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The Girls of Slender Means
Like the May of Teck Club itself—"three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit"—its lady inhabitants do their best to act as if the world were back to normal: practicing elocution, and jostling over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown. The novel's harrowing ending reveals that the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations are hiding some tragically painful war wounds.
Chosen by Anthony Burgess as one of the Best Modern Novels in the Sunday Times of London, The Girls of Slender Means is a taut and eerily perfect novel by an author The New York Times has called "one of this century's finest creators of comic-metaphysical entertainment."
Chosen by Anthony Burgess as one of the Best Modern Novels in the Sunday Times of London, The Girls of Slender Means is a taut and eerily perfect novel by an author The New York Times has called "one of this century's finest creators of comic-metaphysical entertainment."
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
Muriel Spark
200 books1,151 followersDame Muriel Spark, DBE was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. She has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". In 2010, Spark was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.
Spark received eight honorary doctorates in her lifetime. These included a Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.
Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, and considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film.
Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. She has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". In 2010, Spark was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.
Spark received eight honorary doctorates in her lifetime. These included a Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.
Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, and considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film.
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May 1, 2019
“Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions.”
After a glorious first sentence like that, how could Mrs Spark fail to deliver her usual sparkling cocktail of absurd every-day business, chaotic lifestyles and abrupt drama? Her story is set in the direct aftermath of the Second World War, allowing for exceptions.
It concerns the lives of a charming set of young and not so young ladies living together in a building in London which has survived the bombing, but which is haunted by the myth of a bomb dropped there without exploding, some years ago. Most girls are happily carefree and perfectly unengaged in the political developments of the time, even though the life-altering moments in history are mentioned in short sub-clauses every now and then: the capture of Ribbentrop, the dropping of the atomic bomb, Churchill’s speeches, Labour’s election success, the ruinous state of London.
Those are merely descriptions serving as backdrop to the girls’ real issues. Of importance are lovers, jobs, diets, fattening nutrition, who gets to wear the “good dress”, and who is able to sneak out through the window to have secret meetings on the roof. That is a question of exact hip measurements, and the girls of slender hips have a definitive advantage compared to those who only are of slender means. Mrs Spark wouldn’t be her own drastic self if she didn’t prove that in the most dramatic way possible, detonating an old bomb in the garden and setting fire to the house in the process. While she is at it, she is happily driving a joyful libertin young man to religious delusions as a longterm effect as well - causing his untimely death much later as a martyred missionary in Haiti, where he tries to recover from his shock by forcing his religion upon the unwilling native population. This storyline is told in a strange mix of flashbacks and future gossip.
Whatever she does, she does with a spark, Mrs Spark, not allowing for exceptions.
Is there a meaning in all this reading delight? Not necessarily, but how much meaning was there to be had at that moment in time, when the city of London looked like a tourist site for ancient ruins, and food rationing was still very much an issue to be discussed, to the point of becoming a fashion statement:
“Beer was served in jam-jars, which was an affectation of the highest order, since jam-jars were at that time in shorter supply than glasses and mugs.”
Hers is a world between deep loss and superficial entertainment, between distress and destruction and human capacity to adapt to circumstances and find positive aspects in any situation. Hers is a world of transition and versatility and of a remix of the two songs “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, and “It’s My Party, and I Cry If I Want To” merged into one loud party karaoke version.
There is no safety in Muriel Spark’s universe, but she thoroughly enjoys the wild ride without seat belts, taking The Driver's Seat!
Love her, more and more with every book I try! But for those of you with a soft spot for the main characters in novels: Muriel Spark doesn’t treat them very well.
After a glorious first sentence like that, how could Mrs Spark fail to deliver her usual sparkling cocktail of absurd every-day business, chaotic lifestyles and abrupt drama? Her story is set in the direct aftermath of the Second World War, allowing for exceptions.
It concerns the lives of a charming set of young and not so young ladies living together in a building in London which has survived the bombing, but which is haunted by the myth of a bomb dropped there without exploding, some years ago. Most girls are happily carefree and perfectly unengaged in the political developments of the time, even though the life-altering moments in history are mentioned in short sub-clauses every now and then: the capture of Ribbentrop, the dropping of the atomic bomb, Churchill’s speeches, Labour’s election success, the ruinous state of London.
Those are merely descriptions serving as backdrop to the girls’ real issues. Of importance are lovers, jobs, diets, fattening nutrition, who gets to wear the “good dress”, and who is able to sneak out through the window to have secret meetings on the roof. That is a question of exact hip measurements, and the girls of slender hips have a definitive advantage compared to those who only are of slender means. Mrs Spark wouldn’t be her own drastic self if she didn’t prove that in the most dramatic way possible, detonating an old bomb in the garden and setting fire to the house in the process. While she is at it, she is happily driving a joyful libertin young man to religious delusions as a longterm effect as well - causing his untimely death much later as a martyred missionary in Haiti, where he tries to recover from his shock by forcing his religion upon the unwilling native population. This storyline is told in a strange mix of flashbacks and future gossip.
Whatever she does, she does with a spark, Mrs Spark, not allowing for exceptions.
Is there a meaning in all this reading delight? Not necessarily, but how much meaning was there to be had at that moment in time, when the city of London looked like a tourist site for ancient ruins, and food rationing was still very much an issue to be discussed, to the point of becoming a fashion statement:
“Beer was served in jam-jars, which was an affectation of the highest order, since jam-jars were at that time in shorter supply than glasses and mugs.”
Hers is a world between deep loss and superficial entertainment, between distress and destruction and human capacity to adapt to circumstances and find positive aspects in any situation. Hers is a world of transition and versatility and of a remix of the two songs “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, and “It’s My Party, and I Cry If I Want To” merged into one loud party karaoke version.
There is no safety in Muriel Spark’s universe, but she thoroughly enjoys the wild ride without seat belts, taking The Driver's Seat!
Love her, more and more with every book I try! But for those of you with a soft spot for the main characters in novels: Muriel Spark doesn’t treat them very well.
Read
May 2, 2019There's always a quantity of information in a Muriel Spark book title, no matter how short, but this one is particularly laden with meaning.
The Girls of the title have very little money, living as they do in a London hostel for young working women during the rationing period towards the end of WWII. They have the usual preoccupations of their time: military boyfriends, clothes coupons, and food. Or food first, then boyfriends and clothes, depending on the preoccupations of the individual girl. And although food is scarce, what is available is very stodgy, so weight becomes one of their preoccupations too. Which is why the word 'slender' in the title carries its own weight, and hurtles the story all the way to the marvelous ending where we discover just what Slender Means.
It's interesting that among the twenty-two novels Muriel Spark wrote, this and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which were written one after the other, are the most alike, and the most unlike the rest. In both, there is a small 'set' of characters who spend their time in close confinement; there is also a set timeframe but with intermittent fast-forwards which reflect back to the set time. There's a third person narrator in each too, and just as in the complex narration of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie where one of the characters possibly doubles as the third person narrator, here a similar trick operates: Jane Wright is the only character whose thoughts we are privy to, and Jane, as we know from the flash forwards, eventually writes an account (this book?) of certain events in the hostel in 1945, just as Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie later writes a book (the book?) about certain events during the prime of Miss Brodie.
There is another character in this book whose thoughts we get a little glimpse of, a poet called Nicholas, who later becomes the motivation for Jane's account of those months in 1945. Nicholas being a poet is very fitting — poetry is threaded through this story like a ribbon through a Schiaparelli dress. However it's not Nicholas' poetry that is quoted in the book but lines from Shelley, Tennyson, Marvell and Hopkins. These are recited by Joanna, the tall but not so slender vicar's daughter, whose elocution teacher's voice, reciting in the background of The Girls' lives, is like a psalm that rhythms the narrative and counts it down towards the finale.
The lines she recites most often are from Gerard Manley Hopkins' The Wreck of the Deutschland, a poem about a ship bound for England that sank in 1875 with some Franciscan nuns on board. I looked it up and found this verse which, though not quoted in the book, perfectly mirrors the dramatic ending of the story:
And frightful a nightfall folded rueful a day...
………she rears herself to divine
Ears, and the call of the tall nun
To the men in the tops and the tackle
Rode over the storm's brawling...
………………………………………………………………
This book, along with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, marks the highpoint of my April frolics in the company of Muriel Spark.
But the postman delivered two more of her books this morning, so the frolics look fair to froth over into pied and peeled May!
The Girls of the title have very little money, living as they do in a London hostel for young working women during the rationing period towards the end of WWII. They have the usual preoccupations of their time: military boyfriends, clothes coupons, and food. Or food first, then boyfriends and clothes, depending on the preoccupations of the individual girl. And although food is scarce, what is available is very stodgy, so weight becomes one of their preoccupations too. Which is why the word 'slender' in the title carries its own weight, and hurtles the story all the way to the marvelous ending where we discover just what Slender Means.
