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Memento Mori

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 1,135 ratings · 147 reviews

In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly
friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone informs each, "Remember
you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by
these seemingly supernatural phone calls, and in the resulting flurry
many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of
their lives, unsavories like bla...more

Paperback, 228 pages

Published June 17th 2000 by New Directions (first published 1959)

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Jul 21, 2010 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Leslie by: John Richardson

Shelves: fiction, ooh-fantastical, read-in-2010

This is a very talky book, mostly set in drawing rooms and hospital wards. It follows a high-society geriatric set and their servants and lovers past and present. The high-society old folks have been prone to intrigues; most are long past and poorly buried (the intrigues, not the old folks). These folks are haunted, paranoid and fearing exposure. The servants and lovers wield power to blackmail and worm their way into some high-society wills. In my opinion, the stage show is most thrilling when...more This is a very talky book, mostly set in drawing rooms and hospital wards. It follows a high-society geriatric set and their servants and lovers past and present. The high-society old folks have been prone to intrigues; most are long past and poorly buried (the intrigues, not the old folks). These folks are haunted, paranoid and fearing exposure. The servants and lovers wield power to blackmail and worm their way into some high-society wills. In my opinion, the stage show is most thrilling when we’re with the granny posse of the Maud Long Ward where astrology and deathwatches win through! I am also quite fond of Alec, a social scientist whose main research is to shock the members of his cohort and then chart their respective heart rates.

As the tale progresses, more and more characters receive unsettling telephone calls. A disembodied voice reminds the listener: remember, you must die; this is the message word-for-word, but each listener describes a distinct voice (e.g., young and civilized vs elderly and sinister and so on). Reactions vary greatly as well, from abject fear to absolute calm. With or without the calls, the listeners are preoccupied with their own mortality (and everyone else’s too). Everyone reads the obituaries; everyone speculates who will predecease whom; everyone rewrites their will on a whim. The book jacket copy frames these phone call phenomena as the crux of the plot. If you’re in search of a good mystery, search elsewhere. With its aged cast, it could have been a strange and captivating mystery (think of the twists and problems posed by senility, infirmity, crotchety attitudes, abrupt natural deaths, etc!). One character, for instance, believes he can't say if he's the culprit behind the calls; he just might be senile with a Mr. Hyde side. This is barely developed and it's a shame. At the foreground of the tale is the interpersonal drama, at the background: the phone calls.

This is my third Muriel Spark book and it certainly bears her refreshing/cynical mark. Her mark is a tooth mark, I think. I was hoping for something spookier, but this has more to do with my expectations upon reading the book jacket and less to do with the quality of this book.
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Apr 05, 2009 Melinda rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book as a sort of celebration of my 40th birthday. It's dark, twisted, and infused with the inevitability of degeneration and demise-- and I laughed my ass off. There's also an intrieguing cameo by the Almighty, which just took the whole thing to an unexpected level. Loved it.

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Mar 16, 2013 B. Morrison rated it 3 of 5 stars

Who knew a book about a group of elderly people contemplating death could be so funny? Dame Lettie Colston is the first to start receiving the phone calls from a mysterious stranger who says, “Remember you must die.” She’s a managing sort of woman who spends a lot of time changing her will. She suspects her nephew of making the calls to get his inheritance quicker, so she cuts him out. Then she suspects the retired Inspector she’s hired to investigate the calls, so she cuts him out of her will t...more

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Jan 30, 2012 James W. Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars

“Remember you must die.” That is the message a gaggle of elderly and increasingly decrepit folks in England are getting. Who is calling? That’s the mystery, but, of course, the insightful reader will realize that we are ALL getting this same phone call, all the time, though few of us take the time to pick up the phone and ponder the implications.

