I’m sure you will all be delighted to hear that this review is likely to be quite short (famous last words). The Driver’s Seat is definitely a book about which it would be quite possible to say too much.
Muriel Spark is an author I have been meaning to properly get to grips with for a long time, having only read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – which I liked but didn’t love. Although I already had two or three other Muriel Spark novels tbr – this was recommended to me recently by a bookseller on Twitter. I knew nothing about the book, but the cover practically sold it to me. I’m glad I knew nothing about the novel before I started (the blurb to this edition intrigues without giving too much away).
The Driver’s Seat is immediately unsettling, we meet Lise who appears to have been driven to distraction – working in the same office for sixteen years. Lise is leaving everything behind – jetting off to an unnamed European city.
“Her lips are slightly parted: she, whose lips are usually pressed together with the daily disapprovals of the accountants’ office where she has worked continually, except for the months of illness, since she was 18, that is to say, for 16 years and some months. Her lips, when she does not speak or eat, are normally pressed together like the ruled line of a balance sheet, marked straight with her old-fashioned lipstick, a final and judging mouth, a precision instrument.”
As the novel opens Lise is acting a little erratically – the reader still doesn’t know Lise – we don’t know what she is doing – and yet sense that something isn’t right. She’s shopping for holiday clothes. In the first shop, Lise tries on a brightly coloured dress she likes the look of, the assistant excitedly tells her how it is made of new stain-resisting material. Lise is outraged – that she should need stain proof garments! – her anger is out of all proportion – and our sense of things being a little bit out of kilter is increased.
Lise goes to another shop – no stain-resisting materials here to upset her. She selects a brightly coloured dress – overlooked by most shoppers – a yellow top, with the skirt a pattern of blue, mauve and orange vs. She selects a coat to wear over the top – narrow, red and white stripes – a combination the salesgirl delicately suggests couldn’t be worn together – Lise laughs off such advice. (Here we see how utterly perfect the cover of this Penguin Modern classics edition is). Everyone is wearing mini-skirts – Lise seems happy to wear her skirt well below the knee – and so, thus unfashionably and garishly attired she is transformed – and it would appear quite deliberately unforgettable.
Lise leaves everything behind – intending to leave her car keys in an envelope for someone to pick up she is distracted at the last minute and goes off with them still in her hand. Lise seems to be embracing the new excitements and freedoms of the 1960s.
“‘Sex is all right’ he says
‘It’s all right at the time, and it’s all right before’ says Lise, ‘but the problem is afterwards. That is, if you’re not an animal. Most of the time, afterwards is pretty sad.’”
She boards her plane, seating herself between two men, one of the men instantly feels uneasy about her. The other one seems very happy to meet her, instantly engaging Lise in conversation – Bill – is a proponent of the macrobiotic diet, and wants to meet up the following day. We can’t be completely sure if there’s something odd about Bill – other than his diet. Once they have landed – in what we assume is a Mediterranean city – Lise sets about bringing to fruition her plan – whatever that may be. She talks brightly and loudly to everyone she meets, seems to be searching for a boyfriend, accompanies an elderly woman to a department store – more shopping. The reader never gets especially close to any of these characters – we don’t need to – their presence merely helps to show Lise for the self-destructive nightmare that she is. Lise also remains something of an enigma, we never know her inner thoughts, fears or motivations – of course this is deliberate. We really get to know Lise through her extravagances her increasingly strange behaviour – and as we struggle to understand her – our mind goes back to the woman who shopped for deliberately garish clothing, jibbed at stain-resistant fabrics and left everything behind her.
I am loath to say anything else about the plot, I really wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone. In a sense a review can’t possibly do justice to this extraordinarily, dark novella. Muriel Spark messes with our heads brilliantly, subverts our expectations – and leaves us with a story that is both uncomfortable and unforgettable.
Reading The Driver’s Seat has definitely whetted my appetite for more Muriel Spark – I know I have three others buried somewhere on my tbr bookcase – I would love to tell you which ones. However they are hidden by stacks of other books and I can’t remember which they are – but I shall have dig them out sometime soon.
I just read this last week, so perfect timing! Great review, and I agree its very hard not to say too much about it. It’s a deeply unsettling tale, I thought it was brilliantly written.
The unsettling nature of it is so well done.
Ooh, this sounds unsettling and alluring! More coincidences -MarinaSofia has a picture of Spark and Cat on her blog today.
I loved her post. I especially liked the Muriel Spark quote she used.
Lovely review Ali, and I’m glad you haven’t said too much about the book as I have it lurking on the TBR! I think Spark is wonderful and it’s a shame her other books are a bit overshadowed by Brodie.
Yes I get the impression from other readers of her that Brodie may be best known but it’s not necessarily her best novel.
A lovely review of book it is so tricky to write about. I read it years ago and I still remember it so well.
Yes, I can imagine it will really stay with me too.
One I haven’t read, but have on the shelf – it sounds wonderful. Must get to it some time soon, as I’ve enjoyed the few Sparks I’ve read a lot. (I say that every time a review crops up of this one!).
I know what you mean , whenever I see someone reading or reviewing Muriel Spark it nudges me toward her.
The Girls of Slender Means is the other title by Spark most people read so maybe thats one you have on your shelf
Well I’m not sure but I don’t think I do have that one- it will be exciting to discover which I do have. 😊
I love The Driver’s Seat, such an impactful and disturbing book. Lovely review Ali.
Thank you, it really does pack a punch.
I’ve read a lot of Spark’s books but not this one, I must get to it soon. I think my favourite is The Girls of Slender Means, but some people don’t rate it at all. Your bookshelves sound just like mine.
😊 my shelves are a bit chaotic! Thanks for the recommendation- I like the title at least.
I just finished The Girls of Slender Means which was remarkable. I’m also inspired to read more of Spark.
Oh pleased to hear The Girls of Slender means was so good.
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I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Girls of Slender Means quite some years ago now. I’ll have to seek this one out as my next Spark. It sounds deliciously creepy.
Oh yes it is, probably more unsettling than creepy but I highly recommend it.
Your bookshelves sound just like mine. […] « The Driver’s Seat – Muriel Spark (1970) […]
Great review! This novella is so obscure and completely bindboggling.
Thank you.
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