It's interesting that among the twenty-two novels Muriel Spark wrote, this and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which were written one after the other, are the most alike, and the most unlike the rest. In both, there is a small 'set' of characters who spend their time in close confinement; there is also a set timeframe but with intermittent fast-forwards which reflect back to the set time. There's a third person narrator in each too, and just as in the complex narration of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie where one of the characters possibly doubles as the third person narrator, here a similar trick operates: Jane Wright is the only character whose thoughts we are privy to, and Jane, as we know from the flash forwards, eventually writes an account (this book?) of certain events in the hostel in 1945, just as Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie later writes a book (the book?) about certain events during the prime of Miss Brodie.
There is another character in this book whose thoughts we get a little glimpse of, a poet called Nicholas, who later becomes the motivation for Jane's account of those months in 1945. Nicholas being a poet is very fitting — poetry is threaded through this story like a ribbon through a Schiaparelli dress. However it's not Nicholas' poetry that is quoted in the book but lines from Shelley, Tennyson, Marvell and Hopkins. These are recited by Joanna, the tall but not so slender vicar's daughter, whose elocution teacher's voice, reciting in the background of The Girls' lives, is like a psalm that rhythms the narrative and counts it down towards the finale.
The lines she recites most often are from Gerard Manley Hopkins' The Wreck of the Deutschland, a poem about a ship bound for England that sank in 1875 with some Franciscan nuns on board. I looked it up and found this verse which, though not quoted in the book, perfectly mirrors the dramatic ending of the story:
And frightful a nightfall folded rueful a day...
………she rears herself to divine
Ears, and the call of the tall nun
To the men in the tops and the tackle
Rode over the storm's brawling...
………………………………………………………………
This book, along with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, marks the highpoint of my April frolics in the company of Muriel Spark.
But the postman delivered two more of her books this morning, so the frolics look fair to froth over into pied and peeled May!
May 18, 2019
The hostel where all the girls in this novel live has a roof where, it's implied, a kind of liberating excitement awaits, but the only way of getting up there is to squeeze through a narrow window. Most of the girls can't get their hips through. Some of the girls strip naked and smear their bodies with margarine in a futile attempt to squeeze through. Hard to think of a more bitingly witty metaphor for what awaits young women in 1945 when they aspire to a bigger horizon.
For much of this small novel it's like we're following the author around the hostel in search of a plot and a central character. We meet the beautiful Selina who has "long unsurpassable legs" and is the only girl capable of squeezing through the bathroom window. She has sex on the roof with a poet. The misguided pinnacle of every young girl's fantasies! We meet the overweight Jane who does "brain work" - often consisting of writing faked fan letters to famous authors in the hope of getting a signed reply so the man she works for can sell the autograph. We meet the virginal Joanna who gives elocution lessons and whose voice is a ubiquitous presence in the building sounding out eerily portentous oracles of poetry. It's a kind of marvel how this novel appears on the surface to flit about without much rhyme or reason and yet end up being so entertainingly robust and lucid and poetical in its achievement - that of dramatizing, broadly, the straitjacketing of women's expectations.
For much of this small novel it's like we're following the author around the hostel in search of a plot and a central character. We meet the beautiful Selina who has "long unsurpassable legs" and is the only girl capable of squeezing through the bathroom window. She has sex on the roof with a poet. The misguided pinnacle of every young girl's fantasies! We meet the overweight Jane who does "brain work" - often consisting of writing faked fan letters to famous authors in the hope of getting a signed reply so the man she works for can sell the autograph. We meet the virginal Joanna who gives elocution lessons and whose voice is a ubiquitous presence in the building sounding out eerily portentous oracles of poetry. It's a kind of marvel how this novel appears on the surface to flit about without much rhyme or reason and yet end up being so entertainingly robust and lucid and poetical in its achievement - that of dramatizing, broadly, the straitjacketing of women's expectations.
September 10, 2022
Muriel Spark just might be the best writer of short novels I'll ever come across. I simply couldn't imagine her writing something 300-400+ pages and it being anywhere near as perfect as this little gem - my fifth and favourite. As much as I loved A Far Cry from Kensington, I have to say I thought this was even better. It made my belly rumble, and it wasn't just the mention of bread-and-butter pudding, cheese pie and stewed cherries that did it, I was feeling hungry for more of her work after the immense satisfaction of reading this. How could I ever forget the slim model-like Selina Redwood and those legs, the plump brainy Jane Martin whom I felt sorry for as she seemed the only girl of the May of Teck Club not able to fit into the head-turning Schiaparelli dress: of which Selina retrieves just as the house is on the verge of collapse, nor the writer Nicholas Farringdon, who gets the girls pulses racing: especially Selina, and ends up on the dorm roof for both sexual purposes and then later on as a rescuer. Then there is THAT window, no good to any of the girls who are over a certain waistline! This was the best novel featuring a lavatory window that I'll ever read. Any window probably. Some of the best and funniest moments happen in: stuck right in!, and around that window. I Won't think of margarine in same way either! Even the thought of a girl trying to fix a ladder in her stocking was memorable. Just one of so many little incidences that made this such a joy to read. But the novel isn't without it's damage and tragedies too, and beyond the witty humour and girlish jolliness, the after effects of World War Two - and a certain garden bomb - plays an important part. Despite Nicholas Farringdon's fate being central to the overall story, it was the young ladies at the club with all their tensions, escapades and chitter-chatter that really stood out for me. They felt both fearless and frightened, and faced the difficulty of not really knowing what their lives will become. I simply loved it. Spark has a crafty knack of turning a novel on it's head just when you think there is no danger. Not a page or sentence was wasted, and It's virtually impossible to read this as a first Muriel Spark and come out of it not wanting to read her again.
As a writer, she is just so easy to fall in love with.
October 24, 2021
This is an eccentric book. Much like, I'm guessing, most of Muriel Spark's books. I've only read three now, including The Girls of Slender Means.
I had a difficult time initially, getting into to the novel. It starts out with a very broad narrative voice, and then moves through a series of scene fragments with many different characters. Time shifts were not particularly easy to follow. I found myself grasping, trying to hold onto something for a little perspective. To my frustration, I didn't really get that until I was 30-something pages in, when the story really gets going. Which, I have to say, is a little late in the game for a novel of 142 pages. And, is in direct contrast to Spark's magnificent grenade of of a novel, The Driver's Seat, which draws the reader in with ferocity, from the first page.
Once in, I was in, though. Spark took me by the elbow, right into The May of Teck Club in 1945 London. I could hear the echoing voices - the elocution lessons, the giggles, the doors slamming, the gossip, the visitors. The women's hostel is brought to life in these pages, and the characters within are drawn with humour and wit. There's a lot of jolliness here, under which lies a deadly serious story.
The title says it all: the women in the May of Teck Club are of "slender means". They trade clothing and food coupons and live in post-war modesty. Some are more slender than others, of course. Some can fit through the little skylight that leads to the roof where they can sunbathe, and where one has nightly trysts with an enamoured poet. Yes, a few can slide through easily while others have to endure the indignity of slathering themselves with butter to help them along... and then there are those who just won't get through no matter what.
That brings me to the worst part of the title's meaning, worse than being poor or overweight. The worst thing is the slenderness of these women's potential and power. If they can't get through a damn skylight, what hope is there?
The glass ceiling has never held more literal and symbolic importance than one day in 1945, in this strange, complex little novel.
I had a difficult time initially, getting into to the novel. It starts out with a very broad narrative voice, and then moves through a series of scene fragments with many different characters. Time shifts were not particularly easy to follow. I found myself grasping, trying to hold onto something for a little perspective. To my frustration, I didn't really get that until I was 30-something pages in, when the story really gets going. Which, I have to say, is a little late in the game for a novel of 142 pages. And, is in direct contrast to Spark's magnificent grenade of of a novel, The Driver's Seat, which draws the reader in with ferocity, from the first page.
Once in, I was in, though. Spark took me by the elbow, right into The May of Teck Club in 1945 London. I could hear the echoing voices - the elocution lessons, the giggles, the doors slamming, the gossip, the visitors. The women's hostel is brought to life in these pages, and the characters within are drawn with humour and wit. There's a lot of jolliness here, under which lies a deadly serious story.
The title says it all: the women in the May of Teck Club are of "slender means". They trade clothing and food coupons and live in post-war modesty. Some are more slender than others, of course. Some can fit through the little skylight that leads to the roof where they can sunbathe, and where one has nightly trysts with an enamoured poet. Yes, a few can slide through easily while others have to endure the indignity of slathering themselves with butter to help them along... and then there are those who just won't get through no matter what.
That brings me to the worst part of the title's meaning, worse than being poor or overweight. The worst thing is the slenderness of these women's potential and power. If they can't get through a damn skylight, what hope is there?
The glass ceiling has never held more literal and symbolic importance than one day in 1945, in this strange, complex little novel.
March 14, 2024
I cannot but marvel at how Muriel Spark weaves together the threads of her narrative so that, what begins as a seemingly gay story and character study of a bunch of female residents of a London boarding house in the summer of 1945, ends up saying as much about the tragicomedy of the human condition as any philosophical dissertation, or the well-placed snippets of poems all over the novel.
I cannot but refrain from giving a synopsis, except to say that the next to last chapter, which begins with a scream and ends with a heap of rubble, is one of the most gripping pieces of writing I’ve ever come across; a piece that ties together all the witty remarks, lighthearted banter and staging details of the previous pages, into an evocative whole, rendered even more dramatic by its deceptive frivolity. It made me want to go back to page one and reread it all, this time in a whole new light.
I will not give any details because I think it’s best to approach this book with curiosity and ignorance. Spark is one of those capable navigators that doesn’t only offer a pleasant trip, she also guarantees the arrival in a harbor you wouldn’t have guessed was there.
P.S. It helped that I kept picturing Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Nicholas, the anarchist-philosopher-turned-martyr, who thought himself in love with the one member of the group he was sleeping with, when in reality he was in love with them all; with their resilience and the miniature expression of a free society those girls represented in the victorious months from V-E Day to V-J Night of that long-gone summer.
As they realized themselves in varying degrees, few people alive at the time were more delightful, more ingenious, more movingly lovely, and, as it might happen, more savage, than the girls of slender means.
I cannot but refrain from giving a synopsis, except to say that the next to last chapter, which begins with a scream and ends with a heap of rubble, is one of the most gripping pieces of writing I’ve ever come across; a piece that ties together all the witty remarks, lighthearted banter and staging details of the previous pages, into an evocative whole, rendered even more dramatic by its deceptive frivolity. It made me want to go back to page one and reread it all, this time in a whole new light.
I will not give any details because I think it’s best to approach this book with curiosity and ignorance. Spark is one of those capable navigators that doesn’t only offer a pleasant trip, she also guarantees the arrival in a harbor you wouldn’t have guessed was there.
P.S. It helped that I kept picturing Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Nicholas, the anarchist-philosopher-turned-martyr, who thought himself in love with the one member of the group he was sleeping with, when in reality he was in love with them all; with their resilience and the miniature expression of a free society those girls represented in the victorious months from V-E Day to V-J Night of that long-gone summer.
As they realized themselves in varying degrees, few people alive at the time were more delightful, more ingenious, more movingly lovely, and, as it might happen, more savage, than the girls of slender means.
Read
August 19, 2018You know how it is with a Murial Spark book, you start off reading ' oh this is so witty, my fingers are getting singed from her sparky humour' that you don't notice her sliding the knife in until she chooses to twist it.
I am a little in awe of her restraint, having spent a week reading one book then I breeze through this - if you started after lunch you need not fear being late to dinner. She's an awfully economical writer, the references to ration books and calorie counting could well apply to her own style. Her own story telling is so parred down that the mention of a young woman's unshaven leg comes as a shock - surely everything in Spark's world would be razored.
On the other hand I do feel a little led up and down the garden path, as by the end it is one hundred and forty pages of a Christian shaggy dog story: JC trapped in a burning building as one of thirteen leading lives of apostolic poverty - the one way out is not through the eye of a needle but a narrow bathroom window, the thirteen are not camels but young women, some more slender than others, a couple even sufficiently slender to slip out on to the neighbouring flat roof, of the others, pregnancy due to wholehearted celebration of VE day renders the narrow window impossible as a means of potential escape. One of the girls however goes back, not in solidarity nor to help one of her fellows, but to grab the one designer dress that all the girls of slender means lodging in the May of Teck Club have been sharing, if later she hangs herself Spark holds back from telling us...
If one had a thoroughly Christian education one could perhaps read it and pull it apart like an alter painting, but I was spared such a thing and read it purely for Muriel's terrible wit.
I am a little in awe of her restraint, having spent a week reading one book then I breeze through this - if you started after lunch you need not fear being late to dinner. She's an awfully economical writer, the references to ration books and calorie counting could well apply to her own style. Her own story telling is so parred down that the mention of a young woman's unshaven leg comes as a shock - surely everything in Spark's world would be razored.
On the other hand I do feel a little led up and down the garden path, as by the end it is one hundred and forty pages of a Christian shaggy dog story: JC trapped in a burning building as one of thirteen leading lives of apostolic poverty - the one way out is not through the eye of a needle but a narrow bathroom window, the thirteen are not camels but young women, some more slender than others, a couple even sufficiently slender to slip out on to the neighbouring flat roof, of the others, pregnancy due to wholehearted celebration of VE day renders the narrow window impossible as a means of potential escape. One of the girls however goes back, not in solidarity nor to help one of her fellows, but to grab the one designer dress that all the girls of slender means lodging in the May of Teck Club have been sharing, if later she hangs herself Spark holds back from telling us...
If one had a thoroughly Christian education one could perhaps read it and pull it apart like an alter painting, but I was spared such a thing and read it purely for Muriel's terrible wit.
February 8, 2015
Spark at her best; acerbic, bitingly funny, satirical, unsettling, great use of language, numerous interesting and well-crafted characters, layers of meaning and it captures a moment of social history to boot. It captures the brief period of 1945 between VE day and VJ day, a period of three to four months.
The novel (well novella really) centres on the May of Teck Club in Kensington. The club is
“for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London”
It is written from a later perspective (1963) by one of the girls from the club, Jane Wright. She is prompted to look back by the death of Nicholas Farringdon, who in 1945 was an anarchist, but had become a Jesuit priest. He has been martyred in Haiti and now his writings from 1945 are suddenly of interest. Spark introduces him to the reader in her own inimitable way;
“We come now to Nicholas Farringdon in his thirty-third year. He was said to be an anarchist. No one at the May of Teck Club took this seriously as he looked quite normal: that is to say, he looked slightly dissipated, like the disappointing son of a good English family that he was.”
One of the strengths Spark has is her characterization and this novel is no exception; even the minor characters are well drawn and some of Spark’s descriptions are really sharp. For example the warden of the club who “drove a car as she would have driven a man had she possessed one”.
Spark employs the trick of muddling the chronology and she gives away bits of the plot as she goes along, using an omniscient third person. Although on the surface the dialogue and plot can appear shallow and rather inconsequential, there are layers of meaning and there is also an impending sense of threat. It will come as no surprise to regular Spark readers that farce turns into tragedy. The word Slender in the title has a double meaning. As well as meaning financially limited, it refers to the toilet window on one of the upper floors. The slimmer (slender) girls are able to get out of this window onto the roof. The roof was accessible to the building next door which was being rented by the Americans and amorous assignations were open to those slim enough to get through. It also plays a pivotal role at the end of the book.
The layers of meaning are also fun. The religious connections are clear (Spark was a Catholic, though not a dogmatic one). One of the pivotal characters is Joanna Childe (her in initials are no coincidence; a female Christ figure!) an elocution teacher. Throughout most of the book you overhear her reciting to her pupils (usually The Wreck of the Deutschland, a poem by a priest, Hopkins, about a group of drowning nuns). There is a Satan figure (not obvious at first); the Paul figure is easier to spot. The role of the Schiaparelli dress is also fun to contemplate; a posh frock owned by one of the girls, but lent out for dates.
The tragedy towards the end of the book is surprising, but not unexpected. However, at the very end of the book during the VJ day celebrations there is an act of violence perpetrated by a man on a woman (neither characters in the book) that is so shocking and surprising that it hits the reader almost physically. Spark is saying; ok so we have peace, it’s all over, but is the world a better place? Will things be better?
It’s a great novel by in my opinion, one of the better writers of the twentieth century. It’s a snapshot of a bygone time, a spiritual novel with a comic tone that becomes ever bleaker and almost gothic. Spark was admired by her contemporaries. Evelyn Waugh wrote to her and said;
“'Most novelists find there is one kind of book they can write (particularly humorous novelists) and go on doing it with variations until death. You seem to have an inexhaustible source”
As William Boyd said; “We are in the hands of a great artist: the experience is both unsettling and exhilarating”. I heartily agree.
The novel (well novella really) centres on the May of Teck Club in Kensington. The club is
“for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London”
It is written from a later perspective (1963) by one of the girls from the club, Jane Wright. She is prompted to look back by the death of Nicholas Farringdon, who in 1945 was an anarchist, but had become a Jesuit priest. He has been martyred in Haiti and now his writings from 1945 are suddenly of interest. Spark introduces him to the reader in her own inimitable way;
“We come now to Nicholas Farringdon in his thirty-third year. He was said to be an anarchist. No one at the May of Teck Club took this seriously as he looked quite normal: that is to say, he looked slightly dissipated, like the disappointing son of a good English family that he was.”
One of the strengths Spark has is her characterization and this novel is no exception; even the minor characters are well drawn and some of Spark’s descriptions are really sharp. For example the warden of the club who “drove a car as she would have driven a man had she possessed one”.
Spark employs the trick of muddling the chronology and she gives away bits of the plot as she goes along, using an omniscient third person. Although on the surface the dialogue and plot can appear shallow and rather inconsequential, there are layers of meaning and there is also an impending sense of threat. It will come as no surprise to regular Spark readers that farce turns into tragedy. The word Slender in the title has a double meaning. As well as meaning financially limited, it refers to the toilet window on one of the upper floors. The slimmer (slender) girls are able to get out of this window onto the roof. The roof was accessible to the building next door which was being rented by the Americans and amorous assignations were open to those slim enough to get through. It also plays a pivotal role at the end of the book.
