Customer Reviews

The Finishing School: A Novel

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The last decade has been a productive if uneven period for novelist Dame Muriel Spark, whose dynamic career in literature has now spanned over half a century. All The Stories of Muriel Spark was published in 2001, The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark in 2003, both All the Poems of Muriel Spark and a four - novel Modern Library omnibus were published earlier this year, and an idiosyncratic selection of her older fiction is currently in print. 1996 saw the release of Reality and Dreams, one of Spark's rare outright failures, and Aiding and Abetting debuted in 2000. But Aiding and Abetting was sketchy and insubstantial, and something of a failure as well.

Thus the good news is that The Finishing School (2004), Spark's 22nd novel, is worthy of taking its place on a lower rung among her second tier works (1958's Robinson, 1960's The Ballad of Peckham Rye, 1968's The Public Image, and 1973's The Hothouse By the East River, among others). Happily, The Finishing School's brisk tone most resembles that of Territorial Rights (1979) and the greatly underrated Symposium (1990), and, like those novels, concerns itself largely with life among the wealthy and the privileged. The institution in question is Sunrise College, a mobile school in Switzerland that in any given semester has only a handful of students enrolled. Ironically, Sunrise College never seems entirely credible, and throughout feels exactly like what it is in fact: a convenient and mutable creative device for its author's use.

Nonetheless, The Finishing School is a deft, if slight, meditation on creative frustration, envy, competition, and emotional displacement. Rowland Mahler, who teaches creative writing and runs the school with his wife, Nina, is attempting to write his long - planned first novel. But Rowland discovers that one of his young students, 17 year old Chris Wiley, has almost completed his own first novel on the life of Mary Queen of Scots. Dazed and dazzled, as is everyone else, by Chris's charm, confidence, productivity, and talent, Rowland finds his own ability to write disappearing, and his lofty private image of himself as an author - to - be suffering painfully. When plucky Chris finds a publisher with apparent ease, Rowland's thwarted creative drive switches gears, transforming into a malevolent obsession with his formerly prized pupil and friend.

The Finishing School glides effortlessly across its own clever and glossy surfaces, reflecting evidence of Spark's talent but not her genius. Spark once defended her occasionally harsh treatment of her characters by asserting that "they're just words," something certainly true of all the characters here except Rowland and Chris, who tend towards the three dimensional without ever quite arriving there. Over the decades, the author has stated on multiple occasions that her novels are primarily intended as "entertainment," and The Finishing School, a novella which casts a very short shadow, does succeed at being that.

"The Finishing School" is a thread-bare novella--a sketch, really--about jealousy and the creative process. Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina, operate College Sunrise, a post-secondary school which moves from one European location to another, not merely for a change in ambience but mostly to outrun the school's piling debts. While Nina manages the school, Rowland is supposed to be writing his novel, but he's suffering from an intractable case of writer's block.

To put it more accurately: "Rowland was simply going mad with jealousy about the writing of novels." One of the school's students, the handsome and popular Chris Wiley, is discovered writing his own book--a historical work about Mary, Queen of Scots. Soon enough, Chris's novel has attracted both the attention of several publishers and the murderous envy of Rowland, who whines that Chris is "trying to pass himself off as a creative writer, when all he's doing is exploiting his looks and his youth." And Chris, in turn, discovers that he is unable work on his book without the motivating presence of Rowland's jealousy.

Added to this plot are a few random descriptions of the other students (and their familial backgrounds) and some generally blithe comments about society ("it's hypocrisy that makes the world go round"), etiquette ("if you are offered a plover's egg as a snack...you want your right hand to be free to shake someone else's hand [so] your left hand should hold the plover's egg"), and liberalism in education (Nina obliges when the students want "to be reminded of what an exam was like").

The slightness of Spark's 23nd novel is more than compensated by the sharpness of its observations on creativity and competitiveness. Like other British comedies of manners, "The Finishing School" is slim of plot and of character; instead, it's a work to be savored for its conciseness, its cynicism, and its occasional mean-spiritedness.

