A review by lagobond
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
1.0
Umm... ok so I read the first 3 chapters (out of 7), then I got tired of this weird nonsense and skipped ahead to the end*. Can't imagine there's anything worthwhile in between. A ridiculous premise, wooden writing, and not a single one of the characters feels like a normal human being. They all act like automatons or crazies, dramatically staring at each other or doing/saying other weird things for no discernible reason.
The author felt the need to talk about the main character's mouth ad nauseam:
There are two things I appreciated about this book. First, the description of Lise's apartment -- I would love to see a place like it. Second, the way this particular book was produced: that beautiful 1970s style with thick paper, an elegant typeface, and lots of room for the text to breathe (small pages, wide margins, plenty of line spacing). I'm finding that I really prefer to read older books, they feel cozy to me. Newer books with their cramped pages and bright white (worse if glossy) paper tend to overwhelm me.
* ... The ending reminded me of the movie Parfait Amour (Perfect Love) by Catherine Breillat, so if you love this book, give the movie a try, but don't say I didn't warn you.
The author felt the need to talk about the main character's mouth ad nauseam:
Her lips, when she does not speak or eat, are normally pressed together like the ruled line of a balance sheet, a final and a judging mouth, a precision instrument, a detail-warden of a mouth [...] with her lips straight as a line which could cancel them out completely [...] her lips are slightly parted as if to receive a secret flavour. In fact her nostrils and eyes are a fragment more open than usual; imperceptibly but thoroughly they accompany her parted lips in one mission [...] Lise makes her mouth into a straight line.That was just two (small) pages' worth of writings about Lise's mouth. Ridiculous. This reads like something written by an AI entity with facial-recognition training and a mouth fetish. (Can AI develop a fetish? Now there's an idea for a sci-fi plot.)
There are two things I appreciated about this book. First, the description of Lise's apartment -- I would love to see a place like it. Second, the way this particular book was produced: that beautiful 1970s style with thick paper, an elegant typeface, and lots of room for the text to breathe (small pages, wide margins, plenty of line spacing). I'm finding that I really prefer to read older books, they feel cozy to me. Newer books with their cramped pages and bright white (worse if glossy) paper tend to overwhelm me.
* ... The ending reminded me of the movie Parfait Amour (Perfect Love) by Catherine Breillat, so if you love this book, give the movie a try, but don't say I didn't warn you.