As a teacher of English, holder of a Masters Degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris, Linette Bruno has taught English in the French island of Martinique for several years. Captivated by Muriel Spark's lively wit, and her skill in combining complicated narrative technique with richness of theme, she has undertaken to produce this work.A BBC news article which appeared at the time of Dame Muriel Spark's death described her as "one of the liveliest and most original literary talents to be discovered in Britain since the end of Word War II".Like the famous Jacques in Shakespeare's "As You Like It", Muriel Spark seems to see:"All the world's a stage/And all the men and women merely players/They have their exits and their entrances/And one man in his time plays many parts/His acts being seven ages..." Old people become babes again. School-boys (or girls) grow into their prime. Lovers, lawyers, bachelors, spinsters all make their way across the stage in her fiction. Their performances, during the brief moment they remain on stage, are observed and cleverly depicted under her skilful pen for the enjoyment of her readers.Five novels, generally considered to be among her best, have been chosen to show how Muriel Spark manages to make those brief moments, mere spots in time, transcend time itself. They are: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", "The Girls of Slender Means", "The Mandelbaum Gate", "The Driver's Seat" and "Memento Mori".
"The Driver's Seat" was made into a film, starring Elizabeth Taylor. It marks the return to more conventional techniques and familiar themes. The time-structure in this novel in no way resembles that of the preceding novels. Experimentation with chronology is here abandoned. The time-pattern in this novel is one of normal clock progression, frequent interventions on the part of the author giving us glimpses into the future. The story concerns a voyage, an interval between two spots in time when the protagonist, an over-tired, overworked, depressed office-worker leaves the world of her everyday existence in search of change and rest - or so it seems at first. To all appearances, she is going away on holiday. She buys going-away clothes (these are deliberately gaudy and stain-resistant), carefully packs a suitcase, takes a plane, reserves a room in a hotel, goes shopping. What we discover only later is not only that she has undertaken the last journey of her life, but that she is actively seeking her killer, someone who will do the deed she does not dare to do herself (suicide with a difference); someone whom she will immediately recognize through some strange use of a sixth sense.
With this bizarre situation, Muriel Spark has returned to a theme which was introduced in earlier novels, the opposing of free-will and predestination. Two worlds are examined: the world of hard fact and reality of modern times when spiritual values are smothered and crushed under the weight of growing materialism; and the world of intuition, chance, and coincidence where Fate is ironic and cruel. Muriel Spark's keen sense of tragedy once again reveals itself.
About Linette Bruno
Born Linette Alfreda ARTHURTON on the British Caribbean island of Montserrat,Linette Bruno now lives in the French island of Martinique.
After setting out on a career as an International Civil Servant working with Unesco in Paris and the United Nations in New York, Linette followed her husband to Martinique where she has taught English for several years. She raised a family, and has a daughter, who is a pharmacist and a son, who is a lawyer. She has four grand-children.
As a teacher of English, holder of a Masters Degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris, Linette Bruno has taught English in the French island of Martinique for several years. Captivated by Muriel Spark's lively wit, and her skill in combining complicated narrative technique with richness of theme, she has undertaken to produce this work.A BBC news article which appeared at the time of Dame Muriel Spark's death described her as "one of the liveliest and most original literary talents to be discovered in Britain since the end of Word War II".Like the famous Jacques in Shakespeare's "As You Like It", Muriel Spark seems to see:"All the world's a stage/And all the men and women merely players/They have their exits and their entrances/And one man in his time plays many parts/His acts being seven ages..." Old people become babes again. School-boys (or girls) grow into their prime. Lovers, lawyers, bachelors, spinsters all make their way across the stage in her fiction. Their performances, during the brief moment they remain on stage, are observed and cleverly depicted under her skilful pen for the enjoyment of her readers.Five novels, generally considered to be among her best, have been chosen to show how Muriel Spark manages to make those brief moments, mere spots in time, transcend time itself. They are: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", "The Girls of Slender Means", "The Mandelbaum Gate", "The Driver's Seat" and "Memento Mori".
Born Linette Alfreda ARTHURTON on the British Caribbean island of Montserrat,Linette Bruno now lives in the French island of Martinique.
After setting out on a career as an International Civil Servant working with Unesco in Paris and the United Nations in New York, Linette followed her husband to Martinique where she has taught English for several years. She raised a family, and has a daughter, who is a pharmacist and a son, who is a lawyer. She has four grand-children.