last few pages. Something she can't tell her friends but which she has told us, the sophisticated readers, who have stayed with her story to the end. Thirty-eight succinct pages hold all the depth and range of a novel.Īnd then there is one final, crushing, heart-stopping revelation. It's astonishingly economical storytelling. There are poignant ironies in the story that the narrator couldn't have conveyed any other way. The layered viewpoints and the indirectness of the storytelling are not gratuitous. As she began to dissect her emotions and the motivations behind her relationships, I became hooked. I became engrossed in the story and in the searingly honest character of the narrator. It's an ambitious technical device and I was thinking that I was going to be very disappointed if the narrator didn't do something special with it and repay the effort I was making to interpret the layers of meaning.īut as the story unfolded I realised before I got to the end that I actually was being treated to something very special indeed. The reels of film trigger flashbacks and revive old memories. How old is the person telling the story? Where is she? How old was she in that film? Who are these friends? Are they close friends or just acquaintances? Gradually, if you're patient, the questions get answered. The narrator is at a friend's house watching some old reels of film from her life in South Africa. The English isn't difficult but the context is. At the beginning I was having to re-read each sentence three or four times. How old is the person telling the story? Where is she? How old was she in that film? Who are these friends? Are they close friends or just acquaintances? Gradually, if you're patien This is a sophisticated story for sophisticated readers. This is a sophisticated story for sophisticated readers.
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