A review by sctittle
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark

4.0

Not having come of age in post-war England, I believe the nuances of this little gem of a novel mostly escaped me. So this story of a young woman (29-30 over the course of the novel) and her fellow rooming house inhabitants felt a little random at times. But characteristically Muriel Spark: sly wit, subtle comedy, a sense of menace and a deeply sympathetic narrator. Oh, and some sublime writing. A man is "thin and grey and his voice matched his looks. It sounded like a wisp of smoke wafting from some burning leaves hidden by a clump of lavender.""[His] words of praise were like the cry of a bird in distress, far away across a darkening lake. I had a sense he was offering things abominable to me, like decaffeinated coffee or coitus interruptus."