A Muriel Spark Trio: The Comforters / The Ballad of Peckham Rye / Memento Mori

by Muriel Spark

MAXVENTURA Empiezan las vacaciones es un libro escrito por un niño de 8 años y trata de Max, un niño como cualquier otro que narra las aventuras que pasa junto a su familia en sus vacaciones. Descubre en cada capítulo los mágicos personajes a los que van conociendo, así como los fantásticos lugares que visitan... o no? ... descubrelo!

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Dame 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.

Reviews

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "The Comforters", really liked "Memento Mori", but didn't care for "Peckham Rye". Spark's writing is engaging and witty, but I find it hard to continue reading a story if there's no character to like and identify with, as was the case with "Peckham Rye."

As a caregiver to a parent with Alzheimer's, I found the portrayal of persons with this condition in "Memento Mori" to be very sympathetic and humorous.

[Katie Cruel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right. So I went in with high expectations. I have no doubt Muriel Spark was a brilliant writer. My fault was probably selecting a book from so early on in her cannon. In the future, I hope to read some of her later works.

Both these novels/novellas struck me as painfully conventional. I really did appreciate how she managed to write about murder and mystery whilst dodging the pitfalls of genre fiction. That's was great. And I thought the idea of "Momento Mori" was very clever, which was why I forced myself to finish it.

But, I mean, this came like forty years after Virginia Woolf wrote her way into fame, forty years after the heyday of modernism, yet reads like it was written in the 19th century. Of course books from 19th century are delightful, but here we have an author attempting post-modern ideas/concepts while writing in the style and convention of Oscar Wilde's dramas. (I was thinking Oscar Wilde the entire time, honestly.) These pieces really needed an access to characters, a fluidity that you just can't get with that sort of convention, but instead getting anywhere in this story was like going through a maze on a trail of gorilla glue.

I couldn't even finish the second novella.