Muriel Spark
From Catholic Fiction, a consideration of Muriel Spark
Known primarily for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Ms. Spark authored many, many interesting and challenging books, not at all like Miss Brodie. Among the quirkiest, Not to Disturb--an exceedingly black comedy about what the "below-stairs" servants do while the master and the mistress of the house are discovering unpleasant truths about their relationship; The Abbess of Crewe is another interesting work, featuring a walk through a garden in an abbey where everything is monitored, bugged, and watched--written as a means of exploring the Watergate events; The Girls of Slender Means, Memento Mori and A Far Cry from Kensington round out some of my favorite of her works. All of them are deeply cynical, bitter, and entirely distrustful of humanity and motive. She has a way of twisting the knife, as it were.
Known primarily for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Ms. Spark authored many, many interesting and challenging books, not at all like Miss Brodie. Among the quirkiest, Not to Disturb--an exceedingly black comedy about what the "below-stairs" servants do while the master and the mistress of the house are discovering unpleasant truths about their relationship; The Abbess of Crewe is another interesting work, featuring a walk through a garden in an abbey where everything is monitored, bugged, and watched--written as a means of exploring the Watergate events; The Girls of Slender Means, Memento Mori and A Far Cry from Kensington round out some of my favorite of her works. All of them are deeply cynical, bitter, and entirely distrustful of humanity and motive. She has a way of twisting the knife, as it were.
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