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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the epigraphs Muriel Spark chose for this book is from W B Yeats' poem 'The Tower':
What shall I do with this absurdity –
O heart, O troubled heart – this caricature,
Decrepit age that has been tied to me
As to a dog’s tail?
The absurdity of aging that troubles Yeats so much in his poem is also the theme of this book, but as I read though Muriel Spark's story, I thought about another kind of absurdity — the utter ridiculousness of the plot of Memento Mori! I began to wonder how Muriel Spark makes her absurd scenarios stand up. The first book I read in my current Spark season, [b:Loitering with Intent|58677|Loitering with Intent|Muriel Spark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430344701l/58677._SY75_.jpg|1725461], had a very bizarre and jumbled plot full of caricature characters, though it was a most entertaining and clever book nevertheless. The plot of Memento Mori is equally muddled, and its characters are complete parodies except for one or two, but once again I was drawn in and smiled and applauded my way through all the farce. How does she do it, I wondered...
Then I picked up a third book, [b:The Abbess of Crewe|69518|The Abbess of Crewe|Muriel Spark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347812765l/69518._SX50_.jpg|3071127], which proved to be by far the most absurd of the three. I was shaking my head in wonder at Spark's audacity when I came across this bit of convoluted reasoning:
'What are scenarios?’ says Winifrede.
‘They are an art-form,’ says the Abbess of Crewe, ‘based on facts. A good scenario is a garble. A bad one is a bungle. They need not be plausible, only hypnotic, like all good art.’
Not plausible but hypnotic. Ah ha! That explains it. I'm hypnotized. And so I will continue to be while I have Muriel Spark books to read.
…………………
Apart from being cited in the epigraph, W B Yeats pops up later in this book when a character suggests the poet might be responsible for the telephone calls the decrepit characters keep receiving, telling them to remember that they will die. Yeats isn't the hoax caller (I think), but when he was mentioned in that context, I thought I'd better read his poem, 'The Tower'. Perhaps it would be a key to the whole book. And it was in a way. There was this line, for example:
It is time that I wrote my will.
Quite a few of Spark's characters are preoccupied with their wills, and are constantly rewriting them.
Yeats goes on to talk of …the wreck of body, Slow decay of blood, Testy delirium, Or dull decrepitude. Or what worse evil come—The death of friends…
I realised that Yeats' poem is like a summary of the entire book, and quite a more serious and philosophical meditation on the theme of Memento Mori than Spark's.
But there's philosophy in Spark's version too, though fortunately she adds plenty of wit and fun to leaven the lump, as it were.
Incidentally, I picked up that phrase from the fourth of Spark's books I've read in the last week, [b:The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie|517188|The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie|Muriel Spark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1696970356l/517188._SY75_.jpg|6132856], a book with its own share of philosophy and absurdity. But more of that in the next installment...
What shall I do with this absurdity –
O heart, O troubled heart – this caricature,
Decrepit age that has been tied to me
As to a dog’s tail?
The absurdity of aging that troubles Yeats so much in his poem is also the theme of this book, but as I read though Muriel Spark's story, I thought about another kind of absurdity — the utter ridiculousness of the plot of Memento Mori! I began to wonder how Muriel Spark makes her absurd scenarios stand up. The first book I read in my current Spark season, [b:Loitering with Intent|58677|Loitering with Intent|Muriel Spark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430344701l/58677._SY75_.jpg|1725461], had a very bizarre and jumbled plot full of caricature characters, though it was a most entertaining and clever book nevertheless. The plot of Memento Mori is equally muddled, and its characters are complete parodies except for one or two, but once again I was drawn in and smiled and applauded my way through all the farce. How does she do it, I wondered...
Then I picked up a third book, [b:The Abbess of Crewe|69518|The Abbess of Crewe|Muriel Spark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347812765l/69518._SX50_.jpg|3071127], which proved to be by far the most absurd of the three. I was shaking my head in wonder at Spark's audacity when I came across this bit of convoluted reasoning:
'What are scenarios?’ says Winifrede.
‘They are an art-form,’ says the Abbess of Crewe, ‘based on facts. A good scenario is a garble. A bad one is a bungle. They need not be plausible, only hypnotic, like all good art.’
Not plausible but hypnotic. Ah ha! That explains it. I'm hypnotized. And so I will continue to be while I have Muriel Spark books to read.
…………………
Apart from being cited in the epigraph, W B Yeats pops up later in this book when a character suggests the poet might be responsible for the telephone calls the decrepit characters keep receiving, telling them to remember that they will die. Yeats isn't the hoax caller (I think), but when he was mentioned in that context, I thought I'd better read his poem, 'The Tower'. Perhaps it would be a key to the whole book. And it was in a way. There was this line, for example:
It is time that I wrote my will.
Quite a few of Spark's characters are preoccupied with their wills, and are constantly rewriting them.
Yeats goes on to talk of …the wreck of body, Slow decay of blood, Testy delirium, Or dull decrepitude. Or what worse evil come—The death of friends…
I realised that Yeats' poem is like a summary of the entire book, and quite a more serious and philosophical meditation on the theme of Memento Mori than Spark's.
But there's philosophy in Spark's version too, though fortunately she adds plenty of wit and fun to leaven the lump, as it were.
