A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark (1988)

Mrs. Hawkins, a formidable book editor, relates the private account of her early years in London.

Book Review: A Far Cry from Kensington is one of Muriel Spark's most autobiographical novels, but not in any way that makes it easier to pin down. Seemingly a satire about publishing, it includes numerous charming bits of valuable advice for both life and writing. If you read A Far Cry from Kensington near other people, you will certainly want to read these bits aloud to them. It mixes the serious with the comic with the tragic. There is hate and revenge. It's also a novel of literal transformation. As in Spark's previous novel Loitering with Intent, a young woman, here Mrs. Nancy Hawkins, comes to London to make her way in the world, and there learns much about writing, publishing, and the evil that lurks around corners. She is brave, bold, and not to be trifled with. Nancy, and Spark, use humor as a deadly weapon. A Far Cry from Kensington is the story of Nancy's (and Spark's) metamorphosis from a raw but courageous and talented girl to a triumphant woman of the world. All set in 1950s London. So good.  [4½★]

Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark (1981)

The journey of a young writer, finding much more than she expected.

Book Review: Loitering  with Intent is somewhat autobiographical, wise, and challenging. Muriel Spark combines the serious with the comic in a way that is difficult to unravel or decipher. She deals with weighty subjects in a deceptively and disarmingly light manner, and makes me feel I'm not clever enough to understand her. She is comically serious. Or vice versa. Our narrator in Loitering with Intent is Fleur Talbot, an aspiring novelist who goes to work for a small, eccentric literary journal. There she finds a labyrinth of plots, and despite the obstacles arrayed against her, states: "I was not any sort of victim; I was not constituted for the role." Fleur knows she is intelligent, strong, and capable, she who says "How wonderful it feels to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century," is willing to take on the whole world and has faith that she has a chance.

Spark, and Loitering with Intent, is inventive, intelligent, philosophical. The story's also about becoming a writer. She writes of the wonder of creation. At one point she has Fleur make her artistic statement and she's speaking for two: "Without a mythology, a novel is nothing. The true novelist, one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a myth-maker, and the wonder of the art resides in the endless different ways of telling a story, and the methods are mythological by nature."  [5★]

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James (1972)

Private detective Cordelia Gray embarks on her first case alone after the death of her partner.

Book Review: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman is the first of P.D. (Phyllis Dorothy) James' "Cordelia Gray" mysteries. Sadly, there were only two. For James fans her better known, but less interesting (don't trust me, I've only read his first book), detective, Chief Superintendent Dalgliesh makes a challenging cameo. Cordelia may be untried but she's no pushover, and is willing to take on both physical challenges and to test the limits of the law. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman is well plotted, compelling, and a cross between a cozy and a hard-boiled mystery (okay, maybe cozier than not, but still ...). The mystery is good, the writing excellent, continued reading was required. James is brilliant at throwing in some new twist, trick, or peril just when the reader begins to settle in comfortably. James also shares her wisdom and insight into people and life; the book is surprisingly and rewardingly philosophical. Rather than the cliche that we must understand the past to understand the present, James states that "we interpret the past through our knowledge of the present." Beyond that, I also saw a certain joy and freedom in James' writing, at finally being able to write from the perspective of her lead character as a woman. Reminded me a bit of Robert Galbraith's The Cuckoo's Calling. One quibble: Ms. Gray quickly deciphers a clue that I could not have solved in a year. Or ten. I very much relished An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Now off to find Cordelia Gray's second (and final?) adventure, The Skull Beneath the Skin. [4★]

Three Early Stories by J.D. Salinger (2014)

Three stories from when J.D. Salinger was not yet J.D. Salinger, first published in 1940 and 1944.

Book Review: Three Early Stories is an oddity of a book, but an interesting one that seems to have gone largely under the radar. The stories were written before Salinger's participation in the war and before be'd been published in The New Yorker. They seem to predate the appearance of the Glass family in his writing. As such they don't quite belong in the canon, but are valuable nonetheless as I want to read everything Salinger wrote and these are well worth reading for the hints of Salinger yet to come. The Three Early Stories are good, if small, stories in that distinctive Salinger voice. They're almost simply character studies, or even just character glimpses. Strongly reminiscent of Fitzgerald, there's a sketch of a dissatisfied but uncertain Manhattanite party girl, an independent young woman who's part of the changing times, and a young man going off to war, hit hard by what he's leaving behind. A very short book, as these are very short pieces. Mandatory for the Salinger fan or completist, not so much for anyone else.  [3½★]

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour an Introduction by J.D. Salinger (1963)

Two novellas continuing the story of the Glass family, focusing on the eldest child, both told by the second son, Buddy.

