The Girls of Slender Means
Ratings5
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings5
Average rating3.6
"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions," begins The Girls of Slender Means, Dame Muriel Spark's tragic and rapier-witted portrait of a London ladies' hostel just emerging from the shadow of World War II. Like the May of Teck Club itself—"three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit"—its lady inhabitants do their best to act as if the world were back to normal: practicing elocution, and jostling over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown. The novel's harrowing ending reveals that the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations are hiding some tragically painful war wounds. Chosen by Anthony Burgess as one of the Best Modern Novels in the Sunday Times of London, The Girls of Slender Means is a taut and eerily perfect novel by an author The New York Times has called "one of this century's finest creators of comic-metaphysical entertainment."
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Picked this up somewhat randomly at the university library while looking for other things. The play on the title is clever, and there were some excellent passages, some particularly moving near the end. But as usual there is something about Muriel Spark that pushes against me somehow, something that makes her a bit difficult to read, but I guess I‰ЫЄll have to read more of her books to figure out what it is.
I listened to this on audio and I think I have to find a physical copy and read it because Spark's writing is just so very clever (she really is a wizard with words) and I'm not sure the brilliance of this tale translated as well just listening to it. It's still a stunner, the ending is still a shocker. I did not love it as much as I loved [b:The Driver's Seat 668282 The Driver's Seat Muriel Spark https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348828782l/668282.SY75.jpg 2776383] but that could be because it was the first book of Spark's I read or it could be because I actually read it (as opposed to listening to it).
