85 reviews for:

The Spire

William Golding

3.44 AVERAGE


This is a great book; I wish I liked it more.
challenging tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
leahfigiel's profile picture

leahfigiel's review

4.0
mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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blackoxford's review

5.0

"Work! Work! Work!"

As the spire of the cathedral rises, the state of Jocelin, its Dean, declines - a sort of inverse Dorian Grey. Jocelin is the spire, absorbed by it into its stone and timber. As the spire is supported by four pillars of stone, so Jocelin is supported by the Master Builder, the Verger and their wives. Jocelin finds more of himself in each higher level, as the pillars and his supports deteriorate below him. He is insane. And his insanity is contagious.

A vision is a dangerous thing. Combined with religious faith, a vision can be lethal. And not just for the visionary; a religious visionary with authority is a civil menace. The visionary must repress everything not relevant to achieving his vision - family, friends, workmates, intimacy and contentment of any kind, and, especially, the idea of reality. The visionary causes organisational chaos and political discord, and is proud of it. The visionary knows only work, effort to achieve. Like the spire, he is otherwise empty, and acutely vulnerable to the world’s ‘weather.’ Vision demands the ultimate sacrifice of oneself as a prayer.

Work - ambition, career, advancement, achievement - is the modern form of religion. Faith in work is what drives capitalist culture. Where would we be if we didn’t work? If no one worked? It’s what we were placed here to do. Work is our calling, our vocation. Work protects. Work justifies our inadequacies (despite the warnings of St. Paul), and the injustice of our position. A vision is what we work towards, our teleological spur. Without vision we are without purpose. We have no meaning.

And working to find meaning drives us mad. As Jocelin discovers, “There is no innocent work.”

junkyardigan's review

3.0

What a weird book. But it was fun.

kazgriki's review

3.0

I read this many years ago and have just listened to it as an audiobook, read by the brilliant Dominic Cumberbatch. It is quite a difficult listen/read - about one man's obsession to build a spire for his cathedral, his struggle with faith and descent into madness. Full of symbolism, its meaning is rather obscure and as such, I didn't particularly enjoy it any more second time around.

dedasab's review

3.0

It was good and interesting, but too long. Thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch's narration or I would have never finished it.

This is the first time I've read anything of Golding's other than Lord of the Flies, and for the most part I enjoyed it — Jocelin's desire to build a spire just the sort of driving obsession I find compelling in a story. There are, however, points at which the prose became too interior and impenetrable, and I felt like I'd missed something important because I couldn't parse a detail from the style. That interior density reminded me of Iris Murdoch, and maybe Muriel Spark, both of whom I also enjoy reading but sometimes have the same sense of missing something due to the inwardly gazing narration (if that makes any sense).

Made better by Benedict Cumberbatch's narration, no doubt.

Powerful and magnificent story, amazing setting and fabulous atmosphere, but I didn't like writing style - somewhere between SoC and normal 3rd PoV. Everything else - ganz gud. 4.4 stars.