4. A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
published: 1988
format: 185-page paperback, 2000 edition from New Direction Classic
acquired: 2021 read: Jan 16-18 time reading: 6:03, 2.0 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: not-quite-contemporary fiction theme: TBR
locations: Kensington and West End, London, 1954
about the author: 1918-2006. Scottish novelist born in Edinburgh

Litsy post

I always find planning to read from my own TBR stacks somehow a little imperfect, but that‘s what I did here.

As a recreation of 1954/55 South Kensington and London‘s publishing world, this is something of a masterpiece. I‘m clueless about South Kensington, but it wasn‘t the ritzy place in the 1950‘s that it is today. The short book is little slow in its plot line. But it vividly recreates a textured populated world and has a dark charm.

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I should add that's it's first person and has some humor and I even laughed out loud. This is my third novel by Spark. I found it less ambitious than [The Prime of Jean Brodie] or [Memento Mori], but much more interior than those books, well, at least more relatable and saner than Jean. I loved how she captures these really interesting internal self-reflections of Nancy Hawkins, including the opening paragraph.

Actually, for dedicated readers, I'll share that opening paragraph (this is more skippable than other things here).

So great was the noise during the day that I used to lie awake at night listening to the silence. Eventually, I fell asleep contented, filled with soundlessness, but while I was awake I enjoyed the experience of darkness, thought, memory, sweet anticipations. I heard the silence. It was in those days of the early 'fifties of this century that I formed the habit of insomnia. Insomnia is not bad in itself. You can lie awake at night and think; the quality of insomnia depends entirely on what you decide to think of. Can you decide to think? -- Yes, you can. You can put your mind to anything most of the time. You can sit peacefully in front of a blank television set, just watching nothing; and sooner or later you can make your own programme much better than the mass product. It's fun, you should try it. You can put anyone you like on the screen, alone or in company, saying and doing what you want them to do, with yourself in the middle if you prefer it that way.

Anyway, recommended for Spark fans and anyone else looking to gently visit another time and place.

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/347061#8045985 ( )

Set in 1954 in London, protagonist Mrs. Hawkins lives in a rooming house with a medical student, a married couple, a nurse, and a dressmaker. Mrs. Hawkins is defined by her “presence” – she is outspoken and gives plenty of advice. Looking back from a distance of thirty years, she narrates the story of her work in publishing, which is negatively impacted by a feud with an unskilled writer. The plot involves the mystery of a threatening letter received by the Polish dressmaker. This book starts as a comedy of manners, but a darker edge emerges later.

Muriel Spark illuminates the politics of the publishers of the past. She pokes fun at the seemingly unattainable “job in publishing” – and the many people who seek it. Themes include truth, transformation, and revenge. I particularly enjoyed the first half of this book, before the darkness sets in. I found it an odd mixture of humor and malevolence. I enjoyed the writing and the dry humor. I was unprepared for its abrupt ending.
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Another welcome volume in the oeuvre of Muriel Spark. ( )

An interesting story told as a memory of the protagonist, Mrs. Hawkes, who life has shifted "A Far Cry From Kensington". A pretentious woman who was outspoken and intelligent. She worked in the field of publishing. A mystery unfolds in the boarding in which she lives, including a suicide and a stalker. A good story. ( )

Mrs Hawkins is capable and caring. She must be because everyone keeps confiding in her. She is also strongly opinionated. She is full of straightforward advice as she looks back thirty years to her life when she lived in a rooming house in South Kensington with a host of characters only slightly less eccentric than those at her job in a publishing house. Nancy - because, yes, Mrs Hawkins actually does have a first name - is clear-eyed and honest. She can spot a louse amongst writers almost as easily as her housemate, Kate, a nurse, can spot an actual louse. Nancy was almost instantly on her guard with the very slimy Hector Bartlett though his subsequent actions go beyond even her worst suspicions. Calling him out for what he is is worth losing two jobs. It’s only a shame everyone else can’t be as perspicacious as she is.

Muriel Spark is in fine form here poking fun at the world of publishing in London in the 1950s — a world she knew well. But it is also a closely observed milieu full of young war widows, chancers, women of talent, and worried refugees. There are class divisions but the only division that matters, at least to people like Nancy, is between those who are capable and those who are not.

Very easy to recommend. ( )