Incidentally, I picked up that phrase from the fourth of Spark's books I've read in the last week, [b:The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie|517188|The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie|Muriel Spark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1696970356l/517188._SY75_.jpg|6132856], a book with its own share of philosophy and absurdity. But more of that in the next installment...
To my knowledge Spark was the first writer that radically focussed on the "third age", because the protagonists of this novel all are between 70 and 79. She offers a very humorous and even sarcastic portrait of old farts that are above all occupied with covering up their past, with attempts to bind (younger) people to them through their testament (that they change very often) and with constantly keeping an inquisitive eye on their fellow sufferers. In the end the image of the elderly becomes very wry and pitiful, especially as repeated calls from an anonymous person that whispers "Remember you must die" cause a lot of termoil. Spark describes it all mercilessly, without moralising. To read and to despair of the prospect of old age. In the meantime, I've enjoyed this very much, indeed.
The second-(possibly third- or fourth-) hand copy of this book I have is a tad worse for wear, but then I guess if it were going to be any book it would be the one about how everything will eventually die.
I like books with premises revolving around grumpy old-timers, for what am I if not a grumpy old-timer-in-waiting? Spark dishes out the crones and geezers with a jaundiced eye for detail. There is a sequence in the latter part of the book where the main elderly characters attempt to exit taxis, which is a three-page ordeal. I would’ve preferred, however, if she hadn’t made the metaphorical nature of the book quite so blunt and obvious. This rears its ugly head the most during a scene or two towards the end where a previously minor role is the focus of a few pages, and he is unfortunately the worst kind of character; ostensibly admired by the author but rather loathsome to read about. Admittedly, I can’t say that with total conviction, because, despite being positive about the second part, I’m not so certain on the first. If he’s intended to be a beacon of sanity, then it’s not only unsuccessful (he’s more much obsequious than charming), but also completely unnecessary. You already have the Mortimer’s as a sort of moral buoy amidst all the venal grasping, you don’t need this other gargoyle to shuffle in and sour the home stretch. Spark even seems to lose something of her knack for dialogue, since this character speaks in haughty academic maxims, which seem insufficiently made-fun-of for my taste. On the other hand, if he’s intended to be as much of a target for satire as the rest of the cast, I can’t say in good conscience that works terribly well either. There are hints of foibles here and there that Spark recognizes, with the character what I suppose is a sort of comeuppance in the end, and I gather from her bibliography that you’re not supposed to be under the impression that the fictional books-within-the-book are actually good, but it seems as though she put down the scalpel for a while and decided, for whatever reason, to air on the side of reverence. It’s only a portion of one chapter, but it’s a weird black eye on an otherwise taut tone of sardonicism.
I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the book’s concluding chapters in general at the moment, but then I guess this is a story that doesn’t exactly paint the prettiest picture of final stages.
I like books with premises revolving around grumpy old-timers, for what am I if not a grumpy old-timer-in-waiting? Spark dishes out the crones and geezers with a jaundiced eye for detail. There is a sequence in the latter part of the book where the main elderly characters attempt to exit taxis, which is a three-page ordeal. I would’ve preferred, however, if she hadn’t made the metaphorical nature of the book quite so blunt and obvious. This rears its ugly head the most during a scene or two towards the end where a previously minor role is the focus of a few pages, and he is unfortunately the worst kind of character; ostensibly admired by the author but rather loathsome to read about. Admittedly, I can’t say that with total conviction, because, despite being positive about the second part, I’m not so certain on the first. If he’s intended to be a beacon of sanity, then it’s not only unsuccessful (he’s more much obsequious than charming), but also completely unnecessary. You already have the Mortimer’s as a sort of moral buoy amidst all the venal grasping, you don’t need this other gargoyle to shuffle in and sour the home stretch. Spark even seems to lose something of her knack for dialogue, since this character speaks in haughty academic maxims, which seem insufficiently made-fun-of for my taste. On the other hand, if he’s intended to be as much of a target for satire as the rest of the cast, I can’t say in good conscience that works terribly well either. There are hints of foibles here and there that Spark recognizes, with the character what I suppose is a sort of comeuppance in the end, and I gather from her bibliography that you’re not supposed to be under the impression that the fictional books-within-the-book are actually good, but it seems as though she put down the scalpel for a while and decided, for whatever reason, to air on the side of reverence. It’s only a portion of one chapter, but it’s a weird black eye on an otherwise taut tone of sardonicism.
I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the book’s concluding chapters in general at the moment, but then I guess this is a story that doesn’t exactly paint the prettiest picture of final stages.
challenging
funny
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
FIRST LINE REVIEW: "Dame Lettie Colston refilled her fountain pen and continued her letter: One of these days I hope you will write as brilliantly on a happier theme." While one could say the very same thing of Muriel Sparks about this novel (which deals with Death), the reality is that this was filled with Life and delightfully happy...and charmingly funny. "Remember you must die." Despite constant reminders of this memento mori, the elderly characters populating this small masterpiece don't seem to do so. But die they all do...and the path toward their inevitable ends is presented with comic pathos and profound insights designed to remind us all.
Was expecting more from Sparks' reputation. A none-to-subtle rumination on the awareness of approaching death. It has its moments though, especially in the first half, when the characters are alternatingly sweet and caddy and funny, but Sparks' hand get heavy in the second half.
slow-paced