Pamela Norris
Writers’ War
MURIEL SPARK STARTED her writing life as a poet and literary biographer, and was only reluctantly persuaded to try her hand at fiction. As she describes in her autobiography, Curriculum Vitae, she had first ‘to work out a novel-writing process peculiar to [herself]’, a method that would take into account her belief that a good novel was ‘essentially an extension of poetry’. In her first novel, The Comforters, she tackled the problem of fiction head on, exploring the relationship between a writer and her characters through the dilemma of Caroline Rose, a young woman haunted by the tapping of typewriter keys. The Comforters, published in 1957, was an immediate success, introducing Spark as a dazzlingly original and entertaining writer. It also established the parameters within which she was to develop her unique vision of the world in a stream of novels and short stories: the interplay between good and evil, often worked out w i t h the confines of a small community; the possibility of mental or emotional breakdown for one or more of the characters; a suggestion of menace, which keeps the reader in agreeable suspense; and an authorial voice which is typically prescient, sceptical and ironic. Spark’s novels are generally rather short, composed of telling detail, pared-down dialogue, and startling events which hold the reader’s attention from the very first page. The economy and elegance of this approach have won her a well-deserved reputation as a stylist, but, as she explained in a recent interview, her primary aim is ‘to give pleasure and experience . . . to open windows and doors’ for the reader.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Thrillers by @sophiehannahCB1, @ccmacdwriter, Rebecca Wait, @deborah_masson, @helensedgwick, Chris Hammer, @stephycha, @McCrumMark, @LesleyKara and @BarryForshaw3.
PLUS, @NJCooper_crime picks her favourite crime novels of 2019.
http://ow.ly/YjiP50xrsnl
@zevin_a 'has produced a lively account of the many disagreements (often fierce) that lay, and lie, behind the seemingly confident assertions that appear in print.'
@williamkeegan on the secrets of 'The Economist'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/gunboat-journalism
We're delighted to be partnering the @royalacademy to offer one winner a year's free subscription to Literary Review and a year's RA Friends membership.
Enter by clicking the link below. You have until midday on 18th December - good luck!
http://ow.ly/XYXK50xrsRX