Murial Spark is a wonderful writer with a sometimes macabre sense of humor. She is a strong and distinctive stylist. Her books are short and zippy, bre...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers of novels by English writers

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction, books-from-1959

Novel number three by Muriel Spark is just as odd and fitful as the first two. This time she takes on old age, though she was barely 40 when she wrote it. I can't say that reading Spark is pleasurable but it is never boring. She just comes out and has her characters do and say things that most of us would rather not admit to, though we all do and say such things ourselves. No one enjoys being made to look foolish but Spark almost makes the reader enjoy it.

Several elderly characters are receiving...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Mandy Jo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This week’s headline? quoth the raven…

Why this book? cleansing the palette

Which book format? awesome used copy

Primary reading environment? absent-minded free time

Any preconceived notions? she was prolific

Identify most with? Charmian (pronounced Kar-mee-un)

Three little words? “intimations of immortality”

Goes well with? oirish breakfast tea

Here’s where I deviate from the prescribed English major path.

I know there are people who study Muriel Spark. The Editors’ Preface to this edition of the book i...more

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May 08, 2011 Paola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa

E ricordiamocelo una volta ogni tanto che dobbiam morire.
Memento mori, ricordati che la vita finisce prima, o poi, o durante, e comunque, e anche se, forse o magari, domani o dopodomani, di sera o di mattina, estate o inverno, che dormi o sei sveglio, incazzato nero o seduto sul cesso. Che tu sia Onassis, media borghesia, barbone, intelligente, genio o demente.
Che presto o tardi é il nostro turno.
C'é chi carpe diem, diamoci dentro, cogliamo l'attimo e non facciamo tante menate. C'é chi si ferma,...more

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Mar 24, 2011 William rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20-ce, uk, fiction

A circle of elderly people in 1950s London are regularly phoned by a stranger who says only 'Remember you must die' before hanging up. There is Charmian, whose popular novels are undergoing a resurgence of public interest. There is her husband, Godfrey Colston, the brewery magnate, now retired, whose adulteries never seem to go further than a fugitive glimpse of certain ladies' stockings and garter clip. There is Percy Mannering, the slobbering old poet and grandfather of 23 year old Olive Manne...more

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Sep 05, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, british-classic

What is better than "discovering" an author who makes you want to run out an buy everything they've ever written? How did I go so long without reading the dark, dry wit and clever pacing and plotting of Ms. Spark? The scene is post war London, the characters are almost entirely between the ages of 70 and 100 in various states of physical and mental health, and the plot is around anonymous phone calls telling them "Remember you must die." What starts off almost as a mystery (who is making these c...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Cera rated it 3 of 5 stars

A black comedy about old age and the inevitability of death, with very few characters under 70. I give it high marks both for tackling such an unusual and challenging topic head on, and for doing so utterly unselfconsciously; this is not an issue book, not a Serious Attempt to talk about old people, but instead comedy in the true sense, a book that stimulates fears only to laugh at them, and that satirises social problems without offering solutions.

That being said... I didn't really enjoy readi...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars

If I wanted to miss the point (and maybe I do), I'd say that this book donned its mystery cap, then felt it was inappropriate to the occasion and haphazardly removed it.

If I didn't want to miss the point, I'd say that it becomes fairly evident fairly quickly that this isn't a mystery.

So what is it? Well, the title says it all, my friend. What is also is (for me, at least) is a rather plodding, occasionally boring piece of work that devotes too many loving descriptions to teatime and gazing out...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Proustitute rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-and-irish-literature, new-directions, 2012

A group of septuagenarians in late-1950s Britain are receiving upsetting phone calls: a man keeps harassing them, simply stating, "Remember, you must die." In Spark's hands, what would be a vehicle or device for a crime/thriller in the hands of someone like Agatha Christie instead becomes a tour de force of social commentary.

