"She Perceived Herself, The Absent Jenny, The Ever-Blamed Mary, Rose, Eunice, And Monica, All In A Frightening Little Moment, In Unified Compliance To The Destiny Of Miss Brodie, As If God Had Willed Them To Birth For That Purpose"

I wish there was a way to count the number of times that the word "prime" was used throughout The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I mean just looking back at one particular passage, the word is used 4 times in 1 paragraph. It is used so many times to refer to the private school teacher, as "a woman in her prime." It must be at least 100 times. Easy. And that's not all the catch phrases that are repetitive: Miss Brodie is trying to determine which of her girls will become "the crème de la crème." And we learn that each girl becomes "famous" for something, of which, that something is repeated nearly every time each girl is mentioned. At first, I was incredibly annoyed at this technique (I mean, I can retain information in my brain for a few minutes at a time so I can recall what each girl was famous for), but after a few times, I really spent a moment evaluating what purpose this served for the story. Was it just to give Miss Brodie a few clever catch phrases? That, while described as this renaissance thinker and developer of young girls' minds, maybe she was just shallow and haughty to fixate on these, and only these things? Or was it more than that. 

As with The Old Man and the Sea, while The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie may seem like a short, little tale of a teacher a School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, there are some layers here. First off, the story flashes forward abruptly throughout the novel, so the reader is already aware early on in the novel that one of her girls betrays her (oh, the word "betray" is probably used many dozen times too). So we spend the novel getting to know these young girls and how they were groomed by Miss Brodie. In many ways, she is a positive influence - she encourages them to be the best versions of themselves, she encourages their free thinking, exposes them to the beauty of art, and it is mentioned that they all are exceptional students compared to the others in their classes. But her relationship with them as a teacher is quite inappropriate, even long after they have moved on to the senior school, even grooming one of the girls to become the lover of the school's art teacher (as a proxy for her own love of the art teacher). 

One of Miss Brodie's girls, Sandy, is the primary narrator (and we are allowed into her head quite often, with some very clever "cut-aways" to the ongoing, dreamy, fictional stories that Sandy is making up in her head - I was particularly impressed with this approach in the novel; these types of asides don't seem like something easy to do in writing but much more suited for a visual medium). Sandy explores so many facets about herself, Edinburgh, and Miss Brodie through the lens of religion, politics (Miss Brodie was a big ol' fan of Hitler, Mussolini, and fascism), individualism, and psychology. The book explores how the girls grow up with Miss Brodie as the force majeure in their lives, at one point mentioning that their relationship with her "had worked itself into their bones, so that they could not break away without, as it were, splitting their bones to do so." But the story questions not just how one of her girls betrayed Miss Brodie, but whether Miss Brodie betrayed her girls by her methods and almost obsessive relationship with the girls as they grew up. 

Like I said, there was so much in this book to unpack and certainly a lot of literary critique could be derived from this book. If I was actually in school for literature, this would be a novel I would ear-mark, wanting to go back to it, read it multiple times, and really explore the depths of the themes in the book. I'm not sure if everyone would necessarily like this book, but I did, surprisingly more than in the first chapter or so.

Side note: I'm often amazed that someone like Muriel Spark isn't necessarily named in the list of authors who are considered the best of their time. Like I kind of feel like she has been forgotten a bit. But she was an absolutely prolific writer, publishing over 20 novels, many books of short stories, and poetry. I mean, she was knighted as a dame, for Pete's sake. It's a shame that I don't have any other books of hers on my lists, as I would really love to explore more of what she wrote (not that I can't just choose to read more, but I have a lot on my plate ya'll!).  

So next up, I'm moving on to The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene. And coincidentally, Graham Greene funded Muriel Spark's first novel. As with many other books I read, I don't know squat about Graham Greene or what the book is about, and I kind of prefer it that way. 211 to go.   

" 'But Man Is Not Made For Defeat,' He Said. 'A Man Can Be Destroyed But Not Defeated.' "

 When I was slightly over halfway through reading The Old Man and the Sea, I kept thinking to myself, "This?! This won the Pulitzer Prize?!" It's just an old dude getting dragged around the ocean by a fish. The language/writing isn't particularly impressive (in fact much of the early dialogue between the fisherman and the young boy is so choppy and oddly formal it didn't feel very authentic). But fortunately the book is short and I was able to breeze through the rest of it, and the remainder of the story definitely changed my opinion.

The story is that of an elderly fisherman in Cuba, Santiago, who has had terrible fortune and has not caught a fish for 84 days. A young boy from the village who used to fish with him abandoned him for better waters with other fishermen, so the man is on his own to make his own way (even though the boy still helps the old man by carrying his supplies, bringing him food, providing him with sardines for bait, etc). The man sets out one morning and travels far out to sea, hooking a giant marlin, larger than the size of his own boat. He spends 3 days being dragged out to sea by the fish waiting for his opportunity to finally kill and capture the fish. He manages to best the creature, but it does not necessarily mean success, as he still has to get the ~1500 lb fish back to land. Some obstacles follow the fisherman and his fish back to shore, leaving the man broken and devoid of emotion. 

While I was initially so annoyed with the basic nature of the book, there is definitely more there than meets the eye. It's really just a big ol' metaphor, right? About the determination and perseverance of man, about taking on tasks in which it may seem impossible to triumph (that even risk one's demise and death), and how to overcome the devastation of defeat. While I didn't necessarily identify with the man's journey and seemingly insane choices, I acknowledge his heroic struggle against something greater than himself. Throughout the book, I couldn't help but be reminded of Moby Dick, with the singular focus of Captain Ahab and this fisherman. And maybe part of my initial recoil from fully getting on board with the book was due to the elaborate descriptions of everything related to fishing that took me right back to the months and months spent reading Moby Dick...perhaps still a little repressed trauma there all these years later. 

So The Old Man and the Sea was a quick little read. I suppose enjoyable, but had it been much longer, I wouldn't have been too happy. It has been a long time since I've read Hemingway. I have only read A Farewell to Arms back in high school, so don't recall much of his writing style from such a long time ago and must say I'm curious to read more. Because while The Old Man and the Sea was certainly fine, I wasn't blown out of the water (pun intended) that I would have expected to be based on all of the hype around Hemingway. Perhaps is persona has made him as legendary (or more so?) than his actual writing. But I still have 3 other books of his, so I'll have plenty of opportunity to re-assess based on a wider sample size. Stay tuned for that. 

Up next is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. Another relatively short read, so I expect to get through this one in a pretty short amount of time too. Just gettin' 'er done here during pandemic quarantine time. 212 to go.