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In 1949, aspiring novelist Fleur Talbot takes up a survival job as the secretary for the Autobiographical Association, a writing group peopled by the chronicially self-absorbed and run by an egotistical snob. Fleur, scalpel-sharp and buoyantly cold-blooded, starts off simply nudging the autobiographies along with a little creative ghostwriting, but she soon finds her own novel somehow has become the script for the club members, and she takes matters into her own hands to get a hold of reality an
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I loved this book. It is the book I wish I could write. It oozes with passive aggressiveness....my favorite type of aggressiveness. The novel apparently is semi-autobiographical about Spark's life as she was trying to become a published author. What a cast of characters she depicts. You have to love Edwina..the aged mother of the literary villain...who will wet herself ...perhaps because she can't help herself...or maybe because she hates the person assigned to care for her. Spark's alter-ego in
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I always enjoy Muriel Spark's books. I'd intended to read this a few months ago and never got to it, then listened to the whole book over two days of working on a sewing project. Lovely accompaniment to the sewing work and a lovely book. The narrator for the audiobook version does a great job with this unreliable narrator story.
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Nov 16, 2020
Laurie
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
booker-shortlist,
audiobook
Aug 20, 2018
Denise (deesbooknook)
marked it as to-read
Nov 01, 2019
Kendyl
marked it as to-read
Dec 05, 2022
Meghan
marked it as to-read
Mar 09, 2025
Elizabeth (Alaska)
marked it as wish-list