Like Christie, Spark uses social banter to explore and criticize social issues; in Memento Mori, Spark brings postbellum anxieties about class, gender, and death to bear on...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Seamus Thompson rated it 4 of 5 stars

An unusual book -- all the main characters are in their 70s or 80s and most of them receive an unusual (for its truthfulness) prank phone call: "Remember you must die." The set-up sounds like it has the makings of a murder mystery but it is nothing of the kind. Instead, it is a closely observed comedy of manners and a pretty funny one at that. I enjoyed this a lot, which is saying something since I started it directly after Jane Bowles' Two Serious Ladies and most books would have suffered by co...more

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May 15, 2012 Sara Dyck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-s, fict-s

An anonymous caller keeps leaving messages for the elderly – “Remember you must die.” Spark’s characters are dealing with the detritus of their long lives, decline, and death – the Grannies in the “Medical Ward,” Charmian and Godfrey at home, and their old friends, lovers, adversaries. The most pleasant character? Jean Taylor, and to some exent the Grannies.

None of them take the message as a warning or reminder to a better, more thoughtful, or more spiritual life – instead they carry on much as...more

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Jul 08, 2009 Eileen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: britlit

Muriel Spark continues underrated, at least in the US. Books with main characters all over the age of 70 should not be startling, but are: we could talk about western culture's idealization of youth. Spark uses descriptions of physical infirmity as part of her characterizations. One thing I liked was the use of dialect during a deathbed progression in the sick ward: for once, this actually evokes a specific tone of voice to create a real picture. There's a small element of the supernatural in th...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Blaire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-classic

I hovered between a 3 and a 4 on this one. I think the book was way ahead of its time when it was written and taken in that context probably deserves a 5. It doesn't really seem dated now, except for a detail or two about the physical environment. It is darkly funny, but I can't say I really warmed to any of the characters. They all seemed unpleasant in one way or another, and that's probably why I haven't given it higher marks. It's a claustrophobic little world that they inhabit. They've all k...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Elaine rated it 4 of 5 stars

It is quite a feat to write an engaging tale when almost all the characters are octogenarians-- with some having reached that milestone two decades before. But though this book is about impending death -- as the title implies -- Spark fills it with a full gamut of experience (some recalled, some lived) and emotions. It is bursting with life -- past lives and current complications . Some of the best scenes are written in the ward of a public nursing home, where all the residents are referred to b...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

An odd story written in 1958 whose premise is anonymous phone calls received by numerous senior citizens in post WWII. The caller whose voice appears different to each character has only one thing to say. "Remember you must die".
lots of drawing room talk and conversations with characters in nursing homes. While there were some humorous elements much if the plot just fizzled out. the identity of the caller was never established and most of the characters died more or less of natural causes by the...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Julie Davis added it

Shelves: 2013-list

The premise of this book intrigued me although my one encounter with Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brody) left me under-whelmed. Mysterious, anonymous phone calls are received by various elderly people with the simple message, "Remember, you will die." (Well, look at the name of the book ... that's the message overall I imagine.)

Thus far we have met a gaggle of elderly in various stages of decrepitude, in a nursing home, having had a stroke and being cared for by one's husband and hired c...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Mariano Hortal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, genre-comedy, genre-noir-hardboiled-detective

Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/el-asiento-...

Los años cincuenta en Gran Bretaña supusieron un cambio radical a la situación establecida anteriormente, era la post-guerra; y, a pesar de que se encontraban entre los ganadores del conflicto bélico, también eran cada vez más conscientes de que la posición de dominancia que pudieron tener en el pasado había cambiado; los actores eran otros y esto se reflejó, como no podía ser de otra manera, en las obras literarias.
Muchos de los escritores de...more Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/el-asiento-...