Rowland Mahler and his wife Nina founded the College Sunrise in Ouchy, Switzerland. They are respectively 29 and 26 and they have nine students. Rowland teaches creative writing and in his spare time he aspires to become a novelist. But then his seventeen year old student Chris Wiley starts writing a novel about Mary Queen of Scots entitled "Who Killed Darnley" and Rowland suffers from writing block because he is jealous of the ease with which Chris's writing progresses. Rowland can't understand why his teenage pupil is able to write like a professional, how he can manage language so wonderfully and with so little experience. Nothing compared with his own dismal efforts at mediocre prose.
But as the reader progresses along the plot, he realises that nothing in Mrs Spark's novel is as it seems. The characters are well drawn, the scenes are often very amusing because they are laced with acute and witty observations about authors, publishers, school life, marital relationships and more generally about present day preoccupations.

Muriel Spark continued to produce excellent stuff to the end of her life. Her first novel appeared some 50 years ago. Her last (assuming there is no posthumous work awaiting publication) was The Finishing School. Like most of her novels, it is very short (in the neighborhood of 30,000 words), and sardonic in tone. It invites comparison with her most famous novel, _The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie_, in being about a school and about the relationship of a teacher to the students.

The Finishing School is set at College Sunrise, a school run by Rowland Mahler, a 29 year old who had a long ago success with a play and is now frustratedly trying to write a novel, and his wife Nina Parker. The school moves each term -- in part, it is suggested, to escape bill collectors. It is in Switzerland this term. There are nine students, apparently all around 17 years old, presumably having finished high school or the European equivalent, and now being "finished" -- either to head on to University or to other pursuits. One of the students, Chris, is writing an historical novel about Mary Queen of Scots.

The fulcrum of the novel is Rowland's jealousy of Chris. It becomes clear that this jealousy, ostensibly of the likely smashing success of his novel, has a homoerotic component. (Even though both parties are apparently heterosexual -- Rowland is married, though his wife is having an affair and plans to leave him, while Chris seduces several women during the course of the book.) Rowland spends much of his time fantasizing about killing Chris. Chris, meanwhile, ignores his classes, writes his novel in secret, and entertains visits from publishers and film producers.

Flitting around this central conflict are the problems of the other students and staff. One girl plans to become a minister (shades of the nun-to-be in Prime), another's father is suspected of smuggling, a couple are trying to arrange to get married to one or another of the boy students. The staff are involved as well, sleeping with the students on occasion, and planning their own futures. And the neighbors, a young woman and her somewhat older nephew, are also drawn into the intrigue.

It is told, as ever with Spark, in a very spare fashion. Several months pass quickly, odd people are described doing odd things in the most deadpan of fashions, and by the end we know them fairly well and we know their fates. It is dryly funny, enjoyable to read and archly believable despite all the unusual characters. It is not, I think, nearly as good as Spark's best work -- in part it is not really about as much, I don't think -- but it is a fine piece of fiction.

Sparks reviews are excellent so perhaps I'm missing something but the lack of effort angered me. A husband and wife teaching well-to-do highschool students and managing secrets and demons (including their own) - what's not to like? Unfortunately this book was almost like a screenplay. I could see the actors going through the motions but the book provided no insights or motivations. This is another British minimalist novel that shirks in-depth analysis. It feels like a cop-out; like the author is saying, "I'm going to present all this information as if its very insightful but really there's nothing here." Very disappointing.

It never fails to surprise me when I can enjoy a book but not its characters, and it always speaks to me of great writing. I absolutely HATE Alice Mellings of Doris Lessing's THE GOOD TERRORIST, but I have read my copy to literal pieces. However, I also couldn't stand Dolores Price in Wally Lamb's SHE'S COME UNDONE and have never thought once about reading it again. Now, into the first category, enter Rowland and Nina Mahler, the protagonists of THE FINISHING SCHOOL by Muriel Spark.

