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A review by thishannah
The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark by Muriel Spark
I have loved every Muriel Spark novel I've read, but in this collection of stories, it felt like something was missing. The stories were all written several years apart, and I don't think they were originally intended to be released as a collection. The "ghost stories" theme was interpreted pretty loosely by whoever decided to group these stories together, and I wished there had been more of a thread connecting them.
My favorite story was probably "The Executor," about a woman whose uncle dies and and makes her executor of his literary state, including an unfinished novel. I wasn't as much a fan of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which felt a little predictable.
I love how Muriel Spark crafts sentences, and every story had at least a few lines that gave me a thrilling shiver and left me feeling unsettled. But several of them also seemed to end abruptly, before all the unsettling energy could reach any kind of resolution. I think I enjoy her style more in a short novel, where the tension has more room to grow.
My favorite story was probably "The Executor," about a woman whose uncle dies and and makes her executor of his literary state, including an unfinished novel. I wasn't as much a fan of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which felt a little predictable
Spoiler
(maybe it was less so when it was originally written, before "the narrator was dead all along!" was sort of a trope)I love how Muriel Spark crafts sentences, and every story had at least a few lines that gave me a thrilling shiver and left me feeling unsettled. But several of them also seemed to end abruptly, before all the unsettling energy could reach any kind of resolution. I think I enjoy her style more in a short novel, where the tension has more room to grow.