Los años cincuenta en Gran Bretaña supusieron un cambio radical a la situación establecida anteriormente, era la post-guerra; y, a pesar de que se encontraban entre los ganadores del conflicto bélico, también eran cada vez más conscientes de que la posición de dominancia que pudieron tener en el pasado había cambiado; los actores eran otros y esto se reflejó, como no podía ser de otra manera, en las obras literarias.
Muchos de los escritores de la época mostraron en sus ficciones el anhelo por los tiempos pasados, auge y caída de un imperio; “Retorno a Brideshead” de Evelyn Waugh es un epítome del momento; lo malo es que la mayoría de autores tomaría este camino entrando en una monotonía que romperían con su creatividad y originalidad, escritores de la talla de William Golding y Muriel Spark, de la que hablaré a continuación.
Muriel Spark (1918-2006) estaba, sin embargo, más interesada en los límites más borrosos de las ambigüedades humanas; en ocuparse de las paradojas relativas a la libertad de cada individuo usando para ello la forma, más bien corrosiva, de la “comedia negra”; por citar alguna de sus obras maestras: “Memento Mori” (1959), “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (“La plenitud de Miss Brodie”)(1961), “The Driver’s Seat”(“El asiento del conductor”) (1970) y “A Far Cry from Kensington”(“Muy lejos de Kensington”) (1988).
En el prólogo a la imprescindible “El asiento del conductor”, Eduardo Lago comenta con respecto a sus obras: “En sus novelas nos encontramos con elementos ciertamente insólitos, narradores de ultratumba, miembros de la cámara de los Lores incapaces de perpetrar un parricidio a derechas, abuelas contrabandistas que ocultan un alijo de diamantes en la miga de pan…”; y cómo es el mundo que nos pinta Muriel Spark: “Estamos en un mundo en el que nada es lo que parece, un mundo muchas veces violento, en el que lo cómico convive con lo macabro y en el que el mal y la muerte nunca están muy lejos.”
Estos comentarios se aplican de manera consistente a esta pequeña pero intensa obra, donde se producen prolepsis continuas de un narrador omnisciente: “Mañana por la mañana la encontrarán muerta de múltiples heridas de arma blanca, las muñecas atadas con un pañuelo de seda y los tobillos sujetos con una corbata de hombre, en los terrenos de una villa deshabitada, en un parque de la ciudad extranjera donde la conduce el vuelo en el que embarca ahora mismo por la puerta 14”.
La obra es ciertamente desasosegante, se caracteriza por una inevitabilidad a la que nos vemos abocados sin poder hacer nada más que estremecernos, realiza una deconstrucción de la novela policíaca, se sabe el final ya, se anticipa por varios comentarios, importará más el cómo se llega a ello. Subvertir las reglas del género, esta es la Spark audaz, diferente, creadora de historias diferentes de lo reinante.
En contraste, en “Memento mori”, todo comienza con una llamada telefónica a Lettie Colston, una frase que servirá de hilo conductor: “Recuerde que debe morir”. Los protagonistas, octogenarios y septuagenarios, con sus vidas al límite y una amenaza de fondo; hay algo de relato policíaco pero nuevamente cambiando las reglas, los puntos de vista se suceden, caracterizando inefablemente cada uno de los personajes de la obra, hay humor, desde luego, pero es negro, irónico.
La amenaza de esta muerte futura les hace replantearse su vida, en boca de Henry Mortimer, el detective crepuscular: “-Si pudiese volver a vivir mi vida, me crearía el hábito de prepararme mentalmente todas las noches ante la idea de la muerte. Por así decirlo, prepararía la rememoración de la muerte. Es la práctica que más intensidad le da a la vida. La proximidad de la muerte no debería tomarnos por sorpresa. Debería ser parte de la expectativa total de la vida. Sin un sentido constante de la presencia de la muerte, la vida es desabrida. Sería lo mismo que vivir alimentándose con clara de huevo.”
Esta impresionante escritora buscaba removernos en nuestras entrañas, innovar, construir al mismo tiempo; es más que necesario no olvidar que la tenemos disponible, para disfrutar cada día de toda su obra, una obra, en mi opinión, imprescindible.(less)

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May 10, 2012 Anbolyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Spark because she makes fun of things that we’re not supposed to make fun of. In this novel it is death and mortality. The serious subject of this book would never lead you to believe that it is hilariously funny. Spark’s subtle, sneaky, deadly humor is a wicked treat. It is not the kind of humor that had me howling, but I did smirk and snort quite a few times.
Spark’s characters, though nearing the end of their earthly lives, like to think about death about as much as the rest of us do. T...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Sheryl Sorrentino rated it 3 of 5 stars

Always amazes me when I can agree with both the five star and two star reviews. I liked this book for its tone and what one reviewer labeled the "economy" of Spark's writing. As a matter of craft, she is probably a genious for so seamlessly weaving so many quirky characters and sublots through such a cohesive, cleverly-written vehicle. For that talent alone, she deserves five stars.

