Loitering with Intent
£2.97
Tis a Pity - I wholeheartedly agree with the praise expressed by other reviewers here. It s good have to have this superb little masterpiece back in print. What a shame, though, that this Virago reisuue is marred by poor proofreading. There are several distracting typographical errors, the most startling of which occurs on page 32, where Father Egbert is made to say: For me, too, it was a moment of climax. I wrestled with my God, the whore of one entire night.
Bright Spark - Fleur Talbot lives on what she d probably call the grimy fringes of literary London in the early 50s. It reeks with atmosphere - eating sardines in a bedsit, writing poetry in a graveyard, having a brief affair with a married man who then goes off with another man. Fleur becomes close (and, we discover, lifelong) friends with her lover s wife. But this is just incidental. Or is it? In a Spark novel, you never know where you are. Information is dished out parsimoniously, and apparently out of sequence. Life imitates art, art imitates life. Fleur takes a job with a rickety outfit called the Autobiographical Association. She becomes convinced that the man who runs it, Sir Oliver Quentin, has a long term plan to blackmail the members, who include (of course) a defrocked priest and an aging minor aristocrat nicknamed Bucks (her real name s Bernice). Fleur begins to feel that she is inventing everyone she knows as her novel takes shape. Skullduggery ensues as Sir Oliver tries to get her novel suppressed (it gives away his evil plans). There s an awful moment (you saw it coming) when Fleur finds that all copies of her novel have disappeared. Who triumphs in the end? Well, it s Fleur herself telling the story.
The Story of One’s Life - There is a sense of the autobiographical in this novel which in fact is quite appropriate when one considers the actual pivot around which the whole plot revolves. As a note of caution however I must add that I make this statement without having any knowledge at all of Muriel Spark’s actual life. As the author spins out the plot she manages to capture the essence of the main character’s experience as a secretary for a group of people organized by an individual with the sole aim of writing their biographies so that they may be put away in a safe place for seventy years and their contents not actually revealed until all the people mentioned in these sets of memoirs are actually no longer alive. The idea is that this will be of interest to the historian of the future. Not that the novel itself concentrates unduly on the efforts of this group but rather on the intellectual and emotional reactions of the novel’s main character, a young writer whose main concurrent aim in life is to get her first novel published. She is quite a likeable and attractive character and in fact she seems to be the only normal person amongst the rest of the characters portrayed in the novel, even though this impression may in fact be subconsciously and gradually formed in the reader’s mind by the first-person point of view of the novel since everything is seen and judged through the eyes of the novel’s main character. Even though this is a rather short book it is rather rich with experience and latent meaning well beyond the mere surface of the mostly humorous type of entertainment that pervades it from beginning to end.
Spark sure has some spark! - Loitering with Intent is enchanting. From the very first page the reader will appreciate Spark s keen, creative ability in being able to draw a first-person narrator who is almost faultless, with a strong, contemporary, female voice. Name: Fleur Talbot. It is a quality rare in most other books with a strong, modern, singular voice -- demonstrated by few other contemporary authors, certainly Greene and Murdoch. The astute narration ensures great storytelling with unforeseen, complicated twists -- a combination of who-dunnits, what-ifs? and how-on-earths? -- that will keep the reader continuously entertained.Furthermore, it offers excellent insight into the mind of a writer, as Spark creates a literary protagonist. Fleur s observations are highly witty, intelligent and perceptive, creating real, mildly-ridiculous characters. As we warm to Fleur s vivacity we can t help but share in her mocking. The parallels of art (literature) to life is a prominent and cleverly developed theme. What is Spark saying? As life starts to dangerously imitate art, does Spark reiterate her character s belief that the two are entirely intertwined, life is not life without art? Similarly, the relationship between life and religion is then considered (the subtle subtext of the novel), adding a dimension to the tale, whilst remaining highly, and surprisingly, contemporary). In fact it is the subtleties of the novel that should enthuse the reader, always conveyed with wit and half-explored satire, demanding the participation of the reader s own imagination. We leave the novel with the conviction that Fleur is infallible. Her triumph becomes our triumph. From her handling of events, her perceptive insight into others both superfically and deeply, her organised chaos and simple attitude to life and aspirations, she becomes the object of deep admiration and envy in every reader. Whilst the plot may thicken (and sometimes detach the reader), Fleur never fades, nor do her group of friends, the unlikely Edwina and colourful Solly, along with the arrogant Leslie and desperate Dottie. For once, Fleur might agree that a name has been chosen well!! A fantastic, light read, concise, entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking...