Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Apr. 19--On the opening page of Muriel Spark's unsettlingly 1958 novel, "Memento Mori," Dame Lettie Colston answers the phone, and a man's voice says simply: "Remember you must die."
It's a call that many elderly people in Dame Lettie's circle are receiving, over and over. And it sets in motion the action of the novel, but, through the course of the book, the source of the calls is never explained.
Muriel Spark, who died last Thursday in Italy at age 88, was a writer enamored of mystery. And absurdity. And humanity. And morality. And faith.
In her 1988 novel "A Far Cry from Kensington," Mrs. Hawkins, the narrator, says, "I can't disbelieve."
The same was true for Spark, a Scottish-born Catholic convert. Yet her faith wasn't rooted in the dry tenets of papal pronouncements. It grew out of the chaos of life and the sometimes pitiable, sometimes majestic striving of human beings.
Spark, who published more than 20 novels as well as poetry and short story collections, a play, two literary biographies and a memoir, was best known for her 1961 book, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," later made into a popular movie starring Maggie Smith.
Her novels, while centered on the details of daily life, were consistently odd. Spark looked at the world from unexpected angles.
She was filled with wonder. She laughed at the astonishingly odd ways people act -- and helped her readers see the humor. All of her characters were imperfect, and Spark held those imperfections tenderly in her hands.
She believed in people, and she believed that life, with all its absurdities, had meaning.
The greatest absurdity, of course, was that death was unavoidable. Spark never forgot.
preardon@tribune.com
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
LSE:KGN,
