Later there's a description of Dougal standing in a hallway listening to someone talking on the telephone: He breathed moistly on the oak panel of the hall, and with his free hand drew a face on the misty surface. We see how bored he is. Nothing needs to be added. Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Quirky, farcical, and darkly comic, it sure was entertaining. But, for me, seeing as the bar was raised higher in other novels, It isn't one of her absolute greats. As usual, Muriel Spark was enough over my head that I finished this highly comic novel and was not quite sure what I had just read.

The barmaid said: ‘It was only a few weeks ago. You saw it in the papers. That chap who left the girl at the altar, that’s him. She lives up the Grove. Crewe by name.’ Spark is very skilled in her use of dialogue to convey the story, a technique that gives the novella a sense of closeness or immediacy, almost as if the reader is eavesdropping on a conversation between friends. The saga of Dixie’s abandonment is relayed through gossip at the pub, with various locals chipping in, adding their two pennies’ worth to the anecdote as it passes along. As the novella opens, people are discussing an aborted wedding involving Dixie Morse, a typist at Meadows, Meade & Grindley (a local textiles’ factory), and Humphrey Place, a refrigerator engineer. Some three weeks’ earlier, Humphrey had said ‘no’ at the altar, walking out on Dixie and a church full of guests.

Retailers:

There was I,’ sang out an old man who was visible with his old wife on the corner bench over in the public bar, ‘waiting at the church, waiting at the church.’ There was I,' sang out an old man in the public bar, 'waiting at the church, waiting at the church.' The rest of the characters are well drawn with sharp social satire; from the young thugs, the disillusioned members of the typing pool, the failing to cope director to the ambitious young women.

Wilt thou take this woman to be thy wedded wife?” with “ ‘No,’ Humphrey said, ‘to be quite frank, I won’t’ ”. And that's pretty much all I have to say about the plot part of this book. If you're interested in what Muriel Spark can do with such an age-old theme, you can read this short book for yourself. Muriel Spark imbastisce una commedia ricca di humor inglese ambientandola nella Londra degli anni '60, una Londra industrializzata e sempre più attenta alla situazione degli impiegati. È in questo scenario che entra in gioco il protagonista di questa sinistra ballata: è Dougal Douglas, esperto di "scienze umane" incaricato da una piccola industria tessile di studiare gli impiegati e di migliorarne condizioni di lavoro e di vita, arrivando infine a ridurre l'assenteismo. Does he stir up south London lives, or is it simply that the social strictures inhibiting the sexuality of the characters circa 1960 are a pressure cooker with a failing gasket - it was just a question of time maybe in any case before the lid hits the ceiling? Then again with his Richard III shoulders (which render him unfit for National Service) perhaps he was scheming all along? If I were to give the novel my own title, it might be "Sympathy for the Devil." It is clever, dastardly, and no one escapes this man's antics including the reader. Though each character is an archetype, or at least a type, they have at the same time a unique humanness.After reading this book, I came across the following paragraph in Muriel Spark's autobiography, Curriculum Vitae: I was fascinated from the earliest age I can remember by how people arranged themselves. I can’t remember a time when I was not a person-watcher, a behaviourist. There are shades of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Dougal Douglas may not be the devil (but want about Douglas Dougal) he certainly likes to give the impression that he might be somewhat acquainted with that gentleman, and he is in an infeasible number of different places or perhaps roles all at the same time, ghost writer, expert on industrial absenteeism, alleged police informer and archaeologist. I do have a few thoughts about another aspect of this book however. While reading some of Spark's other novels, I realised what a fine observer of people's behavior she was, and I began to look forward to her descriptions of characters almost as much as to the stories they found themselves in. While reading this 1960 story, spotting such descriptions became my main focus. The old man in the quote above is a good example. After he'd sung the line about waiting at the church, and after he'd been reproved by his wife and the barmaid, each in her own fashion, he took a draught of his bitter with a tremble of the elbow and a turn of the wrist. The gloriously off-kilter world of Muriel Spark continues to be a source of fascination for me. I loved this novella, especially the first half. It’s wonderfully dark and twisted, characteristically Sparkian in its unconventional view.