I have no idea why I bought this book a couple years ago — I’ve read two books by Muriel Spark before, but they haven’t really inspired me to go all in… Perhaps I read a review of the book somewhere? Or something?
The physical copy here isn’t very inspiring. It feels more like a print on demand book than a print on demand book does. C’mon, New Directions.
This is written in a fascinating fashion — the language is breezy, amusing and digressive, but also oddly slippery. You never know what the next thing is going to be, and it’s frequently slightly unclear just what she’s talking about at the time, although it’s often clarified a few sentences on.
So it’s like a mind dump of the hostel/club she’s describing; all these young women living their intertwined lives, talking over year other.
And then out of the blue, there’s a shocking ending.
It’s a good book, but it was sometimes hard to keep paying attention, because it flows in such a strange way.
The Girls of Slender Means (1963) by Muriel Spark (buy new, buy used, 3.65 on Goodreads)