But the story itself fell just a bit flat for me. I didn't especially care about any of the characters; I found the...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Tori.T marked it as to-read

Quote that intrigued Dani aka Magnet guy

"But you're different. You're more perfect. Time is three things for most people, but for you, for us, just one. A singularity. One moment. This moment. Like you're the center of the clock, the axis on which the hands turn. Time moves about you but never moves you. It has lost its ability to affect you. What is it they say? That time is theft? But not for you. Close your eyes and you can start all over again. Conjure up that necessary emotion, fresh as ros...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Kathleen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Muriel Spark, like Death itself, spares no one. This book is savagely funny and sometimes compassionate in its unsparing look at a group of interconnected people who are mainly in their 70s and 80s and nonetheless immature, still nursing grudges decades old, conspiring against each other and comparing their relative degrees of decrepitude. The book's rapidly shifting perspectives make the reader constantly re-evaluate what's already been learned about who is losing it and who, as one character p...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Marc L rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-literature

Spark is bij mijn weten de eerste die radicaal inzoemt op de "derde leeftijd", de hoofdrolspelers zijn allemaal plus-zeventigers. We krijgen een erg humoristisch en sarcastisch beeld van oudjes die vooral bezig zijn met het toedekken van hun verleden, met het aan zich binden van (jongere) mensen via hun testament (dat ze dus voortdurend wijzigen) en met het contstant beloeren van hun lotgenoten. Het beeld wordt op de duur wel erg wrang en meelijwekkend, zeker naarmate de onrust over de voortdure...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Sharp and funny and compassionate and just what the title says. The characters are great and the dialogue and interactions are so true.

One of the best parts of the book:

"You know, Taylor," said Dame Lettie, "I do not feel I can continue to visit you. These creatures are too disturbing, and now that I am not getting my proper sleep my nerves are not up to these decrepit women here. One wonders, really, what is the purpose of keeping them alive at the country's expense."

"For my part," said Miss T

...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Libby rated it 5 of 5 stars

As usual, I'm impressed by Muriel Spark. She has an amazing way of taking dark subject matter and making it highly readable and even humorous at times. How do you make the aged and dying entertaining, intriguing, relate-able, and still keep the reader on edge, fearing that something will go horribly wrong at any moment? Not an easy task.

I offer one scene in particular as proof that Spark's talent borders on brilliant. The scene where Charmian makes tea for herself. Charmian is quite old and suff...more

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May 12, 2007 Preeta rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who find old age hilarious

Like Kingsley Amis's Ending Up -- depressing, hilarious, a little creepy, but cleverly so.

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Mar 26, 2007 Lauren Hills rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who use a riding lawnmower on all twelve square feet of their front lawn

What I learned? Never listen to a book recommendation from a math teacher.

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Jan 15, 2010 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was a pleasant and clever little character study. It portrays various characters, their relationships, and their own attitudes toward and dealing with death.

It is a testament to Spark's writing that while very little happened, I kept reading it. Since I have the attention span of a duck or possibly a frog, I surprisingly did not get bored.

I really thought this book was a mystery novel, and in a way it way, but no one solved the case because, in the end, there really was no mystery to...more

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About Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark (1918–2006) was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), considered her...more

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Books by Muriel Spark

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means, The Driver's Seat, The Only Problem (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics)

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“It is difficult for people of advanced years to start remembering they must die. It is best to form the habit while young.” — 13 people liked it

“Final perseverance is the doctrine that wins the eternal victory in small things as in great” — 6 people liked it

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