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The word "prime" was used more in this book than some math textbooks, I think.
Book #60: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Author: Muriel Spark
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
For a book that I really just picked up on a whim, because I'd thought to read it idly at a few points over the past few years, this really paid off. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a modern classic (to the degree that I read the Modern Classics edition), which is usually enough to put me off something, but perhaps I should reconsider that if this delightful, slim little novel is what I'm missing out on. For something that was a scant 123 pages, there's a surprising amount of depth here.
Our Miss Jean Brodie here is a teacher at a fairly good private school in Edinburgh in the mid-1930s, who has different ideas about teaching than her colleagues. Thus, her headmistress at the school would like to find some reason to kick her out, but it's hard to find purchase among her students to find grounds to do so, since just being unorthodox isn't grounds as long as the students are learning. And her students, and particularly her own Brodie Set of six girls that she has decided to devote her prime to, hold her in high esteem, taking in all the lessons she cares to give, and of course much more from her own life, her lost love in WWI, and then her new romantic connections to two different teachers now in her prime. But in the end, one of them comes to betray her, and she is cast out. How and why this comes to pass, and the growth of the girls, that forms the bulk of the story.
Saying that one of her set betrays her isn't really a spoiler, mind - we hear of this quite early, and find out the identity of the betrayer fairly early on as well, even if the betrayal itself only comes at the end. Spark writes her way through with a wide, knowing eye over the sweep of the years, so that we see the roots of the students' connections with her, starting off in junior school, and then on through the rest of their lives, just with making casual references to the future, and back again. This style actually does a great job of building along to the resolution while letting us see the different characters and how their personalities and lives were shaped, by themselves and by Miss Brodie. It allows for a lot of characterization, given the shortness of the book.
As much as I had interest in the story, though, the writing and the characters really did sell it. The book really is quite funny, for Miss Brodie's teachings, all the Primes and the meanings of education and the nature of her classes, how she cuts through life. What the girls take away from it, what they actually do with the teaching and what they think about, is often presented humorously, as well. But there is a great feeling of psychological reality to it all, both for Miss Brodie and her love interests, and also for the different girls. The thematic structure, of connection and trying to find and protect your role, is really well done, and the characters we see a lot of definitely have complex minds. They're real people, and I imagine this is a book that would stand up quite well to re-reading. There're lots of good metaphor and psychology stuff to dig into.
Anyway, for its size - really, you can probably knock this off in an easy few hours - there's a lot of humor and amusement to get out of this, and a lot of meat, as well. The story's got a real spark, and I really enjoyed it. Definitely this is one that's worth a quick try, to enjoy and to admire.
Tomorrow: Uh. I'll try The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian again.
Book #60: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Author: Muriel Spark
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
For a book that I really just picked up on a whim, because I'd thought to read it idly at a few points over the past few years, this really paid off. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a modern classic (to the degree that I read the Modern Classics edition), which is usually enough to put me off something, but perhaps I should reconsider that if this delightful, slim little novel is what I'm missing out on. For something that was a scant 123 pages, there's a surprising amount of depth here.
Our Miss Jean Brodie here is a teacher at a fairly good private school in Edinburgh in the mid-1930s, who has different ideas about teaching than her colleagues. Thus, her headmistress at the school would like to find some reason to kick her out, but it's hard to find purchase among her students to find grounds to do so, since just being unorthodox isn't grounds as long as the students are learning. And her students, and particularly her own Brodie Set of six girls that she has decided to devote her prime to, hold her in high esteem, taking in all the lessons she cares to give, and of course much more from her own life, her lost love in WWI, and then her new romantic connections to two different teachers now in her prime. But in the end, one of them comes to betray her, and she is cast out. How and why this comes to pass, and the growth of the girls, that forms the bulk of the story.
Saying that one of her set betrays her isn't really a spoiler, mind - we hear of this quite early, and find out the identity of the betrayer fairly early on as well, even if the betrayal itself only comes at the end. Spark writes her way through with a wide, knowing eye over the sweep of the years, so that we see the roots of the students' connections with her, starting off in junior school, and then on through the rest of their lives, just with making casual references to the future, and back again. This style actually does a great job of building along to the resolution while letting us see the different characters and how their personalities and lives were shaped, by themselves and by Miss Brodie. It allows for a lot of characterization, given the shortness of the book.
As much as I had interest in the story, though, the writing and the characters really did sell it. The book really is quite funny, for Miss Brodie's teachings, all the Primes and the meanings of education and the nature of her classes, how she cuts through life. What the girls take away from it, what they actually do with the teaching and what they think about, is often presented humorously, as well. But there is a great feeling of psychological reality to it all, both for Miss Brodie and her love interests, and also for the different girls. The thematic structure, of connection and trying to find and protect your role, is really well done, and the characters we see a lot of definitely have complex minds. They're real people, and I imagine this is a book that would stand up quite well to re-reading. There're lots of good metaphor and psychology stuff to dig into.
Anyway, for its size - really, you can probably knock this off in an easy few hours - there's a lot of humor and amusement to get out of this, and a lot of meat, as well. The story's got a real spark, and I really enjoyed it. Definitely this is one that's worth a quick try, to enjoy and to admire.
Tomorrow: Uh. I'll try The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian again.
