Rating: 
Summary: The Spark of Talent
Review: This is my favorite book by a wonderful writer. It's also, I feel, her most personal book; in a way, it's more personal than her autobiography. It's a memoir, written thirty years after the events described. The narrator, Nancy (at the beginning of the book, when she's obese, other people address her as Mrs. Hawkins. Later, after she loses a lot of weight, she becomes Nancy to them ) is a young widow wholives in a rooming-house in the lower-class suburb of Kensington. Among the other roomers is a Polish immigrant dressmaker, a displaced person, whose personal fate is connected with Nancy's. Although Nancy doesn't realize it at the time, she is herself a displaced person: rootless, alone in the world, with no strong attachments, and given to dreaming her days away riding buses all day whenever she's out of work. She works as an editor, first for a publishing company that publishes good books but is going bankrupt; then for a publishing firm that's run by some vey eccentric characters who don't even read books, but is very successful financially; and finally, for an arty magazine. Into Nancy's life comes a real villain: Hector Bartlett. He's madly ambitious for a writing career, but has absolutely no talent, and, except for when he's plotting revenge, is quite stupid. He manages to attach himself, leech-like, to a famous woman novelist. He also tries to get Nancy to "use her influence" to introduce him to her boss. Irritated by his persistent sycophancy, his lack of talent and general smarminess, one day she insults him. She calls him a pisseur de copie. He goes berserk with rage, and puts in motion a devious scheme to get even with her. His revenge is so petty that it would be laughable, except for the fact that it ends in real tragedy for one of the other characters. Nancy, however, refuses to be a victim. To say more would be to give away the ending. This being a Muriel Spark book, there's a strong undercurrent of the supernatural throughout. Is the pisseur de copie really a diabolical agent, or jus a vicious human being? (Myrna Loy once told Samuel Goldwyn that she ddn't want to work with director William Wyler because she'd heard he was a sadist. "No, he's not," Goldwyn replied. "He's just a very mean fellow!") As always, she leaves it for the reader to decide. There's also some good, clean, dirty fun for the reader: trying to identify the reprehensible woman novelist (she tries, quite determinedly, and with malice aforethought, to pry the pisseur leech off herself and attach him to Nancy. When Nancy refuses to capitulate, the novelist has Nancy fired from two jobs.) I won't name my candidate, even though she went on to her reward a few years ago. Suffice it to say that any reader who is willing to do a little research should be able to figure it out. One of the things that struck me about this book is that it gives us that rarity of rarities in modern fiction, a lovable heroine. Intelligent, kind and gentle. Observant and witty, but not malicious. The only peson Nancy truly dislikes is the pisseur de copie, and he turns out to be even worse than she thought. "A Far Cry From Kensington" is Muriel spark at her whimsical - and wistful - best. I think that it will touch anyone who has ever been young and alone in the world.
Rating:
Summary: No half portions here - read in full
Review: This is one of those books that cannot described in a nutshell. If you had to hazard a guess at a description, you'd have to place it firmly in the comedy/ tragedy/ drama/ mystery/ romance section, or simply file it under Spark: Muriel in the Classics section.Narrated by the once round and central character, Agnes Hawkins (a.k.a. Mrs. Hawkins or Nancy), the story revolves around her experiences as a young widow living in furnished rooms in a semi-detached building in South Kensington. She colorfully describes her neighbors and acquaintances, and gives us tantalizing glimpses into their little secret worlds, in which she is a trustee and confidante. Despite the mysterious black boxes and the lurking threat of enemies, known and unknown, our heroine manages to keep her head above water, remains a pillar of strength and finds true love among the rubble. Thanks to her diet plan (freely given to the reader as a bonus for purchasing the book), she gains new self-respect, and reinvents herself in a new country, a far cry from her humble beginnings. A simple classic by an inspired writer. ^AR
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Summary: Ah! That clever English humor...
Review: This was my first Muriel Spark. There will be others. For A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON is wonderful prose. This is what I would call a quietly funny book that falls within a long line of English women writers with uncanny means of observation, particularly for the odd and unpredictable little things of daily life. If you enjoy the works of Barbara Pym, Bernice Rubens, Penelope Lively among others, Muriel Spark is also for you. In addition this book permits an interesting reminescense of life in London in the years immediately after WWII, without the traps of emotional nostalgia. This is a distant and yet warm view of the time. A cool book!
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