The layers of meaning are also fun. The religious connections are clear (Spark was a Catholic, though not a dogmatic one). One of the pivotal characters is Joanna Childe (her in initials are no coincidence; a female Christ figure!) an elocution teacher. Throughout most of the book you overhear her reciting to her pupils (usually The Wreck of the Deutschland, a poem by a priest, Hopkins, about a group of drowning nuns). There is a Satan figure (not obvious at first); the Paul figure is easier to spot. The role of the Schiaparelli dress is also fun to contemplate; a posh frock owned by one of the girls, but lent out for dates.
The tragedy towards the end of the book is surprising, but not unexpected. However, at the very end of the book during the VJ day celebrations there is an act of violence perpetrated by a man on a woman (neither characters in the book) that is so shocking and surprising that it hits the reader almost physically. Spark is saying; ok so we have peace, it’s all over, but is the world a better place? Will things be better?
It’s a great novel by in my opinion, one of the better writers of the twentieth century. It’s a snapshot of a bygone time, a spiritual novel with a comic tone that becomes ever bleaker and almost gothic. Spark was admired by her contemporaries. Evelyn Waugh wrote to her and said;
“'Most novelists find there is one kind of book they can write (particularly humorous novelists) and go on doing it with variations until death. You seem to have an inexhaustible source”
As William Boyd said; “We are in the hands of a great artist: the experience is both unsettling and exhilarating”. I heartily agree.
October 13, 2019
GIRLS of SLENDER MEANS but of PLUMP IMAGINATION
This was a world in which jam-jars were in shorter supply than glasses and mugs. This was London in mid 1945, a London in which its Albert Memorial had managed to dodge a hundred per cent of the bombs, but where many other buildings and their inhabitants had not. This was the period in between the fall of Germany, after which the Brits dropped Churchill to embrace Labour, and the dropping of the bombs in Japan.
This was the time of Coupons, for food, for soap, for clothes.
And so we visit this Victorian house with young, and not so young, girls stacked on the various floors. They are all wondering about their lives, their looks, their men and the one Schiaparelli dress they all share. And the coupons, which is their barter mechanism for exchange of goods and desires and happiness.
One of the girls practices her poise in perfect balance and equanimity of body and mind and is completely composed because she knows she is beautiful. Another engages in writing fake letters to obtain the signatures of famous writers so that she can barter them when she is low on coupons. Another gets into a taxi to go around the block and pretend she has been out with her man. Another substitutes the declamation of poems for any other emotional experiences. The poems named and recited are Moonlit Apples but especially and repeatedly that of The Wreck of the Deutschland, becomes an 'ostinato' that begins with a humorous gait but which eventually takes on an ominous tone. And indeed the foreboding that this poem distils will precipitate the tragedy and reveal its parallelism with the girls of slender means.
This is my third novel by Spark and it was recommended to me after I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. They both certainly offer many parallels, written just two years apart (1961 and 1963). My third is the very different A Far Cry from Kensington. I have been taken again by Spark’s language, with those sentences that take a sharp ninety-degree turn and almost bolt you out of your chair. This time the sudden change in tone and the turnings of the plot also baffled me and left me in awe.
If I managed to write a review it is because abrainwave came over me. Now I can indulge in some chocolate – not too slender and certainly not ‘slendering’.
June 29, 2024
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark is the best of the three novels I have read by this author, the first two falling a bit flat.
We follow the lives, loves and dramas of a group of young girls residing in a house in London in 1945 – just after the end of WWII. This house was opened during WWI for women of “slender means” who needed to relocate to London to work. This group had the name “May of Tuck Club,” some reference to the person who created the place.
There is a second timeline involved involving a man called Nicholas Farringdon – and he does add a bit of interest to the story (he was also a frequent visitor to the May of Tuck Club in 1945. He loved Seline (who is described as some sort of beautiful, purring lolling thing), but Jane loves him too – you know, the usual story. There are other girls worth knowing such as Jane, who works for a publisher and was given the job of getting to know and influence author Farringdon, Nancy Riddle who was inflicted with a Midlands accent (I can say that because I am from the Midlands of the UK – it is often said “Silence is a better accent than a Midlands accent), there’s also a mad girl called Pauline Fox – and quite a few other young ladies.
The dynamics between the girls was what you’d expect – loves and romances, also arguments and a bit of bitching (about things like wallpaper). There were also some funny interchanges with the three old spinsters of the group – who have ‘stayed on’ and ‘stayed single.’ “Greggie” the bossiest one was an interesting sort.
The issue I have had with Spark’s previous (and this) work is the humour. Yes, it’s amusing but to me – not terribly hilarious. As I explained to my buddy readers, Jennifer, and Lisa – I find the old (60’s, 70’s) UK humour a bit corny by and large. This was written in 1963 (my birth year incidentally, in both normal time and spacetime), and I remember the classic comedies of the time. The “Carry on Movies” and the like – just a but light, lacking satire, darkness, and wickedness. The stuff makes me really laugh out loud – think Sedaris, Gervais, Larry David etc.
But what made this book for me, as compared to the previous two, was the drama. We have significant drama and it aint all pleasant. There was suspense and sadness. So, I liked that – and I am still thinking about the book – so it says something.
Oh, and there was also Seline, this was my mind’s eye of this beautiful woman. Often said to be ‘lolling’ around or referring to one quote “Selina, furled like a long soft sash, in her chair, came to Nicholas in a gratuitous flow”
I know this is a picture of the stunning Joanna Lumley from the 1960s – but you get the picture? Why wouldn’t Nick Farringdon be besotted by her?
I noticed Spark made reference to the skinniness, stoutness or fatness of the girls – it seemed to be a running theme - maybe that was easy to talk about in the 1960s. I also believe the title has a triple meaning (but telling you my thoughts on that would be a spoiler – oh, and I might be wrong!).
Lisa’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jennifer’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 Stars
We follow the lives, loves and dramas of a group of young girls residing in a house in London in 1945 – just after the end of WWII. This house was opened during WWI for women of “slender means” who needed to relocate to London to work. This group had the name “May of Tuck Club,” some reference to the person who created the place.
There is a second timeline involved involving a man called Nicholas Farringdon – and he does add a bit of interest to the story (he was also a frequent visitor to the May of Tuck Club in 1945. He loved Seline (who is described as some sort of beautiful, purring lolling thing), but Jane loves him too – you know, the usual story. There are other girls worth knowing such as Jane, who works for a publisher and was given the job of getting to know and influence author Farringdon, Nancy Riddle who was inflicted with a Midlands accent (I can say that because I am from the Midlands of the UK – it is often said “Silence is a better accent than a Midlands accent), there’s also a mad girl called Pauline Fox – and quite a few other young ladies.
The dynamics between the girls was what you’d expect – loves and romances, also arguments and a bit of bitching (about things like wallpaper). There were also some funny interchanges with the three old spinsters of the group – who have ‘stayed on’ and ‘stayed single.’ “Greggie” the bossiest one was an interesting sort.
The issue I have had with Spark’s previous (and this) work is the humour. Yes, it’s amusing but to me – not terribly hilarious. As I explained to my buddy readers, Jennifer, and Lisa – I find the old (60’s, 70’s) UK humour a bit corny by and large. This was written in 1963 (my birth year incidentally, in both normal time and spacetime), and I remember the classic comedies of the time. The “Carry on Movies” and the like – just a but light, lacking satire, darkness, and wickedness. The stuff makes me really laugh out loud – think Sedaris, Gervais, Larry David etc.
But what made this book for me, as compared to the previous two, was the drama. We have significant drama and it aint all pleasant. There was suspense and sadness. So, I liked that – and I am still thinking about the book – so it says something.
Oh, and there was also Seline, this was my mind’s eye of this beautiful woman. Often said to be ‘lolling’ around or referring to one quote “Selina, furled like a long soft sash, in her chair, came to Nicholas in a gratuitous flow”
I know this is a picture of the stunning Joanna Lumley from the 1960s – but you get the picture? Why wouldn’t Nick Farringdon be besotted by her?
I noticed Spark made reference to the skinniness, stoutness or fatness of the girls – it seemed to be a running theme - maybe that was easy to talk about in the 1960s. I also believe the title has a triple meaning (but telling you my thoughts on that would be a spoiler – oh, and I might be wrong!).
Lisa’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jennifer’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 Stars
August 18, 2024
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie's younger sister—the child the parents decided to have because the first one was such a delight. Not stepsister—the family resemblence is definitely there—certainly not ugly stepsister. You loved one sister at one point in your life, and then you met the other, and now you're not sure which one you prefer. Each certainly has her charms, and her flaws as well—this one owns a Schiaparelli dress and is creative with her use of margarine. She never shuts up with her poetry, but some of her sentences are absolute gold:
The warden drove her car as she would have driven a man had she possessed one.
October 16, 2019
This is quintessential Spark. Though there's no teacher-figure (only a few impotent spinsters), the action is set in a young women's lodging house that feels like a boarding school a la The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In the future of the main action, telephone calls informing of a death reminded me of Memento Mori. Spark's snideness, sarcasm, black humor, and wit are here, including observations on religion and sex, related in innuendos and also bluntly. Repetition and a circling around the characters and events are also here, until we arrive at the gripping climax: Though confusing in its beginning, it proved to be a brilliant structuring.