Book Review: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour an Introduction are perhaps the least accessible of J.D. Salinger's work. Raise High (about Seymour's wedding day) is my least favorite story, trying for the charm and wit of his other work, but not quite getting there. Seymour lacks  charm, much humor, and plot, but has infinite information about Salinger himself. His penultimate published work shows Salinger sinking under the weight of the Glass family into his own imaginary world where he knew that family better than he knew his own. In earlier stories, in his desire to be published in The New Yorker, Salinger had been determined to entertain and enlighten. But by this point he was less interested in the reading public than in the interworkings of the fanciful Glass family. I'm surprised that The New Yorker stood so solidly by Salinger, publishing these stories (including his final work, the even more out there Hapworth 16, 1924), though for all I know his name on the cover boosted sales immeasurably.

The second novella, Seymour, is Salinger's most self-conscious work, letting the author virtually replace the narrator. Here he repeatedly enjoys commenting on his writing, alerting the reader that he's being verbose and will continue to be so, and then goes on to be wordy as hell. The novella tells the reader so much about Salinger himself, however, that it becomes a must-read for completists. Strangely, Salinger gives Buddy Glass (the narrator of both novellas) credit for writing The Catcher in the Rye and at least three of Salinger's short stories. Huh? We learn about Salinger's interest in haiku and Asian poetry. We're introduced to the character of Curtis Caulfield. And more. Others may find these two not his best, but as a window into Salinger's world, they're essential.  [4★]

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (1961)

A story about Franny Glass and a novella about her older brother, Zooey.

Book Review: Franny and Zooey is two parts of what J.D. Salinger envisioned as a complex web of stories about the seven precocious Glass siblings, who had difficulty accepting a superficial world and believed there was something more to life than what was apparent. Salinger writes with his usual distinctive voice and a keen awareness of the telling detail: he doesn't layer the specifics, but those he selects speak loudly. The usual preoccupations are here, an obsession with childhood innocence, disappointment with the adulthood that follows.

The short story "Franny" is about the youngest Glass child, now attending college, frustrated by life and having difficulty facing the grown-up choices before her. She is slowly falling apart, as a psychological storm roils beneath the surface of a lunch with her boyfriend. She has turned to religion (as embodied in The Way of a Pilgrim, an actual book) as one way to deal. Zooey follows chronologically from "Franny," the sister now home with her mother and brother after the lunch, and still sinking into a mental breakdown. We see Zooey and their mother talking bluntly (an understatement) about his issues, and then Zooey and Franny talking about more issues. Much of the story seems intended to fill in the background of the Glass family. I much preferred "Franny" to Zooey, more immediate, more compelling and focused. But both were good (and in both stories the characters smoke like fiends), and any Salinger fan interested in the Glass family must read them.  [4★]

Conversations on Writing by Ursula K. Le Guin (2018)

Three interviews with the noted writer.

Book Review: Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing is a fine book with one big problem: there's not enough distance between the covers. This is more a starter, an appetizer, a teaser to get you interested in the noted science fiction writer, who was more than science fiction. Conversations on Writing is a transcription of three interviews Le Guin did with David Naimon on KBOO radio in Portland, Oregon. Each interview focused on a different topic: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction. An added benefit (and to make the book longer) is that excerpts from various works cited are included. In her introduction Le Guin says what she really likes to do in interviews is "talk shop." I respectfully disagree. What she likes to talk about is ideas, about anything, all kinds of ideas. It's refreshing and energizing to listen to someone with an open, questing mind, discussing a wide range of topics. She has a mind like a pinball machine. For example, as a writing instructor, she suggests two of my favorite techniques: (1) as an exercise, write excluding all adjectives and adverbs; (2) another exercise is to take a written piece and make it half as long. Le Guin once wrote that she saw her stories "as an exploration, a voyage of discovery resulting in something I didn't know before I wrote it." For that, you need to read more of Le Guin and there's just not enough here. This is an engaging and enriching book, but won't change your life. Let's hope everyone who reads Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing will go on to read at least two more of her books, in any genre.  [3★]