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Publisher's Weekly
Spark's enchanting memoir flickers with the tart judgments, gimlet wit, bizarre episodes and odd twists of fate that distinguish her fiction. Born in 1918 to a Scottish Jewish engineer father and an English Presbyterian mother full of superstitions and presentiments, she ended her fairly idyllic Edinburgh girlhood by marrying, at age 19, a teacher 13 years her senior. She followed him to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but he turned out to be unstable, given to violent fits and fond of shooting the revolver he always carried. Divorcing him, she returned to England with her son and took a job working with German POWs to wage psychological warfare against the Nazis by releasing false news stories about German opposition to Hitler. Spark settles literary scores in this memoir, which ends in 1957 with the publication of her first novel, The Comforters . She also paints a dynamic picture of Christina Kay, the exuberant schoolteacher who was the prototype for the protagonist of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Photos.
Library Journal
The lackluster title of this autobiography may illustrate the author's talent for understatement, but it does not do justice to the book's lively and interesting contents. Scottish writer Spark ( The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ) is a novelist who considers herself ''predominantly a poet.'' Always a good listener and observer of people, she is aware that life has to be lived before one can write about it. She describes her school days and family life in 1930s Edinburgh; disastrous marriage and divorce; life in Southern Rhodesia in the prewar years; intelligence work for the British Foreign Office in London during World War II; and turning points in her literary career. In the process, she sets the record straight regarding her stormy tenure as general secretary of the Poetry Society in London and her disputes with lovers and critics. After much economic hardship, success finally came in the late 1950s. The author's dry wit and skill in description make this book a pleasure to read. Recommended for most literature collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/92.-- Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib., Ohio
BookList - Brad Hooper
There are some novelists' autobiographies that transcend--no, soar above--the familiar level of the genre to become classic pieces of literature in their own right, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in terms of quality and resonance with the author's fictional output. Christopher Isherwood's "Christopher and His Kind" (1976) and Gertrude Stein's "Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933) come to mind. Now add to that list this memoir by the author of such highly regarded novels as "Memento Mori" (1959) and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1961). In looking back over "the first thirty-nine years of my life," Spark exercises perfect word choice, offers telling scenes, and reveals much of the real-life grist that was to eventually emerge from her fictional mill. It's difficult to say which of the chapters have most appeal--the one dealing with her Edinburgh childhood, daughter of an Englishwoman and a Scots-Jewish father; with her schooling (where we meet the delicious Miss Christina Kay, the teacher upon whom the character of Miss Jean Brodie was based); with Spark's marriage at an early age and her early married life in Africa; or with her editorial career in London after the breakup of her marriage and the initial stages of her own success as a writer. Actually, it's needless to attempt to single out any portion of this splendid book. The whole thing is sheer pleasure.
Spark's enchanting memoir flickers with the tart judgments, gimlet wit, bizarre episodes and odd twists of fate that distinguish her fiction. Born in 1918 to a Scottish Jewish engineer father and an English Presbyterian mother full of superstitions and presentiments, she ended her fairly idyllic Edinburgh girlhood by marrying, at age 19, a teacher 13 years her senior. She followed him to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but he turned out to be unstable, given to violent fits and fond of shooting the revolver he always carried. Divorcing him, she returned to England with her son and took a job working with German POWs to wage psychological warfare against the Nazis by releasing false news stories about German opposition to Hitler. Spark settles literary scores in this memoir, which ends in 1957 with the publication of her first novel, The Comforters . She also paints a dynamic picture of Christina Kay, the exuberant schoolteacher who was the prototype for the protagonist of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Photos.
Library Journal
The lackluster title of this autobiography may illustrate the author's talent for understatement, but it does not do justice to the book's lively and interesting contents. Scottish writer Spark ( The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ) is a novelist who considers herself ''predominantly a poet.'' Always a good listener and observer of people, she is aware that life has to be lived before one can write about it. She describes her school days and family life in 1930s Edinburgh; disastrous marriage and divorce; life in Southern Rhodesia in the prewar years; intelligence work for the British Foreign Office in London during World War II; and turning points in her literary career. In the process, she sets the record straight regarding her stormy tenure as general secretary of the Poetry Society in London and her disputes with lovers and critics. After much economic hardship, success finally came in the late 1950s. The author's dry wit and skill in description make this book a pleasure to read. Recommended for most literature collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/92.-- Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib., Ohio
BookList - Brad Hooper
There are some novelists' autobiographies that transcend--no, soar above--the familiar level of the genre to become classic pieces of literature in their own right, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in terms of quality and resonance with the author's fictional output. Christopher Isherwood's "Christopher and His Kind" (1976) and Gertrude Stein's "Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933) come to mind. Now add to that list this memoir by the author of such highly regarded novels as "Memento Mori" (1959) and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1961). In looking back over "the first thirty-nine years of my life," Spark exercises perfect word choice, offers telling scenes, and reveals much of the real-life grist that was to eventually emerge from her fictional mill. It's difficult to say which of the chapters have most appeal--the one dealing with her Edinburgh childhood, daughter of an Englishwoman and a Scots-Jewish father; with her schooling (where we meet the delicious Miss Christina Kay, the teacher upon whom the character of Miss Jean Brodie was based); with Spark's marriage at an early age and her early married life in Africa; or with her editorial career in London after the breakup of her marriage and the initial stages of her own success as a writer. Actually, it's needless to attempt to single out any portion of this splendid book. The whole thing is sheer pleasure.
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