The climax is what turned a 3-star book for me into a 4; and I think with a reread, that could turn into a 5, especially if I were more familiar with the Hopkins poem at its center. The title is perfect, expanding into greater meaning as the book, slender though it may be, goes on.
The climax is what turned a 3-star book for me into a 4; and I think with a reread, that could turn into a 5, especially if I were more familiar with the Hopkins poem at its center. The title is perfect, expanding into greater meaning as the book, slender though it may be, goes on.
Read
June 25, 2024Have you ever been in a room on a sunny day with blackout shades pulled down? You can't see out and no sunlight gets in. That's how I feel when I read Muriel Spark. I need someone to take me by the hand and explain almost every little thing to me because I just don't see/get it. After two of her works I am accepting that Spark and I are not a good fit, and will move on to other authors.
There are some aspects of this novella that I do enjoy. I like the descriptions of the neighborhood and of The May of Teck Club, the reminders about rationing, and the general introductions to the women who live in the Club. Spark masterfully shifts from the absurdity of Tilly's situation to the climactic event of the novel in the penultimate chapter.
I do not share Spark's sense of humor here. While I am amused in places, overall the attempts fall flat for me. (I am envious that in many places, Jennifer cracked up.) Most of all, I don't feel connected to any of these characters. I can see them, I feel they are developed, and there is something missing for me. Because of this feeling of disconnection, the climax doesn't land for me.
The positive aspect of concluding that Muriel Spark's writing is not a good fit for me is that there are several books that I will not feel compelled to add to my tbr. 😂
Thank you to by buddy readers, Mark (his review) and Jennifer (her review).
Publication 1963
There are some aspects of this novella that I do enjoy. I like the descriptions of the neighborhood and of The May of Teck Club, the reminders about rationing, and the general introductions to the women who live in the Club. Spark masterfully shifts from the absurdity of Tilly's situation to the climactic event of the novel in the penultimate chapter.
I do not share Spark's sense of humor here. While I am amused in places, overall the attempts fall flat for me. (I am envious that in many places, Jennifer cracked up.) Most of all, I don't feel connected to any of these characters. I can see them, I feel they are developed, and there is something missing for me. Because of this feeling of disconnection, the climax doesn't land for me.
The positive aspect of concluding that Muriel Spark's writing is not a good fit for me is that there are several books that I will not feel compelled to add to my tbr. 😂
Thank you to by buddy readers, Mark (his review) and Jennifer (her review).
Publication 1963
June 24, 2024
I’m embarrassed to say that I think my love affair with Muriel Spark needs a break. Is this novel really only 3 stars compared to her others? Objectively, probably not. But one thing I love about this writer is her efficient prose that runs like a freight train, and this one felt more scattered and fragmented on both the structure and sentence level. The others I’ve read were told from one POV, and this was omniscient, so that may be part of the issue I had—I tend to prefer first person POV, as it feels more immediate and personal. Part of the problem for me was circumstantial, too: I’d just been languishing in the prose of Garcia’s, Of Women and Salt, and very rapidly picked this up to join a buddy read with Mark and Lisa. After basking in Garcia’s slow beauty, I felt overstimulated the way I did in the 1980s when seeing a Batman film.
But Spark is smart and funny, and I always love getting under what she’s doing in a story. Here she seems to be pitting the spiritual against the physical body, and in a complete reversal of those 1980s slashers where the female is murdered once she loses her virginity, Spark does something similar with those who follow the religious, nonsexual path.
This is still a strong book, complete with lots of her usual themes of how female roles changed with the war, how the war continued to linger in their lives long after its end; how ridiculous people can be when needing to impress or succeed; and how a progressive, literary mind can reconcile itself with religious beliefs.
My very favorite thing about this, however, was the theme of slender means: at first it’s obvious that this is a reference to the financial circumstance of the women in this boarding house; then there’s a funny bit about how physical slenderness is a must when it comes to a certain goal for the women, and these hijinks continue until it becomes imperative. But as I was reading, I suddenly realized how Spark was commenting on how people use one another for their own consumption when they feel meager, and I just loved that. If you’re at all psychologically minded, if you love circumstantial humor that shows how ridiculous people can be, and are a fan of efficient, cerebral writing, Spark is worth reading.
Here is Mark's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here is Lisa's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
But Spark is smart and funny, and I always love getting under what she’s doing in a story. Here she seems to be pitting the spiritual against the physical body, and in a complete reversal of those 1980s slashers where the female is murdered once she loses her virginity, Spark does something similar with those who follow the religious, nonsexual path.
This is still a strong book, complete with lots of her usual themes of how female roles changed with the war, how the war continued to linger in their lives long after its end; how ridiculous people can be when needing to impress or succeed; and how a progressive, literary mind can reconcile itself with religious beliefs.
My very favorite thing about this, however, was the theme of slender means: at first it’s obvious that this is a reference to the financial circumstance of the women in this boarding house; then there’s a funny bit about how physical slenderness is a must when it comes to a certain goal for the women, and these hijinks continue until it becomes imperative. But as I was reading, I suddenly realized how Spark was commenting on how people use one another for their own consumption when they feel meager, and I just loved that. If you’re at all psychologically minded, if you love circumstantial humor that shows how ridiculous people can be, and are a fan of efficient, cerebral writing, Spark is worth reading.
Here is Mark's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here is Lisa's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
July 9, 2023
Watching The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with the delightful Maggie Smith got so imprinted on me that it stood in the way of reading the novel. So I turned to The Girls of Slender Means for my first reading encounter with Muriel Spark. And it was a sheer joy!
The “slender” in the novel’s title has a double meaning—the girls and young women living in the hostel during the rationing time in 1945 London are of modest/poor financial means and some are slim in their figures which will turn out to be pivotal for getting through the very narrow rooftop window for frivolous reasons (like having casual sex on the roof) that will turn into an existential escape toward the end of the novel. And just as this word camouflages its double meaning, the entire novel has multiple dark thematic undertones that are searing underneath Spark’s deliciously witty and deceptively light prose.
Anyone who can concoct a drama, blending comic and tragic, about the passage from the frivolity of being young to becoming a woman with the ingredients such as the Schiaparelli dress, a bomb that may or may not be undetected in the hostel’s garden, a popular song “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (I kept listening to Vera Lynn for the period experience), and Hopkins’ “The Wreck of the Deutschland”, is more than simply brilliant. Not to mention a full gallery of major and minor characters whom she finely crafted, again with deceptively slight brush strokes. And much more is masterfully packed into this slender novel as it is also an intelligent social commentary. It is not coincidental that Spark chose the summer of 1945, evoked in hindsight a couple of decades later, when the end of the war was full of promise for a new life.
I don’t like to reread novels with the exception of only a few and this one is now firmly among them. And I’m eager to read more Muriel Spark!
The “slender” in the novel’s title has a double meaning—the girls and young women living in the hostel during the rationing time in 1945 London are of modest/poor financial means and some are slim in their figures which will turn out to be pivotal for getting through the very narrow rooftop window for frivolous reasons (like having casual sex on the roof) that will turn into an existential escape toward the end of the novel. And just as this word camouflages its double meaning, the entire novel has multiple dark thematic undertones that are searing underneath Spark’s deliciously witty and deceptively light prose.
Anyone who can concoct a drama, blending comic and tragic, about the passage from the frivolity of being young to becoming a woman with the ingredients such as the Schiaparelli dress, a bomb that may or may not be undetected in the hostel’s garden, a popular song “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (I kept listening to Vera Lynn for the period experience), and Hopkins’ “The Wreck of the Deutschland”, is more than simply brilliant. Not to mention a full gallery of major and minor characters whom she finely crafted, again with deceptively slight brush strokes. And much more is masterfully packed into this slender novel as it is also an intelligent social commentary. It is not coincidental that Spark chose the summer of 1945, evoked in hindsight a couple of decades later, when the end of the war was full of promise for a new life.
I don’t like to reread novels with the exception of only a few and this one is now firmly among them. And I’m eager to read more Muriel Spark!
November 17, 2011
' Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions'.
As with every Spark novel, it is the exceptions which make all the difference. This is a great novel. All Sparkian life is here. Odd characters, noble losers, tragic deaths and sinister naughtiness.
The eponymous girls live in the May of Teck club; An up-market boarding house for young women too poor to thrive in flats by themselves, too refined to slum it and with a couple of our 'heroines', one too selfless to survive and one too selfish to care.
Its not a novel jam-packed full with action but of the uncovering of character by one momentous event. Everything leads to it and its effect resounds on and on into the hoped for future of peace.
The novel begins with VE day and ends with VJ day but there is an action observed on the last page of the novel, small in its reporting, unnoticed by all but one character and Spark uses this to remnds us that peace, if it is to mean anything has to be more than just an absence of war.
As with every Spark novel, it is the exceptions which make all the difference. This is a great novel. All Sparkian life is here. Odd characters, noble losers, tragic deaths and sinister naughtiness.
The eponymous girls live in the May of Teck club; An up-market boarding house for young women too poor to thrive in flats by themselves, too refined to slum it and with a couple of our 'heroines', one too selfless to survive and one too selfish to care.
Its not a novel jam-packed full with action but of the uncovering of character by one momentous event. Everything leads to it and its effect resounds on and on into the hoped for future of peace.
