BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE NOVEMBER - SPARK & BOYD

MURIEL SPARK



Her work is detailed here:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/muriel-spark/

Over 24 novels, numerous short stories, biography and as a memoirist, Spark's spare and elegant style delighted readers for over 50 years. Born in Scotland of a Jewish father and a Presbyterian mother she finished as neither converting to Roman Catholicism shortly before the release of her book The Comforters.

I have read many of her novels and enjoyed all of them even if occasionally they are a little on the slight side. Three times shortlisted for the Booker but without winning she did win the James Tait Black prize in 1965 for the excellent The Mandlebaum Gate which remains my favourite novel of hers that I have read to date.

Shares with my daughter, Yasmyne, the honour of being a student at Heriot Watt University.

WILLIAM BOYD



Details of his work can be seen here:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/william-boyd/

William Boyd was born in Ghana and brought up in Africa. That experience forms the backdrop of much of his early writing but he is very much a Scotsman. He is a very versatile writer having published novels, short stories, film scripts, plays and of course recently a James Bond thriller.

Perhaps not as renowned as some of his peers he remains well regarded critically and has won The James Tait Black, The Costa Book Award/ Whitbread Book Award, The Sunday Express Book Award, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the IMPAC International Prize and has a shortlist for the Bookers to his CV.

The theme or link between the writers this month is, of course, Scotland. St. Andrew's Day, Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, is celebrated on November 30.

I plan to read :

Muriel Spark

The Abbess of Crewe



William Boyd

Solo

I just got a library notice for my arrived holds of An Ice-Cream War and Loitering with Intent. I'll pick them up on Tuesday.

I listened to Boyd's Restless in September and I liked it very much.

I will be reading Restless.

>7 LoisB: I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did, Lois.

I just finished The Abbess of Crewe...not sure why Sparks thought replaying Watergate in a convent was a good idea.

I've got Spark's Memento Mori on order from the library. Brazzaville Beach is on my list for Boyd. Am unsure if I will actually read it this month.

I didn't realize that your daughter was going to school in Great Britain. Or is there a branch of that school in K.L.?

I have just downloaded the audiobook The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark. I love her stories and can highly recommend Momento Mori, Aiding and Abetting and A Far Cry from Kensington if anyone is looking for something other than The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as a Spark read.

I'm going to read Boyd's The Blue Afternoon.

eta: I'm not sure Spark is the girl for me, but I see that many of her stories are on the short side. I might try one (our library has several audiobooks as well as a couple paperbacks) if time permits, or else do a second Boyd.

I've never read either one before.

The Abbess of Crewe



Quirky as Amanda sort of notes. This is a short novel but one that certainly makes you smile. I read it in one sitting and only when I thought about when it was written (1974) did I realise the fact that she was sending-up the watergate scandal.

The old Abbess has died and the nuns will meet to elect a replacement from their number. One nun will stop at nothing to make sure that victory is attained.

There are some lovely lines in this short piece including one where our Nixon nun informs her main dupe and lackey - (paraphrased)
sometimes I think I could eat you, if only I could stomach suet pudding.

Enjoyed it.

>14 PaulCranswick: I think I'm to young to really appreciate this one. Watergate happened a decade before I was born so while I recognize what's going on in the novel, it doesn't have any resonance for me.

>15 amanda4242: Possibly Amanda but unfortunately I can make no such claim! - I was eight when Nixon resigned and it didn't make any impression on my english upbringing. I only made the connection thinking about the book over a coffee immediately after I had finished it.

I read four Sparks in the last two years and enjoyed most of them, liked Memento Mori best. I'll read the Driver's Seat for this month's challenge. And I'd like to squeeze in a Boyd as well. The Bond book might be a quick read despite its length.

#16
It was the coffee that brought on the enlightenment. Coffee does that.

The Driver's Seat is a very short and very disturbing book. It was good, but to be honest I'd rather not have read it. :/

Finished The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie today and wasn't impressed. Miss Brodie is just a garden variety snob and the girls are difficult to tell apart.

I finished this up this morning and posted this review to the book. I had not read William Boyd before. This one was good enough to make me want to read more.

The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd, finished November 5, 2015, 3 1/2 - 4 stars, acquired in 2015 for the BAC


.


Unusual story told in three parts - first in Los Angeles, second, the largest part in Manila, and finally in Lisbon. A murder mystery and a love story. One of the main characters, Kay Fisher, is an architect and the story spends quite a bit of time trying to educate me on how and why this architect does what she does. This should have been interesting but that part of the story didn't interest me at all. What did interest me was the mystery surrounding an old man who appears and claims to be her father.

