The Cult of Muriel Spark I have met one person in my life…
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The Cult of Muriel Spark
I have met one person in my life (a fellow lit student in the year above) who did not enjoy Muriel Spark and I spent the whole bus ride trying to convert her to our little cult.
I'm very protective of Spark's work and always recommend The Prime because that was my introduction and it's impossible to not like it. I also recently re-read Memento Mori, Loitering with Intent and The Driver's Seat. I think maybe there are one or two novels by her that I haven't read yet, mainly because I couldn't find it in a library and prefer to buy books from second hand books shops.
Something I love about her work is how her religious conviction shapes her imagination, many of her short stories for example are ghost stories; her ability to hone in on the sensibilities of the most zealous and extreme characters. There are a lot of shady men in her stories, many if not most of the men and women she depicts are cruel but there is a pattern of women being harassed, scammed and seduced by awful men. Perhaps a reflection of her own life. I heard someone say about her in a documentary that she would never walk down the stairs in front of a man for fear that he might push her. Which funny, strange and morbid in a way you would expect form a Spark character or story.
She also has an aphoristic wit which likely stems from her early work as a poet. There is something about her sentences that balances a patrician formality, irony and for lack of a better word an 'edge'. Her most memorable sentences have the same appeal as quotes from campy queer icons like Gore Vidal, Dorothy Parker and Karl Lagerfeld.
Are you a member of our club? Do you find yourself trying to lure people into a life long obsession with our favourite literary diva? Do you think she and Penelope were lovers or just "friends"?
#entertainment
source
I have met one person in my life (a fellow lit student in the year above) who did not enjoy Muriel Spark and I spent the whole bus ride trying to convert her to our little cult.
I'm very protective of Spark's work and always recommend The Prime because that was my introduction and it's impossible to not like it. I also recently re-read Memento Mori, Loitering with Intent and The Driver's Seat. I think maybe there are one or two novels by her that I haven't read yet, mainly because I couldn't find it in a library and prefer to buy books from second hand books shops.
Something I love about her work is how her religious conviction shapes her imagination, many of her short stories for example are ghost stories; her ability to hone in on the sensibilities of the most zealous and extreme characters. There are a lot of shady men in her stories, many if not most of the men and women she depicts are cruel but there is a pattern of women being harassed, scammed and seduced by awful men. Perhaps a reflection of her own life. I heard someone say about her in a documentary that she would never walk down the stairs in front of a man for fear that he might push her. Which funny, strange and morbid in a way you would expect form a Spark character or story.
She also has an aphoristic wit which likely stems from her early work as a poet. There is something about her sentences that balances a patrician formality, irony and for lack of a better word an 'edge'. Her most memorable sentences have the same appeal as quotes from campy queer icons like Gore Vidal, Dorothy Parker and Karl Lagerfeld.
Are you a member of our club? Do you find yourself trying to lure people into a life long obsession with our favourite literary diva? Do you think she and Penelope were lovers or just "friends"?
#entertainment
source
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