"Competent and effective criticism of the privileged class"
Muriel SPARK has added yet another star to her long list
of novels with The Finishing School. This 23rd novel or
novella as it is only 181 pages long, confirms her secure
status among British novelists.
Written in a rapid, economical style, it is fast paced and
very comical at times. As in her well known novel THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE,
the primary action of the novel takes place in a school
setting, College Sunrise, a co-ed "comme il faut"
finishing school for rich kids in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The plot focuses mainly on Rowland Mahler, a writer and
creative writing teacher and his love/hate
relationship
with Chris Wiley, a precocious successful writer. Rowland
suffers from writer's block and is extremely jealous of
Chris Wiley's success. Nina, Rowland's wife, and the
director of the school, progressively detaches herself
from Rowland and falls into the arms of their
neighbor, Israel Brown.
At the end of the school year, the group dynamics is
disintegrated and abruptly terminates in the concluding
chapter. Muriel Spark using quick stokes sketches the rest of the
cast of College Sunrise.
Perhaps, a reflection of the fact that the main stay of
the students at the school is of a very short duration. The most commendable part of the novel is the ability of
the author to let us have a peek at the creative writing
process. She has a profound understanding of class
dynamics, sexual tension
and professional
jealousy. In short, THE FINISHING SCHOOL is a compact but effective
criticism of "the privileged" class of society with their
laisser-faire attitude. However, unlike THE PRIME OF MISS
JEAN BRODIE, THE FINISHING SCHOOL is far too sketchy and
does not give us enough time to digest the characters. Reviewer-Lily Azerad-Goldman
Reviewed by Norman Goldman
Courtesy Bookpleasures
Posted September 24, 2004
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