The characters here weren't likable for the most part and it was hard to be sympathetic. The reader as well as Kay keeps wondering if the old man is scamming her. He seems sincere but he is also extremely obtuse and not forthcoming with information. He seems to sucker Kay in by the somewhat devious way he has of getting her to do things. She gets surprised.

The central heart of the story is the middle where we move back in time to hear the old man's story. And he is the one telling it. The beginning of the book had me as a detached observer but once we went back to the Philippines in 1902 I was really pulled in. It represents 2/3 of the book and was really excellent historical fiction around events and a time and place that I was quite intrigued with and knew little about. At the end of the novel I was a little frustrated because we really don't know the truth of what happened and even though we the reader and Kay the daughter have been told a story it doesn't quite fit all the puzzle pieces together properly. I suspect some truths were not revealed and am still unsure of this all, and I suspect that was the author's intention. This gets a few points for atmosphere in 1936 Los Angeles and especially 1902 Manila. There is some interesting history written in here with the story about the American occupation of the Philippines. The descriptions of vivisection and surgical techniques and bodies really gets a little gruesome. Not for the faint of heart.

This was pretty good, but I thought the first part of the story was quite weak and unbelievable. It keeps me from rating this higher. The characters all have very unusual names - I don't know if this is a William Boyd thing or just particular to this book.

I've read several of Spark's novels, and enjoyed them all--The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Aiding and Abetting, The Driver's Seat, and Loitering With Intent. I'm carrying a copy of The Mandelbaum Gate around just in case a reading moment presents itself.

>21 RBeffa: Very enjoyable review Ron. I haven't read that yet and you have edged me closer to it certainly.



I finished Boyd's take on James Bond in Solo yesterday. Set in London, Washington DC and most telling (and Boydian) in an invented West African republic in the throes of civil war. Cars, women and plenty of culinary preoccupation a la Fleming but this lacks a little of the wit that I seem to recall in the originals and which is surprising for Boyd. Competent but not overly compelling, this is a well created period piece set at the end of the 1960's with Bond starting to feel his 45 years.

I have Restless and Waiting for Sunrise on my TBR shelves. I'll most likely get the first of these read this month and, if I have time (ha ha), I'll read the latter as well.

I just finished Restless. It was a four-star read for me. Set in 1939-41 and 1976, the main characters here are a mother who was a British spy as Europe goes to war, and her daughter, who is just being told about her mother's other life. Deception, disinformation, double agents, duplicity, deaths, drama and damn good story telling.

Started Memento Mori yesterday. Am only at the beginning of Chapter 3, but am liking it quite well so far.

I finished The Ballad of Peckham Rye earlier today. Overall, I really did not understand this one. I spend a lot of time going "Whaaa...?" and "Huh?" while listening to the audiobook. No discredit to the reader, Nadia May, who has done a fantastic job reading other Spark books I have listened to but this one just didn't do it for me. Not one of Spark's better stories, IMO.

Full review can be found here or on the book page.

I finished Solo today. It wasn't bad, but it left me with the same vague feeling of disappointment that all non-Fleming Bond novels do.

Finished Memento Mori this afternoon.
It was very well written and clever but so not the book that I should be reading right now. I need something with gamboling bunnies and fluffy kittens. Not sorry I read it, but wish Spark's turn had come up last spring.

Finished Aiding and Abetting tonight and found it unremittingly dull. I fear Spark and I are not meant to be together.

>30 amanda4242: Well you gave her a good try with three books in quick succession, Amanda.

I'm still trying to decide between A Good Man in Africa and An Ice Cream War. Not unlike >29 Fourpawz2: I'm more inclined to something fluffy, which Boyd doesn't do...

Finally finished Restless. It was a major disappointment - boring, slow-paced, and a chore to finish.

>33 LoisB: Lois, we had such different experiences with Restless. I didn't think it was brilliant but also definitely not boring. Ah, the joys of our individual responses to literature. So fun.

Here are my comments:
In 1976 Ruth learns that her mother Sally, a Russian immigrant, was a spy for the British during WWII. The story of Eva Delectorsklaya is gripping, the story of Ruth and Sally (and the reasons for Sally's late-life disclosures to her astounded daughter) somewhat less compelling. And the thread of the tale is a bit loose near the end. Still, this was a can't-put-it-down spy thriller, perfect for a mini-vacation!

>34 EBT1002: Interesting that we had entirely different reactions! To each his/her own. I'm glad you enjoyed it, but I think I will pass on future Boyd works.

