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Muriel Spark
Muriel Spark (Novelists & Their World S.)
164 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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April 4, 2022Densely academic, Kemp peels back layers and layers of meaning from Spark's otherwise acidly easy-reading novellas.
I am not equipped to dispute the literary evaluations that Kemp pares onto the plate. My reading is for fun, and tall though I am, much goes over my head. All I can say is that my tastes diverge from Kemp's. While I can appreciate 'The Public Image' or 'The Mandelbaum Gate', one of my favourites of those reviewed has been 'The Hothouse by the East River', which gets relatively short shrift from Kemp. It may be untidyier in its symmetry, but 'Hothouse's' uncanny haunting humour won me over far more than the measured modelling of 'Image' or the arid biography in 'Gate'. In this I disagree with Kemp's evaluations on the 'best' of Spark's earlier books.
More profoundly, the main message in Kemp's book that I took away was Spark's warning against Romance and Tragedy, and her preference for Satirical shock tactics. So Kemp tells us that Spark feared audiences contented themselves with emotional absolution in these entirely fictional world, and would thereby dissipate empathy and action in the real world. Only by jolting self-satisfaction - through cruel humour and the unexpected - did Spark feel she could make her audience undergo transformative self-examination. Thus Miss Jean Brodie's thin mask as a relatable figure of fun barely hides a Nazi sympathiser. Her dark political leanings are not hidden, but it's our interest in her that unsettles. Similarly, the orchestrated suicidal impulses in 'Public Image' or 'Driver's Seat' make for a neatly satisfying plot twist, while they most certainly do disturb.
I don't agree with Kemp's favourites, but he did make me think about the provocative politics of her books.
I am not equipped to dispute the literary evaluations that Kemp pares onto the plate. My reading is for fun, and tall though I am, much goes over my head. All I can say is that my tastes diverge from Kemp's. While I can appreciate 'The Public Image' or 'The Mandelbaum Gate', one of my favourites of those reviewed has been 'The Hothouse by the East River', which gets relatively short shrift from Kemp. It may be untidyier in its symmetry, but 'Hothouse's' uncanny haunting humour won me over far more than the measured modelling of 'Image' or the arid biography in 'Gate'. In this I disagree with Kemp's evaluations on the 'best' of Spark's earlier books.
More profoundly, the main message in Kemp's book that I took away was Spark's warning against Romance and Tragedy, and her preference for Satirical shock tactics. So Kemp tells us that Spark feared audiences contented themselves with emotional absolution in these entirely fictional world, and would thereby dissipate empathy and action in the real world. Only by jolting self-satisfaction - through cruel humour and the unexpected - did Spark feel she could make her audience undergo transformative self-examination. Thus Miss Jean Brodie's thin mask as a relatable figure of fun barely hides a Nazi sympathiser. Her dark political leanings are not hidden, but it's our interest in her that unsettles. Similarly, the orchestrated suicidal impulses in 'Public Image' or 'Driver's Seat' make for a neatly satisfying plot twist, while they most certainly do disturb.
I don't agree with Kemp's favourites, but he did make me think about the provocative politics of her books.
Displaying 1 of 1 review