Literally Blogging

Rhys noted the other day the passing of Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. “The New York Times,” just published their obituary on Ms. Spark, and had some interesting comments.

Her work, unlocked from her innermost memories of her experiences before and after her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1954, built a canon of short, sometimes macabre, sometimes humorous novels that sought to pare away the absurdities of human behavior. In her writing, evil is never far away, violence is a regular visitor and death is a constant companion. Her themes were generally serious but nearly always handled with a feather-light touch. Some accused her of coolness and even cruelty toward the characters she invented and then sent — sometimes quite merrily — to terrible deaths.

I have not personally read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This obituary makes me want to do so. I wish I could have met this woman who spent the last thirty years of her life in Tuscany. She is photographed in the “Times,” with her cat and there is something about what I saw in the photograph and read in the article that made me most thankful literature keeps us immortal. I would have loved to talk with her – at least, now, I can enjoy her work and contribution to our culture.

New York Times Obituary – Muriel Spark

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