>35 LoisB: *raises glass in toast*

>36 EBT1002: {LIKE}

I finished Loitering with Intent last night. I liked it a bit better than The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I like Spark's non-linear style, but I can see that it has the potential to annoy some readers.

I've just started An Ice-Cream War.

I finished my Sparks: Memento Mori. It had some very funny bits, but overall, not my favorite.

I read The Girls of Slender Means last night and liked it more than the other books of hers I've read, but I still wasn't impressed with Spark's style. After four books, I feel I can give up on Spark with a clear conscience.

152) Sweet Caress by William Boyd 4 stars

Amory Clay was born in 1908, a decade before the Great War. Her father is damaged in this war and he nearly takes his daughter with him, on his downward spiral. Her uncle teaches, Amory, the art of photography, as a young woman and we get to follow her through the years, as she documents her life in photos and in later years, as journal entries.
As a working photographer, she finds herself, immersed, in many historical moments: she is beaten by fascist blackshirts, she witness’s atrocities in France, during WWII, she visits the steamy jungles of Vietnam and finds herself searching for her wayward daughter in a hippie commune in Northern California.
This is Any Human Heart, from a female perspective. The writing is not as strong as that fine novel but the prose is easy and swift and there are many points of interest, along the way. There are also “fake” photographs, highlighting the narrative, which I found, hit or miss. A good read.

I also enjoyed Loitering With Intent. I had never read Spark, so I thank Paul for the opportunity.

I finished The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie this week. Saying that I “enjoyed” this book is not quite accurate, since I found it disturbing. It's one that I am sure that I will remember for a long time to come.

I had also never read any by Muriel Spark - and it's always great to be able to combine challenges and knock another 1001 off the list.

I have read Muriel Spark in the past, and it doesn't look like I'm going to get to anything else of hers this month. *sigh* C'est la vie.

My November books will be read in December. I have The Mandelbaum Gate checked out by Spark. I will pick up one of the Boyd books at the public library, but I haven't decided which yet. I thought I might be more inspired when I can read the cover blurbs.

>45 thornton37814: Ms. Spark hasn't been an unqualified success for November but, for what it is worth, Lori, The Mandelbaum Gate is my favourite book of hers.

I finished An Ice-Cream War over the weekend. I liked it but didn't love it. There was something about the female characters that bothered me, but I can't put my finger on it.

I had planned on reading Sweet Caress by William Boyd but since I just started my Helen Dunmore book for October I am going to skip this month and move on to the December authors.

I'm quite a bit behind with my Spark reading, but have taken in the very short The Finishing School, which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I might, and also The Mandelbaum Gate, for which I just posted the following review on my thread:



I just completed The Mandelbaum Gate, which came a month late for the BAC. I know this is among Paul's favourites, and I picked it up for that reason, having already read most of Muriel Spark's other better known works. I'm definitely a fan of Muriel Spark, having read a good number her other better known works and short stories, but I found this novel, which takes place in the then new country of Israel in 1961—when Jerusalem was divided between the Israeli state and Jordan by the Mandelbaum gate—was slow to get off the ground. Spark spent the first half of the book situating her characters and the geographic and political situation, at which time any Jewish person was barred from Jordan and immediately suspected of spying if they ever DID make it across the borders, which of course could result in very dire consequences. Our two main protagonists are Freddy Hamilton, a Britisher working for the foreign office, and Barbara Vaughan, a British old-maidish teacher on a visit to Israel and Jordan on a religious pilgrimage; she has Jewish roots on her mother's side and considers herself a half-Jew, but as a convert to Catholicism, is eager to visit all the sacred sites the old city has to offer, added to which she has entered into a love affair with an archeologist working on the Dead See Scrolls site (also on the Jordanian side of the border), whom she hopes to meet there and eventually marry if certain circumstances prove favourable. The story really takes off when Freddy comes back from what should have been a routine weekend visit to friends of his on the Jordanian side of Jerusalem, having blanked out several days from his memory; he is convinced he's returned to his hotel on the Sunday night as per his usual, only it is Tuesday, and the people at the F.O. have been nervously looking for him. When it turns out he's somehow been involved in the disappearance of Barbara Vaughn, who up till then was only a passing acquaintance because they were staying at the same hotel, a very interesting adventure is described to to the reader, one involving espionage and bed-hopping, with plenty of mixed messages and cultural incidents which show Spark's mordant humour to brilliant effect. Definitely a novel I'll want to revisit now I have the measure of it, so I can better appreciate Spark's slow buildup next time.