The Girls Of Slender Means (New Directions Classic, #0) (The Collected Muriel Spark Novels)

by Muriel Spark

'It never really occurred to her that literary men, if they like women at all, do not want literary women but girls.'

The May of Teck Club 'exists for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years'. Nevertheless, and though there is a war on, they find the time between elocution lessons to jostle one another over suitors (some more suitable than others) and a single Schiaparelli gown. But can a love of literature, fine clothes and amorous young men save these young ladies from the horrors of the real world?

'Unsettling and exhilarating' William Boyd, Daily Telegraph

'An enduring genius' Guardian

• ISBN10: 0241989124
• ISBN13: 9780241989128
• Publish Date: 23 July 2020 (first published 1 December 1963)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 144
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9780241989128

Reviews

[brokentune]

What an odd story. What an odd composition.

Told mostly in flashbacks, The Girls of Slender Means tells of a group of girls who share lodgings at a home for women under 30 who have limited means of income. The story is mostly set during the summer of 1945 - between the end of the war in Europe and in the Far East.

As a snap-shot of the time that the story is set in, this books works wonderfully well. Spark had a gift for preserving details in the pages of her books that other authors may have have left out in favour of prolonged dialogue or inner monologue. Not so with Spark - her details bring to life both the characters and the atmosphere that frame the plot. Well, the little plot there is.

There is a plot, but it struck me that the development of the plot seemed to counteract the development of the characters - the more likeable or "human" the characters became, the more it seemed that the plot of the book tried to make them suffer - as in, first Spark got us to care fore the characters and then she throws in our face that the characters were surrounded by a world of horribleness. Like a vanity painting that reminds us that nothing lasts and that all snap shots only depict a certain angle.

While Spark's writing is impressive, I could not help but compare The Girls of Slender Means with the other two books of hers that I have read - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and A Far Cry From Kensington.

The Girls almost read like a sequel to Miss Jean Brodie but I think this is exactly where it didn't work for me - it was too similar not to make comparisons and I couldn't enjoy it as an independent story quite as much.