The novel begins with VE day and ends with VJ day but there is an action observed on the last page of the novel, small in its reporting, unnoticed by all but one character and Spark uses this to remnds us that peace, if it is to mean anything has to be more than just an absence of war.
November 19, 2013
This tiny feather-light novel is like a love-song to a very specific time, April to July 1945, and place, London, a girls' hostel, located just behind Kensington Gardens, such that you can see the Albert Memorial if you shove your head out of one of the third floor windows and crane your neck. So there's all these girls, thrown around by the war, that's why they're in a hostel, working for some ministry or another probably, all poor, mostly middle-class, one of whom is - well, fast, and also there's this guy, a jackass would be anarchist-poet who hangs around, but not such a jackass, as he gets to shag Selina, and have Sunday lunches with the girls. It's all rather fetching in a BBC historical drama sort of way (do you think we could get Helena Bonham-Carter?), except that there's not much of a tune. But if exact unexpected and beautifully-captured precisely-this-time-and-no-other type detail is what you love, then yes.
English niceness with a soupcon of stark-ish horror.
English niceness with a soupcon of stark-ish horror.
Read
March 16, 2018For the 100th anniversary of her birth the BBC showed this documentary about Muriel Spark which featured my favourite Scottish writers, A.L. Kennedy, Ali Smith, William Boyd, all singing her praises, so I thought I would give her another whirl, see what it is I've been missing in her work. There must be something. Acerbic wit, lightness of touch on heavy themes, quirkiness, apparently.
Also in that documentary, Ms Spark revealed that she would mostly get the title and then the book would more or less write itself. I imagine that is a little disingenuous, as she would have been thinking things through for a while before she actually started the writing process, but it would be the title that gave her the idea and the forward motion.
"The Girls of Slender Means" - now I could imagine her delight in that phrase, how the word slender might spark (sorry, couldn't resist) a series of other associations. So, she creates a situation for these girls in which their degree of physical slenderness is a matter of life and death.
You might call that acerbic, I'm thinking more along the lines of malicious. She's like some ancient god who creates these laughable creatures merely in order to while away an hour or so in vicious play. I'm not sure how completely she did plan this one out in her head before she started writing, because I get the distinct impression that she got bored with her preposterous creations; oh that'll do, get rid of the whole lot of them. Finito.
That'll do for me, thank you. Enough.
Also in that documentary, Ms Spark revealed that she would mostly get the title and then the book would more or less write itself. I imagine that is a little disingenuous, as she would have been thinking things through for a while before she actually started the writing process, but it would be the title that gave her the idea and the forward motion.
"The Girls of Slender Means" - now I could imagine her delight in that phrase, how the word slender might spark (sorry, couldn't resist) a series of other associations. So, she creates a situation for these girls in which their degree of physical slenderness is a matter of life and death.
You might call that acerbic, I'm thinking more along the lines of malicious. She's like some ancient god who creates these laughable creatures merely in order to while away an hour or so in vicious play. I'm not sure how completely she did plan this one out in her head before she started writing, because I get the distinct impression that she got bored with her preposterous creations; oh that'll do, get rid of the whole lot of them. Finito.
That'll do for me, thank you. Enough.
May 18, 2019
Great wit, great story, great characters, fascinating era and location. I was just reading along, enjoying the story to the fullest, while constantly grinning, when, bam, out of the blue and amidst all that clever and innocent chatter, disaster strikes. Ms Spark, I wish you were still alive so I could write you a fan letter!
May 8, 2023
Another slim book from Muriel Spark that I very much enjoyed. This story centres on a group of young women living in the rather run down Princess of May* Teck Club "for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London". The period covered is from the immediate end of WWII in Europe in May 1945 to their very early post-war years.
The central characters all have various jobs and coming from mixed backgrounds with some still serving in the Armed Forces, and as young women working in London at the end of WWII are interested in looks, clothing (very tricky given the rationing in place) and men. To add further colour and interest there are three older members who have lived in the lodging since the end of WWI, who aged c50, have different views and also some disagreements between each of them.
One key character is a youngish gentleman by the name of Nicholas Farringdon. He is keen to meet and know the young ladies and becomes touch in different ways by these friendships and associations.
As with Sparks' books there is a lot within the dialogue and the scene setting, where at times the narrative flows but little seems to happen, but is actually progressing in the subtle and interesting way that her writing does.
The ending provides a twist and good excitement to conclude the various strands.
Princess of May of Teck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Ma...
The central characters all have various jobs and coming from mixed backgrounds with some still serving in the Armed Forces, and as young women working in London at the end of WWII are interested in looks, clothing (very tricky given the rationing in place) and men. To add further colour and interest there are three older members who have lived in the lodging since the end of WWI, who aged c50, have different views and also some disagreements between each of them.
One key character is a youngish gentleman by the name of Nicholas Farringdon. He is keen to meet and know the young ladies and becomes touch in different ways by these friendships and associations.
As with Sparks' books there is a lot within the dialogue and the scene setting, where at times the narrative flows but little seems to happen, but is actually progressing in the subtle and interesting way that her writing does.
The ending provides a twist and good excitement to conclude the various strands.
Princess of May of Teck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Ma...
March 16, 2022
Part of my occasional ongoing project to read as many of Spark's novels as possible, this was another find in the library, and another very enjoyable read.
The setting is the May of Teck Club, a sort of semi-charitable hostel which offered affordable London accommodation to the "girls of slender means" of the title, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It is something of an ensemble piece, loosely held together by the death some years later of a man who became involved in the lives of many members of the club. As always Spark's writing is perceptive and often witty.
The setting is the May of Teck Club, a sort of semi-charitable hostel which offered affordable London accommodation to the "girls of slender means" of the title, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It is something of an ensemble piece, loosely held together by the death some years later of a man who became involved in the lives of many members of the club. As always Spark's writing is perceptive and often witty.
December 27, 2011
A stirring, beautiful novel that's deceptively short and light, and starts with what is now one of my favorite opening paragraphs in all literature:
"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity. Some bomb-ripped buildings looked like the ruins of ancient castles until, at a closer view, the wallpapers of various quite normal rooms would be visible, room above room, exposed, as on a stage, with one wall missing; sometimes a lavatory chain would dangle over nothing from a fourth- or fifth-floor ceiling; most of all the staircases survived, like a new art-form, leading up and up to an unspecified destination that made unusual demands on the mind's eye. All the nice people were poor; at least, that was a general axiom, the best of the rich being poor in spirit."
The story centers around the May of Teck Club, a boarding house for single young women working in London, and the lives of the women living there as they try to rebuild their lives after World War II. The girls do their best to resume some normalcy, trading clothing coupons, trying to maintain their diets despite limited food options, and sharing the one good dress in the club whenever one of them has a fancy date. In just 142 pages, Muriel Spark presents a large cast of characters, all fully-realized and dimensional and flawed, and it's frankly kind of amazing how much story she manages to fit into such a short book. For the majority it's just a light, fluffy novel of girls dating and having petty fights and chasing various men, like Sex and the City if it were set in post-war London and all the girls were poor and not horrible. It's deceptive lightness, though, because the ending is emotional and shattering, and I won't go into any more detail than that because it shouldn't be spoiled.
If you were underwhelmed by Spark's other book on The List, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I recommend giving her another chance here. You won't be disappointed.
"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity. Some bomb-ripped buildings looked like the ruins of ancient castles until, at a closer view, the wallpapers of various quite normal rooms would be visible, room above room, exposed, as on a stage, with one wall missing; sometimes a lavatory chain would dangle over nothing from a fourth- or fifth-floor ceiling; most of all the staircases survived, like a new art-form, leading up and up to an unspecified destination that made unusual demands on the mind's eye. All the nice people were poor; at least, that was a general axiom, the best of the rich being poor in spirit."
The story centers around the May of Teck Club, a boarding house for single young women working in London, and the lives of the women living there as they try to rebuild their lives after World War II. The girls do their best to resume some normalcy, trading clothing coupons, trying to maintain their diets despite limited food options, and sharing the one good dress in the club whenever one of them has a fancy date. In just 142 pages, Muriel Spark presents a large cast of characters, all fully-realized and dimensional and flawed, and it's frankly kind of amazing how much story she manages to fit into such a short book. For the majority it's just a light, fluffy novel of girls dating and having petty fights and chasing various men, like Sex and the City if it were set in post-war London and all the girls were poor and not horrible. It's deceptive lightness, though, because the ending is emotional and shattering, and I won't go into any more detail than that because it shouldn't be spoiled.
If you were underwhelmed by Spark's other book on The List, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I recommend giving her another chance here. You won't be disappointed.
March 1, 2015
Review for this book can be written in many ways. It would all depend on the aspect that the reader tries to focus on. Otherwise, it is a typical Spark - witty, satiric and completely engaging.
I was very much struck by the theme of Faith and Conversion in this novel. As you all must be aware, most of Spark's novels deal with Catholicism/Christian faith. It is not very conspicuous but each novel in one way or other puts forward a opinion of Spark on religion. In fact, a person can very well miss the importance of Faith as the theme in this novel. Everything depends on the reader.
