A friend passed along two books to me by Muriel Spark. I thought they were interesting although stereotypically British.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was the better of the two. I thought it was surprisingly (since the outcome is know from the beginning) suspenseful. The setting is a girl's private school in Edinburgh where one teacher, Miss Jean Brodie, tries to mold a group of girls into a clique. The main narrator is Sandy, and she "betrays" Miss Jean Brodie to the school administrators. What is interesting is exploring the recollections of each girl about that period of their lives, especially Sandy's. Understanding her motivation is what keeps one reading to the end.
The Only Problem is a darkly humorous story. It is also much less interesting to read than TPOMJB. In its attempts at being funny I found it hard to relate to or take seriously. I didn't feel sympathy for any of the characters as they were all equally bad. Bad in the superficially realized, this is an archetypically-chummy-wealthy-British-man-living-abroad character. This is his best-friend-from-college-chum who wants to help his wife get a divorce. Add lots of improbable events in, without allowing any real emotion or connections to be created and you get the story.
Muriel Spark is a talented writer and TPOMJB reminded me, because of the repetition, of Stein. Although she was writing after Stein, perhaps benefiting from her influence.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was the better of the two. I thought it was surprisingly (since the outcome is know from the beginning) suspenseful. The setting is a girl's private school in Edinburgh where one teacher, Miss Jean Brodie, tries to mold a group of girls into a clique. The main narrator is Sandy, and she "betrays" Miss Jean Brodie to the school administrators. What is interesting is exploring the recollections of each girl about that period of their lives, especially Sandy's. Understanding her motivation is what keeps one reading to the end.
The Only Problem is a darkly humorous story. It is also much less interesting to read than TPOMJB. In its attempts at being funny I found it hard to relate to or take seriously. I didn't feel sympathy for any of the characters as they were all equally bad. Bad in the superficially realized, this is an archetypically-chummy-wealthy-British-man-living-abroad character. This is his best-friend-from-college-chum who wants to help his wife get a divorce. Add lots of improbable events in, without allowing any real emotion or connections to be created and you get the story.
Muriel Spark is a talented writer and TPOMJB reminded me, because of the repetition, of Stein. Although she was writing after Stein, perhaps benefiting from her influence.
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