Customer Reviews

The Comforters

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Muriel Spark's first novel, THE COMFORTERS, is a genuine classic. The intrustion of the "literary device" is marvelous because it is anything but a gimmick. For one thing, the mysterious metafictional typewriter (from an author composing a novel you might be reading) is inspired by experiences Spark describes in her autobiography. Aural hallucinations contributed to two masterpieces of English prose around this time--Evelyn Waugh's THE ORDEAL OF GILBERT PINFOLD takes a different approach, less cosmic and perhaps more comic. In both cases, however, the voices are central to the novel, and provide a marvelous opportunity for conveying a unique (and, I think, in both cases, -true-) view of our world.

The other undercurrent here is Spark's conversion to Roman Catholicism. Caroline's attitude may not be Spark's, but I hope it is--skewering irritating modern Pharisees inside the Church as gleefully as those outside of it.

Some writers are like Meryl Streep - they try on different genres, narratives, and subject matter. Others are like Barbara Stanwyck whose range was limited but deep. Muriel Spark who announced her literary concerns in "The Comforters" and spent the next 21 novels building on the work first introduced here was like the latter.

Muriel threw away realism in "The Comforters" by introducing a typewriting ghost that wrestled with the lead character, Carolyn Rose, for control of the novel. But she throws away realism not for its own sake but because she wanted to explore ideas about faith, betrayal and destiny through fiction. She saw realism as a straight-jacket that forced her to spend energy and words on things that didn't further her interests.

Spark was a recently converted Catholic when she wrote her first novel and she explores faith and free well but not in any conventional way. Instead shows faith as complicated and unknowable but existing all the same. Whether in Caroline's desire for celibacy, the crippled Andrew's cure or the pointless retreat of Sir Edward Manders, faith is complicated by human frailty and selfishness.

There is a cheerfulness to auto accidents, deformities and drownings as to any of the other actions. This too would be a hallmark of Spark's fiction. No need to lay it on thick just because something unpleasant happened.

Finally, her portrayal of a gay character is quite explicit for the mid-fifties. She describes the character - Ernest - as a homosexual and has the main character speak highly of him. Yes, there are stereotypical, effeminate characteristics assigned to Ernest but he isn't demeaned by them just described using them. By bringing his homosexuality out in the open and treating it in the breezy fashion with which she treats everything else, Spark make gay Ernest part of the texture of the novel and this gives him a contemporary feel.

This short novel is surprisingly droll with unexpected plot twists. Written in the 1950's it deals with crime, pre-marital sex, and homosexuality with benign tolerance. The plot, in dealing with auditory hallucinations, may be autobiographical in part. I enjoyed this novel very much and plan on reading other books by this author.

This book's weakest point--a literary gimmick--kicks in early: a writer begins to hear a voice narrating her life, accompanied by, you guessed it, the clicking of typewriter keys. However, as annoying as this trite little device is, it has all but disappeared midway through the book, letting a somewhat more complex concept take over. The plot itself involves smuggling and tangled relationships, with a wink at English Catholicism. In the end, I've given this book four stars primarily because I enjoyed the setting, somewhere between the worlds of "Lucky Jim" and "Excellent Women."