King of the World

by Celia Fremlin

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor

King of the World (1994), Celia Fremlin's sixteenth and final novel, is the story of flat-mates Bridget and Diane. Despite ten years in age between them they get on well - aside from the constant presence of Alistair, Diane's self-impressed boyfriend, in the flat. The women decide to look for a third tenant, and find Norah, who claims to be a battered wife seeking refuge. But Norah is telling lies that will put all of them in mortal danger.

'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Celia was born in Kingsbury, now part of London, England. She was the daughter of Heaver Fremlin and Margaret Addiscott. Her older brother, John H. Fremlin, later became a nuclear physicist. Celia studied at Somerville College, Oxford University. From 1942 to 2000 she lived in Hampstead, London. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, with whom she had three children; he died in 1968. In 1985, Celia married Leslie Minchin, who died in 1999. Her many crime novels and stories helped modernize the sensation novel tradition by introducing criminal and (rarely) supernatural elements into domestic settings. Her 1958 novel The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960.

With Jeffrey Barnard, she was co-presenter of a BBC2 documentary “Night and Day” describing diurnal and nocturnal London, broadcast 23 January 1987.

Fremlin was an advocate of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a newspaper interview she admitted to assisting four people to die.[1] In 1983 civil proceedings were brought against her as one of the five members of the EXIT Executive committee which had published “A Guide to Self Deliverance” , but the court refused to declare the booklet unlawful.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia...]

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers below

You will be in my power. I am the King of the World.

In some ways, all Fremlin's books are about a patriarchal culture which leaves men as 'kings of the world', at least in their own estimation. Sometimes her stories puncture that delusion, at others they explore women's agency and forms of resistance - one of which is laughter at masculine pomposity. It's that laughter that is so dangerous is this book for Bridget who is shot by Mervyn when she laughs in the face of his threats to kill her .

Fremlin is always a great source of social history: here we get a view of how mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, might be regarded in the mid-1990s. Shockingly, neither of his parents get Christopher diagnosed or treated so that his mental health spirals and worsens. It's especially revealing that his father, a psychiatrist, is humiliated to have an ill son. This whole storyline gets increasingly fevered as Mervyn shoots Christopher and sets up an elaborate story that he's away travelling, based on the odd assumption that the police will never identify the dead body - none of this really makes much sense!

Elsewhere, it's interesting to see three models of 1990s femininity: both Diane and Bridget have careers in TV and as an international interpreter respectively but Diane is desperate for a baby while Bridget has no interest in motherhood or domesticity. They're contrasted with the more conventional Norah, put-upon wife and mother to the troubled Christopher.

I felt uncomfortable with the way schizophrenia is used to drive the plot: at some points the story relies on Christopher's 'mad' antics to keep the pages turning. It reminded me of spectatorship at nineteenth century asylums, making an entertaining spectacle of other people's suffering. But maybe that's historical hindsight.

More prosaically, there's another of those abrupt endings that fizzle out - Fremlin has a tendency to just stop writing, as if she's hit a word count.

So not the best of her work, as the later books do not live up to her earlier tales - but worth reading if you can cope with an unsympathetic take on mental illness.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Celia Fremlin is the master of domestic suspense novels and 1994’s King of the World is her 16th and final novel. It’s a story about the relations of three women. The main character, 28 year old Bridget, is gifted at modern languages and works as a freelance interpreter and translator. She shares a flat with another single career woman, the 10 years-older Diane who works on TV documentaries. While they generally get along, Diane is plagued by an obsequious attachment to the self-important, self-centered Alistair, a constant and, to Bridget, unwelcome presence in the flat. For economic reasons, the women decide to look for a third tenant and find Norah, who claims to be a battered wife seeking refuge from her husband Mervyn. But Norah is not telling all, and what is actually happening to Norah provides the thriller events of the story.

While not top tier Fremlin, this one is still a solid and impressive entry in the Fremlin oeuvre, especially considering that Fremlin was almost 80 years old at the time she was writing it. Some aspects of the novel that I found were interesting were:

SETTING: Not the usual suburban home, married couple flat or boarding house, this is a female “bachelor pad” with 2 career women. I don’t remember running into this setting in a Fremlin before.

PROTAGONIST – Out of the three women characters, two are in relations with some form of typically sub-par Fremlin male. Yet, as her main protagonist, Fremlin chooses Bridget, the one with no romantic attachment, unless you count Alistair’s feeble flirtation attempts. Bridget is also less emotional and more guarded than the usual Fremlin protagonist. I found Bridget an interestingly different Fremlin protagonist.

STORYTELLING– I thought the character development and events leading to the thriller climax were well-written, developed and executed.

However, my overall regard for this book was affected by two relatively minor negatives. First, the book ended with me feeling like certain things were left unanswered, continuing Fremlin’s tendency to not fully stick the landing with her stories. Second, the use of Bridget as protagonist was a positive, toward the end I did find that Bridget’s unemotional and more rational and independent approach to life eventually made it harder to fully empathize with her during the emotional strains of the threatening final events. These quibbles are why I rate this as just slightly below the 4.0 mid-tier Fremlins. I rate this as 3.7 rounded up to 4 stars.

MY RATINGS FOR FREMLINS
(Instead of rating 4.5 or 3.5 stars I rate at 4.3, 3.7 and 3.3 stars for better rounding)

4.3 - The Long Shadow
4.3 - Dangerous Thoughts
4.3 – The Spider Orchid
4.3 – The Hours Before Dawn
4.3 – The Jealous One
4.0 - Prisoner’s Base
4.0 – The Trouble Makers
4.0 – The Echoing Stones
3.7 – King of the World
3.7 - Uncle Paul
3.7 – The Parasite Person
3.7 – With No Crying
3.7 – Ghostly Stories
3.3 – Seven Lean Years
3.3 – Listening in the Dusk
3.3 – Appointment With Yesterday

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Celia Fremlin's final novel, published in 1994, written when the author was eighty. I have really enjoyed discovering Fremlin's work and was worried this would not be up to her usual standard, but I really enjoyed it.

Bridget and Diana share a flat and advertise for a third person (shades of Christie and her 'Third Girl' here). Enter Norah, with a story about being a battered wife. Diana's rather annoying boyfriend is sympathetic, but Bridget feels put upon. In fact, Norah has another, rather sinister backstory. As someone who works in mental health, I had to try to put modern sensibilities to the background and think about how things were viewed when I was younger.

That aside, what Fremlin always does is create strong characters and a real sense of place. I loved Bridget and am thrilled to say that I enjoyed this. Fremlin surely deserves greater readership. I am so pleased I have discovered her and think she was a wonderful writer.

[Boris Cesnik · Rating 4 out of 5]

From reading the very first chapter you know you're in for a good treat, a unique Celia Fremlin experience with dangerously unfolding story embellished with enthralling wit and humour.

A page turner where you equally empathise with and hate all the characters at the same time. You know what's about to happen and then you don't. You think you do but Celia knows better. She told you so over and over at every turning of the page...still it's never what it's like.

She definitely saved the better for last.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favourite of all Fremlin's work that I've read to date. Allowing for the datedness of the language, I still couldn't sympathise with any of the characters. The outcome was predictable and the sudden change in Bridget at the end seemed forced and unnatural. 2 stars

[Bea Alden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Norah's son Christopher is clearly suffering from a severe mental problem, doing and saying all kinds of weird things. But Norah's husband is a psychiatrist who won't admit there could possibly be anything wrong with Christopher. Norah leaves home in despair and finds some new friends; but then, things turn really ugly.