The Driver's Seat (New Directions Bibelot, #0) (The Collected Muriel Spark Novels)

by Muriel Spark

John Lanchester (Introduction)

Described as 'a metaphysical shocker' at the time of its release, Muriel Sparks' The Driver's Seat is a taut psychological thriller, published with an introduction by John Lanchester in Penguin Modern Classics.

Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly-dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime. But her search for adventure, sex and new experiences takes on a far darker significance as she heads on a journey of self-destruction. Infinity and eternity attend Lise's last terrible day in an unnamed southern city, as she meets her fate. One of six novels to be nominated for a 'Lost Man Booker Prize', The Driver's Seat was adapted into a 1974 film, Identikit, starring Elizabeth Taylor.

Muriel Spark (1918 - 2006) wrote poetry, stories, and biographies as well as a remarkable series of novels, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Mandelbaum Gate (1965) which received the James Tait Black Prize, and The Public Image (1968) and Loitering with Intent (1981), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Spark was awarded the T.S. Eliot Award for poetry in 1992, and the David Cohen Prize for literature in 1997.

If you enjoyed The Driver's Seat, you might like Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'An extraordinary tour de force, a crime story turned inside out'
David Lodge

'Her spiny and treacherous masterpiece'
New Yorker

• ISBN10: 0141188340
• ISBN13: 9780141188348
• Publish Date: 27 April 2006 (first published 28 March 1974)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

This review was first posted on BookLikes:
http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/809929/the-driver-s-seat

Also, before you read on, please note that this review contains SPOILERS!

What kind of person would go ballistic on finding out that the dress she was looking to buy is made of a fabric that does not stain?

Anyone? Anyone?

Nope, I don't know anyone to do something like this either but guessing from the way the story of The Driver's Seat develops, Lise is not like most people - Lise is having a breakdown.

I say I'm guessing this from the way the story unfolds. This is because the story is not told from Lise's perspective. The narration does not delve into an exploration of Lise's mind. All we get to know is what Lise does and that she will die, but not what she thinks.

Therefore, we are faced with the task of deducing her mindset, her character, from her actions. Guessing just as much why Lise objects to a stain-proof dress, why she walks out of her job after 16 years, why she goes on a trip, and why she makes up a net of lies and personas in the course of her adventure. Or should this be mis-adventure?

This is a short but utterly compelling read. It's darkness reminded me of Shirley Jackson's stories, but Sparks succeeds where Jackson failed - The Driver's Seat made me gasp, it made me sit on the edge of my seat, ignoring the ringing of my phone.