It may serve a better review for those who have read the novel already.
&&&&&&&&& THERE MAY BE SPOILERS &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
So I was struck by the theme Faith and Conversion. This is very much made visible in the characters of Joanna Childe and Nicholas Farringdon.
Let me state my reasons:
Joanna Childe is introduced as a person who believes in "a desirable order of life." Later while narrating her biography, we learn that she had fallen in love with a person once 'which had come to nothing.' But that was her first and only love. For she believed in 'the notion that a nice girl should only fall in love once in her life.' Spark quotes a Shakespearean quote here to consolidate her point. This is the quote: "Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds,/ Or bends with the remover to remove:"
Now, observe the fact that she was a 'daughter of a country rector' and who was religious. Read the Shakespearean quote now, replacing the word LOVE with FAITH. Connect it with the fact of Joanna's desirability for the order in life. Faith cannot be replaced with secular ideas. If done, it would result in disorder.
Now, consider the backdrop of this novel. It is set in 1945 and in the war ravaged city of London. Everywhere there is destruction. The reason is, man's sin. This is not obvious. She does not say explicitly. But, we get the point (or at least I got it like that.)
Read this passage of the book that happens to be some 20 pages after the above said information. "You notice his words, that he says the world has fallen from grace? This is the reason that he is no anarchist, by the way. They chuck him out when he talks like a son of the Pope. This man is a mess that he calls himself an anarchist; the anarchists do not make all that talk of original sin, so forth; they permit only anti-social tendencies, unethical conduct, so forth." I have highlighted the passage to emphasize the point that I received from observing the references.
Later, in the gripping final chapters, we see Joanna caught in a house that is on fire along with some other girls. The men come for rescue. Before they could be rescued, when everyone is in distress, Joanna recites the Psalm. The quote: "Except the Lord build the house: their labour is but lost that build it./ Except the Lord keep the city: the watchman waketh but in vain." Consider the fact that the house is on fire because a bomb (that was dropped during war and remained unexploded and hidden in the garden) goes off.
When finally the help arrives, she is the last one to be rescued. She lets others to escape first. And when she makes the escape the building collapses and she dies. Later, we hear a comment that Joanna was always afraid of Hell. Earlier in the biographical sketch of Joanna (2nd Chapter), we were already informed that she preferred to enter the Heaven a maimed person that the Hell a complete person.
She saw the war ravaged world (that had forgotten God) as Hell and the next life a Salvation.
Seeing the last moments of Joanna and the girls trapped in the burning house, Nicholas Farringdon, a man who loves earthly life and earthly passions, turns into a priest. He ends up a missionary in Haiti.
A powerful novel. The final chapters change the ordinary story into an extraordinary one. A Re-Read would be all the more rewarding. I read it already two times.
My Word: Go for it.....
I was very much struck by the theme of Faith and Conversion in this novel. As you all must be aware, most of Spark's novels deal with Catholicism/Christian faith. It is not very conspicuous but each novel in one way or other puts forward a opinion of Spark on religion. In fact, a person can very well miss the importance of Faith as the theme in this novel. Everything depends on the reader.
It may serve a better review for those who have read the novel already.
&&&&&&&&& THERE MAY BE SPOILERS &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
So I was struck by the theme Faith and Conversion. This is very much made visible in the characters of Joanna Childe and Nicholas Farringdon.
Let me state my reasons:
Joanna Childe is introduced as a person who believes in "a desirable order of life." Later while narrating her biography, we learn that she had fallen in love with a person once 'which had come to nothing.' But that was her first and only love. For she believed in 'the notion that a nice girl should only fall in love once in her life.' Spark quotes a Shakespearean quote here to consolidate her point. This is the quote: "Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds,/ Or bends with the remover to remove:"
Now, observe the fact that she was a 'daughter of a country rector' and who was religious. Read the Shakespearean quote now, replacing the word LOVE with FAITH. Connect it with the fact of Joanna's desirability for the order in life. Faith cannot be replaced with secular ideas. If done, it would result in disorder.
Now, consider the backdrop of this novel. It is set in 1945 and in the war ravaged city of London. Everywhere there is destruction. The reason is, man's sin. This is not obvious. She does not say explicitly. But, we get the point (or at least I got it like that.)
Read this passage of the book that happens to be some 20 pages after the above said information. "You notice his words, that he says the world has fallen from grace? This is the reason that he is no anarchist, by the way. They chuck him out when he talks like a son of the Pope. This man is a mess that he calls himself an anarchist; the anarchists do not make all that talk of original sin, so forth; they permit only anti-social tendencies, unethical conduct, so forth." I have highlighted the passage to emphasize the point that I received from observing the references.
Later, in the gripping final chapters, we see Joanna caught in a house that is on fire along with some other girls. The men come for rescue. Before they could be rescued, when everyone is in distress, Joanna recites the Psalm. The quote: "Except the Lord build the house: their labour is but lost that build it./ Except the Lord keep the city: the watchman waketh but in vain." Consider the fact that the house is on fire because a bomb (that was dropped during war and remained unexploded and hidden in the garden) goes off.
When finally the help arrives, she is the last one to be rescued. She lets others to escape first. And when she makes the escape the building collapses and she dies. Later, we hear a comment that Joanna was always afraid of Hell. Earlier in the biographical sketch of Joanna (2nd Chapter), we were already informed that she preferred to enter the Heaven a maimed person that the Hell a complete person.
She saw the war ravaged world (that had forgotten God) as Hell and the next life a Salvation.
Seeing the last moments of Joanna and the girls trapped in the burning house, Nicholas Farringdon, a man who loves earthly life and earthly passions, turns into a priest. He ends up a missionary in Haiti.
A powerful novel. The final chapters change the ordinary story into an extraordinary one. A Re-Read would be all the more rewarding. I read it already two times.
My Word: Go for it.....
May 7, 2018
It's the summer of 1945 and there is or isn't an unexploded bomb in the garden of the May of Teck Club, a rooming house for girls of slender means. Jane is in love with the anarchist poet Nick Farrington, or not, but of course he (as an anarchist poet) is hapless in every way and ends up sleeping with hot asshole Selena Redwood on the roof. How does she get on the roof, you ask. It doesn't matter how he gets on the roof but it matters how she does. There's a very narrow window. Only the girls with the slenderest of means can get through the window. If you're close you can take off your clothes and rub butter all over your body. It might work.
Here's Muriel Spark looking skeptical, which I bet is how she looked a lot of the time
I mean she was Scottish anyway
It all sounds like a comedy, and Muriel Spark often does. The Guardian mentions "the light, light, light novel that Muriel Spark holds like a balancing shadow under her deadly serious work of art." "Deadly serious works of art" is a wonderful way to describe what she's producing - well, I'm not entirely sure about Memento Mori - but with the exception of The Driver's Seat, she's almost inscrutably arch about it all. Not an ingratiating writer, Spark. A remarkably varied one. Evelyn Waugh said in a letter to her, "Most novelists find there is one kind of book they can write… and go on doing it with variations until death. You seem to have an inexhaustible source." Every time I read Spark - this is my fourth of her books, on my way to all of them because she's one of my favorite writers - every time, I have to figure out what world she's assuming this time. This is a world where not everyone fits through the window, and in the end it's not just about who gets to fuck that idiot poet.
Here's Muriel Spark looking skeptical, which I bet is how she looked a lot of the time
I mean she was Scottish anyway
It all sounds like a comedy, and Muriel Spark often does. The Guardian mentions "the light, light, light novel that Muriel Spark holds like a balancing shadow under her deadly serious work of art." "Deadly serious works of art" is a wonderful way to describe what she's producing - well, I'm not entirely sure about Memento Mori - but with the exception of The Driver's Seat, she's almost inscrutably arch about it all. Not an ingratiating writer, Spark. A remarkably varied one. Evelyn Waugh said in a letter to her, "Most novelists find there is one kind of book they can write… and go on doing it with variations until death. You seem to have an inexhaustible source." Every time I read Spark - this is my fourth of her books, on my way to all of them because she's one of my favorite writers - every time, I have to figure out what world she's assuming this time. This is a world where not everyone fits through the window, and in the end it's not just about who gets to fuck that idiot poet.
December 30, 2021
Review #100. Yay, I guess?
A smart, sexy, funny novela built on a stark, serious foundation. What a solid concept most deftly executed.
The setting is a hostel for young women coming from rural England to find their first jobs in London during World War II. The girls are in their early twenties, and are therefore in equal parts brave and naive, filled with high hopes and bright ideals but also out to have a good time.
The way Spark describes these girls’ attempts to crawl their way out of poverty through meager entry-level or straight-out made up jobs is deeply relatable. I mean, my generation might not have had to barter with clothing coupons, but we’ve all done some weird shit for money (or not) to kickstart our careers. The subplot about the wannabe journalist writing faux fan mail to famous artists in an attempt to snag their signatures was a lot of fun.
The title, as the writing in general, is brilliant and I believe it plays an unexpected double entendre related to the crazy climax of the novel. Seriously, it's a pity this kind of restrained, grammatically sharp writing packed with understatement and wry humour is not part of the mainstream anymore. It's so damn effective.
