Long Island, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and A Tidy Ending

 

We first met Eilis in Colm Toibin's "Brooklyn" (see my review). Now she is long gone from Ireland, married into a big family and with two teenage children. But it's when she discovers her husband Tony has fathered another child, and the mother's husband is determined to leave it with Eilish that she high tails it back to her homeland. Here she finds Jim who she almost married before going off to New York. He now own a prosperous pub.

But Jim has a secret relationship with Nancy who runs a fish and chip shop, and they are planning to marry once her daughter has tied the knot. Of course Eilis' feelings for Jim are resurrected, especially as her American husband has spoilt their marriage. And Jim is even more infatuated. So we have the classic torn between two lovers situation. How the novel is resolved involves a point in the plot that is almost too spurious. But the surprising ending was OK. Just. It leaves it open for a third book in a trilogy.

I have always been a big fan of Muriel Spark having read sixteen of her novels. I had somehow managed to avoid what is, perhaps, her most famous book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I guess the film with Maggie Smith was too familiar. I may be in the minority, but I felt this was the least worthy of any of her books.

We are introduced to the five girls who, at their posh Edinburgh school (The Marcia Blaine School for Girls) make up the Brodie Set. Only now that they have reached sixteen, they have long ago lost Brodie as their teacher. She now teaches a a younger class but keeps up with those of her years ago set when they were ten. But in those days they did not have formal lessons, only listening to a string of anecdotes. (I sort of remember a teacher who we could sidetrack from the curriculum).

Back in 1931, Sandy and Jenny at ten are best friends, have great fun discussing their teachers and cannot stop laughing. They have Jean Brodie spelling out her ideas about their education. "Art is greater than science. Art comes first and then science". In their last year with Miss Brodie, they will not be "taught" anything, just things about her experiences. The head is not impressed. She wants Brodie out, wanting her to apply for a post at a more progressive school.

Later on there are some vague parts about Jean's affairs, but more and more I became exasperated by the idiosyncratic prose, and how "prime" is repeated time and time again. The book is said to be "sublimely funny", but I just found it boring. We have glimpses of the future lives of the girls, but I wanted more. There is also the introduction of a new girl very late on. She's from a rich family and has been removed from many schools. She sounded interesting and I wanted more than the odd paragraph.

This was a disappointing story after having enjoyed two other novels by this author. A kind of murder mystery narrated by Linda near to who's house the bodies are found. You are pretty sure that Linda is one of those unreliable narrators, there is definitely something strange about her. When there are only two other people in her train carriage, why do they move away?

Linda tells us of events in her younger life, and then more recent times including her marriage to Terry. I say recent, but the story is punctuated by very short sections entitled NOW. She seems to be in some sort of care home. But we never know why. In that earlier time, Linda seems obsessed with a woman who seems to have lived in the house before her, Rebecca Finch, and who she finally tracks down. From here, the book becomes more and more strange, as with Linda's spending out of control and her relationship with Rebecca taking a ridiculous turn, we wonder what is happening. Until we reach that totally bonkers conclusion.