Far Cry From Kensington [Hardcover]

Even the title is witty in this latest of Spark's delightful novels, bearing as it does at least three layers of ambiguity. It is a tale told in a splendidly commonsensical way by Mrs. Hawkins, a buxom young war widow who is a tower of strength in a failing London publishing house during the lean years after WW II. She is surrounded, both at work and in her seedy Kensington boarding house, by those slightly off-center eccentrics the Englishand particularly Sparkdraw to perfection; everything on the surface seems utterly realistic, yet fantasy as rich as anything in Garcia Marquez is only a breath away. Mrs. Hawkins selects a hate object among the literary hangers-on at her firm, and that hatred changes her life. She also becomes involved with a Polish dressmaker with a dark secret, invents a supremely successful method of dieting and almost in spite of herself becomes happy. Spark knows the wonderfully zany world of postwar-London publishing backward, her wit has never been more telling, and any book person is going to gobble this up. A sample, to whet the appetite: "Publishers, for obvious reasons, attempt to make friends with their authors. Martin York tried to make authors of his friends."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Spark's latest novel is a taut, controlled portrait of the residents of a Kensington boarding house and the members of London's publishing world in 1954. Linking the two settings is Mrs. Hawkins, a solid young widow who becomes a center of normalcy as she solves the novel's clever mystery. Spark balances devastatingly eccentric characters and funny situations with darker elements, even pathos. Her well-constructed novel has no loose ends and few contrived situations. Characterizations and plot details reveal her at her best; comparison with Spark's The Girls of Slender Means and Memento Mori is tempting. Serious yet entertaining fiction; for most libraries. Elizabeth Guiney Sandvick, North Hennepin Community Coll., Minneapolis
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The divine Spark is shining at her brightest ... Pure delight Claire Tomalin, INDEPENDENT An outstanding novel ... A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON has an effortless, transluscent grasp of the spirit of the period OBSERVER 'Wonderfully entertaining - full of absurd, comical, engaging characters and written with typical wit, elegance and aplomb SUNDAY TELEGRAPH One of Muriel Spark's most liberating, liberated and meditative novels. Spark is a writer who can take the meditative and make it mercurially funny, playful and mischievous Ali Smith --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Born in Edinburgh, Muriel Spark was internationally famous and received the Italia Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the FNAC Prix Etranger and the Saltire Prize, among many others. She was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1978 and to L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 1988. She died in April 2006. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

A rooming house in South Kensington and the publishing business in London following World War II are seen through the eyes of Mrs. Hawkins and told superbly by Eleanor Bron. Each character has his own idiosyncracy, and the smooth transition from one to another is never compromised. Of course, this is due mostly to Muriel Spark's ability to flesh out her characters. But Bron deserves credit as well, going from one accent to another, one voice to another, with subtle but effective changes. Her accents are authentic, and her male voices are spoken by suggestion, not by dropping to her lowest register. Hearing this story is an enjoyable experience. J.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.