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brandonpytel 's review for:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark
“You little girls… must be on alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.”
Such is the opening pages of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, an entertaining, and slim, novel of Miss Brodie dropping knowledge on the arts and education and a lot/little bit of her own story as well.
I admittedly read this book for two reasons: I was falling behind on my book goal (already) and this book is only 140 pages; and the book made it on Time Magazine’s top 100 English-speaking novels between 1923-2005. The book for me was good, an easy read, and a good teaching/education book that also touches a good deal on childhood innocence and growing up and coming to age.
The characterization of the Brodie set, her six students, and how each of them has her own personality, distinction and view of Miss Brodie. The book also goes through great pain to go back and forth between timelines, reminding us of each of the six girls as women, and working in a beautiful, clear timeline that allows us to reflect on the course of each life and the turns each life takes.
Perhaps best done is the way Spark speaks to memory. Though Jean Brodie is first introduced as a progressive teacher, we quickly find out the delusional aspects that shape each student’s memories. The more we learn of Brodie, the less sympathy we have for her.
The double love story with both teachers is interesting, how she was forced to retire is too, but what really stuck me is how the novel humanizes Brodie by the end, taking this larger-than-life and impactful figure and making her just like everyone else, with a high tendency for judgment, arrogance and gossip. Just as we romanticize memories of our childhood, so too is Brodie romanticized, so that upon further reflection, we see more clearly into her character. The dilemma lies in the unfair push to retirement, and the somewhat relationships that Brodie has with these young students.
The book is also an interesting meditation on the teachings of Jesus and Christianity, specifically in the canonization of his word, his relationship with his disciples and the ultimate betrayal that seals his fate. Perhaps that’s taking the metaphor too far, but it’s certainly hard not to think of those terms, and how religion shapes people, though its messenger may deserve more scrutiny and criticism, than the praise so embodied in our memories and our lives that we fail to analyze it.
Such is the opening pages of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, an entertaining, and slim, novel of Miss Brodie dropping knowledge on the arts and education and a lot/little bit of her own story as well.
I admittedly read this book for two reasons: I was falling behind on my book goal (already) and this book is only 140 pages; and the book made it on Time Magazine’s top 100 English-speaking novels between 1923-2005. The book for me was good, an easy read, and a good teaching/education book that also touches a good deal on childhood innocence and growing up and coming to age.
The characterization of the Brodie set, her six students, and how each of them has her own personality, distinction and view of Miss Brodie. The book also goes through great pain to go back and forth between timelines, reminding us of each of the six girls as women, and working in a beautiful, clear timeline that allows us to reflect on the course of each life and the turns each life takes.
Perhaps best done is the way Spark speaks to memory. Though Jean Brodie is first introduced as a progressive teacher, we quickly find out the delusional aspects that shape each student’s memories. The more we learn of Brodie, the less sympathy we have for her.
The double love story with both teachers is interesting, how she was forced to retire is too, but what really stuck me is how the novel humanizes Brodie by the end, taking this larger-than-life and impactful figure and making her just like everyone else, with a high tendency for judgment, arrogance and gossip. Just as we romanticize memories of our childhood, so too is Brodie romanticized, so that upon further reflection, we see more clearly into her character. The dilemma lies in the unfair push to retirement, and the somewhat relationships that Brodie has with these young students.
The book is also an interesting meditation on the teachings of Jesus and Christianity, specifically in the canonization of his word, his relationship with his disciples and the ultimate betrayal that seals his fate. Perhaps that’s taking the metaphor too far, but it’s certainly hard not to think of those terms, and how religion shapes people, though its messenger may deserve more scrutiny and criticism, than the praise so embodied in our memories and our lives that we fail to analyze it.