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Memento Mori. Muriel Spark
Unforgettably astounding and a joy to read, Memento Mori is considered by many tobe the greatest novel by the wizardly Dame Muriel Spark. 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 sup...more
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by Virago Press (UK)
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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
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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.
“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...more
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...more
Judy
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
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 character...more
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.
...more
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.
...more
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'...more
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'...more
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
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...more
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 real...more
That being said... I didn't real...more
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 t...more
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 t...more
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 i...more
Like Kingsley Amis's Ending Up -- depressing, hilarious, a little creepy, but cleverly so.
Lauren Hills
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
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.
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 re...more
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 re...more
This book is really interesting and ahead of it's time. Written in the 1950's, every major character is in their 70's and portrayed in a much more intelligent way then one sees older characters portrayed in art. Each one is a multifaceted and interesting personality and like many of Spark's books, as you read it, each character changes several times from good to evil to somewhere in between.
My one difficulty was the ending, I didn't feel that everything was wrapped up successfully althou...more
My one difficulty was the ending, I didn't feel that everything was wrapped up successfully althou...more
I got this book after reading something by Gloria Steinem where she referenced the work in a discussion about aging. So as much as I wanted to like the book as Gloria did, I didn't find anything about it interesting or enjoyable.
This is an inane old-fashioned trying-to-be-funny look at aging. The scandalous interpersonal relations of this mostly elder group of English women that drives the novel are petty, hollow and uninteresting. It may have been a surprising scandalous novel in its...more
This is an inane old-fashioned trying-to-be-funny look at aging. The scandalous interpersonal relations of this mostly elder group of English women that drives the novel are petty, hollow and uninteresting. It may have been a surprising scandalous novel in its...more
I might be 60 years late to the party, but you can chalk me up to the Muriel Spark fan club right now.
There's a particular English tone that I love - dryly, darkly witty, sparkling with a touch of desperation, a stiff upper lip that trembles on the tip of laughter or tears. Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford, Stella Gibbons, even Dorothy Sayers and P.G. Wodehouse - they're tremendously stylish writers, and if you get subject matter that's moving, then that's even better.
Here, Sp...more
There's a particular English tone that I love - dryly, darkly witty, sparkling with a touch of desperation, a stiff upper lip that trembles on the tip of laughter or tears. Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford, Stella Gibbons, even Dorothy Sayers and P.G. Wodehouse - they're tremendously stylish writers, and if you get subject matter that's moving, then that's even better.
Here, Sp...more
Have read this novel a number of times and as I have just put it onto my ' favourite shelf ' I thought it would be sensible to say why. Then having written that the inspiration falters. I love the book but don't know the reason. Its sinister and funny and bizarre in fairly equal measure...classic Muriel I suppose. Old folk each get a phone call in which a voice, oddly different to each listener, declares ' Memento Mori '- ' Remember you will die'. For some this is a simple confirmation of the ob...more
I wish I could host a little literary salon tonight to nibble savouries, sip gimlets and discuss this odd but engaging book by Muriel Spark. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I value the reading experience in some way. It's one of those books in which the totality is more than the sum of its parts.
Perhaps I am more intrigued by the book's concept, than its execution but nonetheless it offered SOMEthing. That something, as the title pronounces, is the caution to remember our own mortalit...more
Perhaps I am more intrigued by the book's concept, than its execution but nonetheless it offered SOMEthing. That something, as the title pronounces, is the caution to remember our own mortalit...more
Since the author was born in 1918, she was 40/41 when writing this book the characters of which are all old. So either she had a powerful imagination or she based the characters on old people she had met. If the former, the portraits of those involved might not be so realistic as her writing makes them appear. Few authors bother much with the elderly. The best example I know of, though there will be others, is Ring Lardner, whose stories involving old people strike me as very good. Given he died...more
My copy of Memento Mori is very old with yellow pages, a fusty smell and a telltale 85c sticker on the front cover. Written in 1959, the copy I read was published a few years later, around the same time Muriel Spark was writing her classic The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I mention the age of my copy for it is apt given the subject of the book. It is a wonderfully observed book about old age, full of idiosyncrasy, humor, paranoia and mystery. My granny spent her final years in a nursing home suffe...more
How many books exist with a cast almost entirely of people 70 years or older? One? Two? This book is an achievement--it's a casually hilarious novel. Spark doesn't revel in her own cleverness, call attention to how smart she is, or resort to anything too absurd or too precious for the world that she has invented. Instead, she is just damned funny, and a genius at writing dialogue to boot. Her phrasing doesn't feel worried-over, it feels fresh and light, which is perfect, considering that: ...more
I am listening to this book on audio, in ten-minute chunks separated by large periods of time. I had been hesitant to pick this book up because my only other Muriel Spark experience was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Now, I really enjoyed TPoMJB, but it's told out of order in a very post-modernist way (I think it's post-modernist). I knew in advance it would be hard to follow a book like that on CD.
Memento, however, is adorable. I love that they are the aging literati set, and I love...more
Memento, however, is adorable. I love that they are the aging literati set, and I love...more
First book I've read by this author - I will look for more. Not the best book I've read but good enough to keep me reading. All the characters are in their 70s and 80s - it gives a rare glimpse into life for this age group and from their point of view. Felt as though there was going to be a mystery element but didn't emerge as anything so there was a slight feeling of lack of fulfillment as the story ended. But overall the characters were good enough to keep me reading.
I have an idea that this is a reread but cannot be sure. Spark’s writing is acerbic and used as a scalpel to dissect her characters. All the old and very old people commanded to remember death –by an anonymous phone caller-are presented in a benign way and then they slowly show their true colours. There is a mystery in who is the caller but Spark doesn’t tell us, the end is open for the reader, though the characters all die due to excessive age.
Henry Mortimer said: “If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practice, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid. You might as well live on the whites of eggs.”
i like spark's approach to character studies - she's able to jump into people's heads delicately & stunningly quickly, somehow without coming off as jarring or melodramatic even when narrating the most jarring & melodramatic circumstances. don't think i've ever read a book before where all of the main characters are seniors - plot was kind of rambling, but the cast & lovely writing made up for it.
It's a strange story about a group of old friends who start receiving phone calls saying "remember you must die" ie memento mori. Story reveals old rivalries and jealousies between writers and weird screwed up family relationships. An odd tale but well written. It's my first Murial spark and i see what people mean by her dark satirical wit. Made me laugh out loud a couple of times.
The story of a group of old people (70+) dealing with life and a strange caller who keeps telling them that they must remember their death.
I was reading this on the plane and went low while reading. When I went to grab some sugar I kept thinking about how young people (in their 50s) just don't understand, as though I was also in my 80s. It was a little strange.
I was reading this on the plane and went low while reading. When I went to grab some sugar I kept thinking about how young people (in their 50s) just don't understand, as though I was also in my 80s. It was a little strange.
3.75. A group of really old people all start receiving calls in which the caller only says "Remember you must die," and hangs up. It ends up being a lot less sinister than it sounds. It's a very telling portrait of old age, of the connection between death and youth through memory, of the ways in which people absorb themselves in oftentimes silly and petty things in order to push the thought of death further away, to forget it.
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Dame Muriel Spark, DBE (February 1, 1918 – April 13, 2006) was a leading Scottish novelist most famous for her 1961 novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Spark also wrote short stories, poetry, and 21 other novels, including The Mandelbaum Gate (1965), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and The Public Image (1969) and Loitering With Intent (1981), both Booker Prize nominees.
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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.”
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7 people liked it
“Final perseverance is the doctrine that wins the eternal victory in small things as in great”
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