The Girls of Slender Means

Product Description ''Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions . . . '' Thus begins 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 building 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. But the novel's harrowing ending reveals that the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations are hiding some tragically painful war wounds. Review ''One of this century's finest creators of comic-metaphysical entertainment.'' -- New York Times ''Muriel Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards, decisive as a smashed glass is decisive.'' -- John Updike, New Yorker ''Spark, as usual, has perfectly plotted and peopled this giddy world of postwar delirium and girls' dormitory life.'' -- Library Journal ''Muriel Spark's gift for characters and dialogue make this little book both satirical and compassionate in its vision . . . Entertaining and illuminating reading.'' --Sonja Larson, 500 Great Books by Women About the Author MURIEL SPARK (1918-2006), was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is the author of over twenty novels as well as critical biographies, radio plays, children's books, poetry, and short-story collections. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1993 and Commendeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1996. Her many novels include Memento Mori, The Girls of Slender Means, A Far Cry From Kensington, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (adapted for film and theatre), Aiding And Abetting and her final novel, The Finishing School. She was elected C. Litt in 1992 and awarded the DBE in 1993. Dame Muriel received many awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the FNAC Prix Etranger, the Saltire Prize, the Ingersoll T. S. Eliot Award and the David Cohen British Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. From AudioFile In a London lodging club for single women, life after the blitz is a struggle, yet this novel opens like a 1945 version of chick-lit as residents trade gossip and ration coupons. Several of the eponymous girls are so slender they can slither through the gap in a lavatory window to sunbathe and cavort with boyfriends on the roof--but their hip measurements, and their climbing skills, will come to have more than passing significance. Listeners who appreciate MEMENTO MORI and THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE will enjoy this, with one proviso. The sheer number of young female characters challenges the narrator--the very fine Nadia May--who wisely chooses a straight read. The resulting recording is transparent and effective, but not particularly variable in tone or dynamic range. J.L.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine