Monday, March 4, 2013
Loitering with intent:Muriel Spark
Fleur Talbot is an impecunious novelist who takes a job working for upper class pompous twit Sir Quentin Oliver, who founded the Autobiographical Association to encourage its members to record their memoirs. Fleur's job was to revise and spice up these otherwise dull recollections.
Life begins to imitate art as members of the association begin to act out events already recorded in Fleur's as yet unpublished manuscript Warrender Chase, and the skull-duggery and derring-do that fairly races through the pages is quite reminiscent of a '50's farce. In fact the 1950s are well-painted, as are the characters, from the deliciously loopy Lady Edwina, Quentin's mother, to the many and varied men in Fleur's life.
This is a crisply written book, with a plot that fairly zips along. It's something of a period piece, which I enjoyed, but was happy enough to finish and set aside in favour of some plainer fare.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment