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About The Abbess of Crewe:
An election (?) has been held at the Abbey of Crewe. The new Lady Abbess takes up her high office with implacable serenity. She had expected to win – one way or the other
When did I first read this? sometime after 1977 (when the edition I have was published) and June 1980 (when I started keeping a record of books read)
What age was I? between 16 and 19
How many times since then? This is my fifth time of reading.
Thoughts about the book:
I have been a fan of Muriel Spark for almost thirty-five years which is an astonishing thing to realise given that inside my head I am still 17 rather than the batty old dear I sometimes consider myself these days. I can’t recall now when I was first introduced to her; my memory says The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (which I have reviewed here) but another part of me thinks that I may have read some of her stuff before then and that The Abbess was one of the first.
It fascinates me because it is a short and pointed re-telling of the Watergate saga if it had taken place in an English convent, with The Abbess the Nixonian figure and her rival, Sister Felicity, representing the Democrats. And of course it’s not the theft of the silver thimble during the election of the Abbess, it’s the ensuing cover up which causes the problems. I think this has stuck with me not just because it’s another one of Sparks’ perfect little jewels but because it’s about Watergate which has fascinated me since I read All The Presidents Men in the early seventies (I still have the film tie-in edition somewhere in the house with long-haired Redford and Hoffman on the cover) and I have quite a few books on the subject, so some of the fun in reading The Abbess is in trying to identify the equivalents of the real life protagonists such as Haldeman and Kissinger (though the latter is really easy, Sister Gertrude a wonderful character awkays at one remove from political danger).
So almost certainly not a masterpeice but one of my absolute favourites and short enough to be read in one satisfying sitting.
Favourite bits:
“Why should they trouble themselves about a salacious nun and a Jesuit? I must say a jesuit, or any priest for that matter, would be the last man I would myself elect to be laid by. A man who undresses, maybe; a man who unfrocks, no”
“And it seems to me, Gertrude, that you are going to have a problem with those cannibals on the Latter Day when the trumpet shall sound. It’s a question of which man shall rise in the Resurrection, for certainly those that are eaten have long since become the consumers from generation to generation.”
“Now if you please, Walburga, let’s consult The Art of War because time is passing and the sands are running out.”
This is the second book in my Big Re-read Project; it was also my first Readathon read and would have been part of my contribution to Muriel Spark week if I had been sufficiently organised to (1) read a couple of other Sparks and (b) get around to blogging about The Abbess.
About The Telling of Lies:
On a beautiful hot day off the coast of maine an iceberg looms on the horizon and Calder Maddox, and aged and unprepossessing pharmaceuticals millionnaire is found dead on the beach. Nessa van Horne has photographed the day’s events and as she studies the pictures she draws parallels between her own experience of evil when she was imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp and the increasingly chilling evidence of Maddox’s murder and a political cover-up
When did I first read this? February 1993
What age was I? 31
How many times since then? This is my first re-read.
Thoughts about the book:
I can’t remember when I first realised I had a thing for all matters Canadian. I think I must actually have been quite small and it may have been because of a visit from some of Dad’s relatives who had emigrated from Scotland to Ontario in the 1920s. Anyhow, it is a real thing for me and although I haven’t yet made it there (I was insanely jealous of the Book God when he went to Vancouver on business and I couldn’t go with him because I had just started a new job, but I will get my revenge, oh yes) I seek out the books and films and music and of course lovely blogging people like Susan. But I digress. In my twenties I worked my way through Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Robertson Davies etc and was looking to widen my horizons a bit, and someone recommended Timothy Findley to me. The Telling of Lies wasn’t the first of his books that I read (that honour probably goes to Famous Last Words or The Butterfly Plague) but it is the one that has stayed with me the longest. It pops into my head every so often and I was completely astonished to find that I had only read it that one time.
I love this book but I’m not really sure that I have got to the bottom of what it’s actually about. On the surface it’s exactly what it says on the cover, murder and cover-ups and so on, but I can’t help feeling that there is something more that I’m just not getting and that’s perhaps why it stays with me. And of course I just love Nessa; I see her as being a sort of Vanessa Redgrave figure (as she was when I was lucky enough to see her in The Year of Magical Thinking, tall and dignified and white-haired), and she is a remarkable character.
Favourite bits:
Everyone has always known that Lily has a heart of gold; but we have also known it’s a chocolate heart and the gold is only a wrapper made of foil
I asked him if, there being so many more, he intended to read them all. And he said “I’ve read them all before, Miss Van Horne. This time, I’m reading them just for pleasure.” I had no reply for this, not having known there could be pleasure in Henry James.
Memory is like that. It buffets you with stories out of sequence. It harries you with the past and it blinds you to the present. It seems to take all its cues at random – failing to deliver what you want to know, while it offers up data that seems to have no bearing on the moment.
As for me – I saw them both as beautiful and exceptional, until he died. It was only then that I encountered Mother as she really was: a reflection stranded in an abandoned mirror.
If I could only learn to be at peace with the wonderfully simple, scientific fact of life: we die. Surely, how we die is all that matters, when it comes to that.
If online comments are to be believed (and I haven’t been exhaustive in my search for the views of others), I’m one of the few out there who seems to rate this novel. One thing is certain; I’m not going to leave it for another almost twenty years before I pick this up again.
This is the first book in my Big Re-read Project
So, the readathon is over and I’m really pleased with what I managed to achieve despite having to give into age and have a nap this morning. I certainly did much better than my previous participation in 2010.
The final tally is:
- Currently reading: Bury Her Deep by Catriona McPherson
- Books finished: 7
- Pages read: 63
- Running total of pages read: 1293
- Amount of time spent reading: 45 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 11 hours 40 minutes
- Mini-challenges completed: None
- Other participants I’ve visited: 2
And in addition to reading some fabulous books I’ve also managed to raise £300 for my selected charity, and that’s before I’ve added my own £10 per book finished. The only thing I would do differently is visit other people’s blogs more but you know what it’s like when you get caught up in good stories. Great fun once again.
Only an hour to go and here’s what I’ve achieved to date:
- Currently reading: Bury Her Deep by Catriona McPherson
- Books finished: 7
- Pages read: 63
- Running total of pages read: 1230
- Amount of time spent reading: 50 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 10 hours 55 minutes
- Mini-challenges completed: given up on that idea
- Other participants I’ve visited: 2
Home stretch!
Back in the swing of it all as expected, stats are:
- Currently reading: The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore
- Books finished: 6
- Pages read: 213
- Running total of pages read: 1167
- Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour 55 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 10 hours 05 minutes
- Mini-challenges completed: given up on that idea
- Other participants I’ve visited: 2
It’s a beautiful sunny morning and I will be able to finish at least one more book, possibly two if I’m lucky!
So resting my eyes again turned into dozing in my chair turned into the need for a bit of a nap, but I’m back and startup stats are:
- Currently reading: Watson’s Choice by Gladys Mitchell
- Books finished: 5
- Pages read: 67
- Running total of pages read: 954
- Amount of time spent reading: 50 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 8 hours 10 minutes
- Mini-challenges completed: don’t think it’s going to happen
- Other participants I’ve visited: 2
In it til the end now!
Been flagging a bit since my last post, had to take a break to rest my eyes and my page rate is slowing down but still keeping on; current stats are:
- Currently reading: Watson’s Choice by Gladys Mitchell
- Books finished: 5
- Pages read: 67
- Running total of pages read: 887
- Amount of time spent reading: 50 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 7 hours 20 minutes
- Mini-challenges completed: don’t think it’s going to happen
- Other participants I’ve visited: 2
Sunday already, how time flies when you are having fun. It’s 00:30 and what I’ve achieved so far is:
- Currently reading: just finished The Small Hand by Susan Hill and am about to start Watson’s Choice by Gladys Mitchell
- Books finished: 5
- Pages read: 167
- Running total of pages read: 820
- Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 6 hours 30 minutes
- Mini-challenges completed: maybe later
- Other participants I’ve visited: 2
Looking forward to spending a couple of hours in the company of Mrs Bradley.
So, after some pasta and an episode of House (he needs to stay with Domenika in my opinion), I am reasonably refreshed and ready to start gain. The results so far are::
- Currently reading: haven’t decided on my next book; should it be more crime or a ghost story?
- Books finished: 4
- Pages read: 140
- Running total of pages read: 653
- Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 5 hours 10 minutes
- Mini-challenges completed: maybe later
- Other participants I’ve visited: 2
Think I’m feeling ghost story-ish.
Currently wallowing in the glory that is 1930s crime fiction, but what you really want are the stats:
- Currently reading: Death Walks in Eastrepps by Francis Beeding
- Books finished: 3
- Pages read: 114
- Running total of pages read: 513
- Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Running total of time spent reading: 4 hours
- Mini-challenges completed: decided not to participate for the moment
- Other participants I’ve visited: 1
So from 1970’s English convent via Edwardian Dartmoor and the literary world of Angela Carter to East Anglia in the 1930s – what next?
Bride of the Book God 