Rowland and Nina, a married couple in their late twenties, have hit on a great scheme, although it is never referred to as such. They run a tiny, barely legitimate "finishing" school for a handful of world weary, not college material, rich kids who really seem to be just marking time before they marry off (girls), get hired as a charity case by the family business (boys), or come into their trusts (both). Despite a popular creative writing class taught by Rowland, himself a struggling novelist, their only real draw is the fact that the school --- College Sunrise --- is a mobile one and thus changes its Western Europe location every year.

The year that we are permitted to observe, the College can be found in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland enjoys his role of professorial writer while Nina runs both the school and various off the cuff lectures regarding lesser known facts of international etiquette (such as if you are ever offered a plover's egg as part of a cocktail canape, be sure to eat it with your left hand), which could only be relevant for this motley crew of international "students." Nina also realizes that her marriage with Rowland is quickly coming to an end, but she accepts this and has even begun planning her next life phase.

Their assortment of students include Princess Tilly, of what she is actually Princess of no one knows; Opal, whose family is going through bankruptcy; Pallas Kapelas of Greece, whose father is most likely a spy; and then there is Chris Wiley, who for some reason thought the College would be the perfect place to write his Novel. His Novel is always discussed as if capitalized and, after reading the first few chapters, Rowland is surprised by how good it really is. Of course, due to his own writing ambitions (which are sent into a complete tailspin by the proximity of Great Young Writer Chris), he does everything within his power to play down his opinion of the fledgling book and, by the end of this short tome, has moved from subtle editorial criticism of the Novel to out and out sabotage of Chris's contacts with publishers.

Chris is completely aware of Rowland's maneuvers, as he is of the maddening jealousy Rowland feels towards him. He purposely flaunts his Novel in Rowland's nose every chance he gets. It is surprising that he leaves the school intact, especially considering the murderous fantasies his "mentor" is having by that time. It is even surprising to find out where he is two years later in the epilogue disguised as the final few pages.

This is a fast-moving book, and really more of a novella, which is why I just can't divulge much more information lest there be nothing left for you to discover on your own. It has the feel of a short story that was so intriguing you wished for just a bit more information, a bit more detail about the main characters, and got it. I wanted to slap Chris and shake Rowland, and I know I would never care to take tea with Nina. The rest of the cast, including a mysterious violin player whose nephew begins an affair with Nina, never get more than typical short story treatment. They're there but I just couldn't care, and their presence seems only to serve the devices of the main characters, which is why, I suppose, little sub-story lines keep getting interjected and then totally dropped.

I would, however, like to take tea with Muriel Spark. I have to admit, I had never read any of her books before picking up THE FINISHING SCHOOL and not because it's her first novel. This is a prolific author with over 25 books to her name, including perhaps her best-known novel, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE. In addition, she has penned several collections of short stories, and it is most likely her experience in that genre that largely shapes this book. Her writing is crisp and even fresh in a publishing world that likes to follow bestseller trends. I find this most amazing considering that Spark is 86 years old, although in her case, to use a terrible line, it should probably be 86 years young. Her dialogue, descriptions and properties are completely up to date if not thoroughly modern. Witty is a word that is often used to describe Spark's writing, and it fits. It is not, however, a "dear old Aunt Muriel" type of witty; rather, it is cutting, non-piteous and calculated.

I look forward to reading more of Muriel Spark and already have a hunch that I will be rereading THE FINISHING SCHOOL very soon, if only to scowl again at its inhabitants.

--- Reviewed by Jamie Layton

Nine teenagers from wealthy families attend a rather fly-by-night finishing school in Switzerland run by Rowland Mahler and his wife Nina. Roland teaches creative writing, Nina teaches etiquette. Both of them are somewhat fraudulent. Rowland is trying to write a novel, but can't get on with it. He has read the enviably brilliant opening pages of a novel written by one of his students, the self-confident 17 year old Chris Wiley, who, after that, will not show him work in progress. Rowland's envy of Chris begins to obsess his entire life, driving him into mental illness. Chris notices this; it becomes a stimulus for his own work, and he seems to enjoy torturing Rowland.