Clues as to what is to come are peppered across the text, but are indistinguishable from the tirade of endless chatter, gossip, flings and wacky anecdotes that is life in the hostel... until it is too late. Spark truly plays her readers like a fiddle in this one.
A smart, sexy, funny novela built on a stark, serious foundation. What a solid concept most deftly executed.
The setting is a hostel for young women coming from rural England to find their first jobs in London during World War II. The girls are in their early twenties, and are therefore in equal parts brave and naive, filled with high hopes and bright ideals but also out to have a good time.
The way Spark describes these girls’ attempts to crawl their way out of poverty through meager entry-level or straight-out made up jobs is deeply relatable. I mean, my generation might not have had to barter with clothing coupons, but we’ve all done some weird shit for money (or not) to kickstart our careers. The subplot about the wannabe journalist writing faux fan mail to famous artists in an attempt to snag their signatures was a lot of fun.
The title, as the writing in general, is brilliant and I believe it plays an unexpected double entendre related to the crazy climax of the novel. Seriously, it's a pity this kind of restrained, grammatically sharp writing packed with understatement and wry humour is not part of the mainstream anymore. It's so damn effective.
Clues as to what is to come are peppered across the text, but are indistinguishable from the tirade of endless chatter, gossip, flings and wacky anecdotes that is life in the hostel... until it is too late. Spark truly plays her readers like a fiddle in this one.
May 14, 2023
05/2021
From 1963
Mostly takes place during WWII at a dormitory house for unmarried ladies, called The May and Teck Club. London is all bombed and, eventually, in a climactic scene, an unexploded one goes off consuming the building in fire. Leading to dramatic action and tragedy. Muriel Spark's writing is sharp, hilarious and unexpected.
From 1963
Mostly takes place during WWII at a dormitory house for unmarried ladies, called The May and Teck Club. London is all bombed and, eventually, in a climactic scene, an unexploded one goes off consuming the building in fire. Leading to dramatic action and tragedy. Muriel Spark's writing is sharp, hilarious and unexpected.
July 20, 2022
Because she wrote in a different generation from mine, and in a different country, and while there was a World War on, I was certainly not Spark's audience and I don't always understand her humor or the subtext. As a general rule, I don't research much when I pleasure read, unless I'm very curious, and Spark does not tend to pique my interest in that way. Therefore, for me, reading Spark is a little like being drunk. I'm only half-present, but I really enjoy myself for the parts that I'm there. This novel/novella has been my favorite of hers so far, as it about young women living in a boarding house in the city and getting up to all the things young women get up to when they live together. As I went to a boarding school, I have some insight into the kinds of ingenuity of which young women discover they are capable when they live away from parents, in a building that isn't their home, without nearly enough supervision. This is a hilarious, riotous story that had me laughing to gasping in 2019. I can't imagine how this story went over when she wrote it! It's delightful, really.
August 15, 2024
Es un libro que combina una historia ágil con la estampa única de un Londres de postguerra.
Justo se acaba de ganar la guerra, múltiples sentimientos embargan a la gente, alivio, júbilo, agradecimiento, incertidumbre pero sobre todo se busca regresar a una normalidad que logre devolver a la gente la tranquilidad de la rutina, aun cuando hay racionamiento y la mayoría de las edificaciones están derruidas parcial o totalmente, en este relato se logra percibir esa cotidianidad, el regreso de ese manto protector que nos aleja del peligro, mediante un lugar que alberga mujeres de hasta 30 años, solteras, que no tienen los medios suficientes para sufragar vivienda en Londres.
“Como ellas mismas sabían en mayor o menor grado, por aquel entonces había pocas personas más encantadoras, ingeniosas, conmovedoramente bellas y, en ciertos casos, salvajes, que las señoritas de escasos medios.”
La historia inicia con Jane, una periodista que recibe una noticia que la devuelve al pasado, cuando solo era una joven regordeta viviendo con un montón de muchachas. En este ambiente festivo somos testigos de anécdotas deliciosas como por ejemplo un vestido Shiaparellli que es un objeto de deseo para todas, y que ha sido prestado por su dueña a cambio de vales de racionamiento.
Mediante esta retrospectiva al pasado conocemos a múltiples jóvenes que tienen personalidades muy peculiares, sus juegos de poder así como sus maneras de sobrevivir a este nuevo mundo, un aspirante a escritor que frecuenta la casa es subyugado por este ambiente y busca pretextos para ir continuamente a la casa y poder admirar este cuadro viviente que choca con los desechos que dejó la guerra.
Un libro que bajo su ligereza y delicadeza esconde lo mordaz y lo crítico, hay una gran inteligencia en la manera en cómo los hechos se van desarrollando hasta llegar al punto culminante y de ahí se vuelve a la indiferencia de seguir viviendo en la búsqueda de una estabilidad que parece estar al alcance de unos pocos.
Justo se acaba de ganar la guerra, múltiples sentimientos embargan a la gente, alivio, júbilo, agradecimiento, incertidumbre pero sobre todo se busca regresar a una normalidad que logre devolver a la gente la tranquilidad de la rutina, aun cuando hay racionamiento y la mayoría de las edificaciones están derruidas parcial o totalmente, en este relato se logra percibir esa cotidianidad, el regreso de ese manto protector que nos aleja del peligro, mediante un lugar que alberga mujeres de hasta 30 años, solteras, que no tienen los medios suficientes para sufragar vivienda en Londres.
“Como ellas mismas sabían en mayor o menor grado, por aquel entonces había pocas personas más encantadoras, ingeniosas, conmovedoramente bellas y, en ciertos casos, salvajes, que las señoritas de escasos medios.”
La historia inicia con Jane, una periodista que recibe una noticia que la devuelve al pasado, cuando solo era una joven regordeta viviendo con un montón de muchachas. En este ambiente festivo somos testigos de anécdotas deliciosas como por ejemplo un vestido Shiaparellli que es un objeto de deseo para todas, y que ha sido prestado por su dueña a cambio de vales de racionamiento.
Mediante esta retrospectiva al pasado conocemos a múltiples jóvenes que tienen personalidades muy peculiares, sus juegos de poder así como sus maneras de sobrevivir a este nuevo mundo, un aspirante a escritor que frecuenta la casa es subyugado por este ambiente y busca pretextos para ir continuamente a la casa y poder admirar este cuadro viviente que choca con los desechos que dejó la guerra.
Un libro que bajo su ligereza y delicadeza esconde lo mordaz y lo crítico, hay una gran inteligencia en la manera en cómo los hechos se van desarrollando hasta llegar al punto culminante y de ahí se vuelve a la indiferencia de seguir viviendo en la búsqueda de una estabilidad que parece estar al alcance de unos pocos.
February 24, 2016
It’s 1945 and the time between the two armistices of the war and in the Mary of Teck Club, a glorified hostel for girls of slender means in Kensington, a well-flagged tragedy is waiting to strike. Just as in ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ Sparks captures perfectly a world of women filled with malice and fast friendships with her delicious, trademark wit. Typically this involves a non-linear story, Sparks’ expertise with analepsis and prolepsis and deceptively shallow portrayals of her characters that actually penetrate to the heart. The recklessness of the time- after war had been won in Europe but was still being fought in distant Asia- is demonstrated in a myriad of ways, from the easy virtues of the young (and most slender) girls to a harrowing scene of violence recorded in the midst of the VJ celebrations. Sparks’ recognition of the heartlessness in humanity is tempered by the gentility of the finest girls.
But who are these girls of slender means? There is the stunning sash of a girl, Selina, with her impossibly long legs. She dates a married American soldier as well as the poet Nicholas and owns the Schiaparelli dress that does the rounds of the other girls in return for their ration coupons.
Then there is Joanne, who teaches elocution lessons to private tutees. Her passionate renditions of poems and psalms reverberate through the hostel and the novel itself.
And there is, to throw a spotlight on just one more of the girls, Jane, who recognises the seriousness of the publishing world in which she works but, as a sideline, writes to famous authors (Dylan Thomas, Ernest Hemingway) a pack of lies in the hope of receiving a signed letter from which her nefarious partner in crime hopes to profit.
For anarchist poet Nicholas Farringdon the girls' world is a beautiful microcosm of the possibilities of a new order. He has visions of a new society based on the tenets this sorority holds dear. But there is slender chance of that.
But who are these girls of slender means? There is the stunning sash of a girl, Selina, with her impossibly long legs. She dates a married American soldier as well as the poet Nicholas and owns the Schiaparelli dress that does the rounds of the other girls in return for their ration coupons.
Then there is Joanne, who teaches elocution lessons to private tutees. Her passionate renditions of poems and psalms reverberate through the hostel and the novel itself.
And there is, to throw a spotlight on just one more of the girls, Jane, who recognises the seriousness of the publishing world in which she works but, as a sideline, writes to famous authors (Dylan Thomas, Ernest Hemingway) a pack of lies in the hope of receiving a signed letter from which her nefarious partner in crime hopes to profit.
For anarchist poet Nicholas Farringdon the girls' world is a beautiful microcosm of the possibilities of a new order. He has visions of a new society based on the tenets this sorority holds dear. But there is slender chance of that.
September 2, 2019
An excellent read. Will review later.
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