That is the gist of this slight novella of 156 pages. I can't quite believe in Rowland. Nina is more credible. The other teenagers are merely sketched in. I don't think much of the ending: it seems forced and rushed, as if Muriel Spark were herself in a hurry to end the book somehow. But she writes so easily and entertainingly that it's a pleasant enough read.

Muriel Spark wields her observations of the world with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel, carefully isolating her subject and cutting incisively to the core of human behavior. Since her earliest writings, this impressive author has shown a particular talent for effortlessly reflecting our cultural anomalies.

Rowland Mahler, the director of College Sunrise, an edgy finishing school for the very advantaged, is riddled with jealousy, anxious to finish his first novel but constantly distracted by the efforts of one of the students, Christopher Wiley, who is touting his own efforts at historical fiction. Chris is the bane of Rowland's existence, interfering with the director's creativity and writing process, his very mission in life. Of course, the obsession with Chris' work may also serve as the perfect avoidance technique for a floundering project.

The school itself is a vehicle for Rowland's future success as an author, the means to his intended goal, supported in kind by the efforts of his partner and wife, Nina. Like the life they lead at the school, everything is transitory, the curriculum, the students, Nina and Rowland's marriage, all moving toward the next adventure, nature in flux.

Lively as ever, Spark's genius as a storyteller comes from her seasoned observations of human foibles, the obsessive attention to self-promotion that rearranges relationships to suit the moment, the attraction of opposites and a devoted denial of everyday reality. All is perspective, Spark perched above the foolish machinations of her characters, playing with their aspirations and imperfections, the subtleties of attraction that inform the clever dynamic of The Finishing School.

None of these characters exist in a world even remotely realistic, each coddled by privilege and an existential class schedule, only affordable to those who are oblivious to price tags. With a practiced eye, Spark continues to satisfy, her wry commentary on lifestyle and hidden agendas another example of the self-absorption of modern life, where all is of the moment, disposable and replaceable, even emotional attachments. One can imagine Spark conceding with a wry smile, "Life goes on." Luan Gaines/2004.

Rowland and Nina Mahler run an itinerant finishing school, College Sunrise, located for the time being in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland, an aspiring novelist, teaches the school's nine students creative writing, while Nina-whose fondest desire, strangely enough, is to be married to a scholar-instructs them in etiquette. ("There's no need to jump to your feet if one of your friend's parents comes into the room, far less your own. It looks too well trained.") Problems develop during the year described in Muriel Sparks' The Finishing School when Rowland conceives a powerful jealousy of 17-year-old student Chris Wiley. Chris is at the school to work on his own book, a historical novel about the murder of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots, that takes jealousy as its theme. Chris manages to interest publishers and film producers in his unfinished manuscript with unlikely and, for Rowland, maddening ease. With Rowland's marriage suffering as a result of his obsession with Chris and with Chris himself showing signs of instability, with several of the book's characters announcing that the situation is ripe for murder, the end of the school year holds the promise of high drama.

Not that high drama is in fact delivered. Nor will readers care very much how the year wraps up for the College Sunrise students and faculty, for we never come to know the characters of Sparks' short book. Most are one-dimensional creatures whose names one needn't bother remembering from one page to the next. The two characters whose emotions are explored in the book-Rowland and Chris-are only slightly more fleshed out. Throughout, Sparks keeps readers at an emotional distance, "telling" rather than "showing," the reverse of the old saw about writing: "Nina now perceived that Rowland's jealousy was an obsession." Sparks' prose, sometimes stilted, fails to charm. ("The Sunrise group comprised eight, the ninth, Princess Tilly, having a pain in her stomach and so forced to lie on a sofa for some hours, on this her bad day of the month.") When the end comes-an abrupt section in which the characters' fates are revealed à la the film Animal House-one feels that one has read the literary equivalent of empty calories.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Witty and memorable... that was my impression from the first chapter. The story itself is about a (nomadic) finishing school, Sunrise College. I laughed at what they were actually learning there and the obsession war going on between Chris and Rowland. It's like watching a British soap opera with style. Very entertaining.