<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Like Icarus Ascending
Review: Like The Takeover (1976), A Far Cry From Kensington (1988), and Symposium (1990), Robinson (1958) is an intelligent, closely - observed, and highly enjoyable Muriel Spark novel which has failed to find a broad loyal audience or gain the kind of sterling reputation that most of her other books enjoy. The ruminative Robinson is distinct among her novels for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its resemblance to the traditional realistic novel. Robinson is not written in the high satiric style for which Spark is most admired, nor is it an overtly experimental novel like The Driver's Seat (1970) or Not To Disturb (1971). In terms of literary style, the title Robinson most resembles in Spark's oeuvre is A Far Cry From Kensington, another first - person narrative featuring a realistically - drawn female protagonist with few illusions about the perfections of her own character. Taking its cue from Daniel Defoe's famous island adventure, Robinson tells the story of January Marlow, the lone female survivor of a plane crash on a small volcanic island near the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. The island's mysterious, controlling, and cultured owner, Robinson, lives there alone in seclusion with only a small boy, who is not his son, for companionship. Young Jimmie Waterford, Robinson's second cousin and heir, and Tom Wells, a coarse, middle - aged shyster, are the only other survivors. Forced into one another's shaken and injured company until the annual return of a pomegranate boat, the four adults warily go about making the best of their situation. They find themselves competing for influence over Miguel, Robinson's undersocialized "child disciple," while acknowledgements and accusations of homosexuality and bisexuality fly between the men. The vigilant January, attempting to grasp the hidden emotions and motivations of the others, imitates their facial expressions and modes of speech when she believes no one is watching, hoping to intuit clues. During nightly evening gatherings that are clearly a strain for all, Robinson interprets the island's history in terms of both the Atlantis myth and the Avalon of King Arthur. Caught between the zealous Catholic conservatism of Robinson and the apparent credulous superstition of Tom Wells, who travels with and sells Druidic gnome pendants, January, remembering the beliefs of her Scottish grandmother, has to resist the impulse to bow in worship at the sight of the rising moon. Robinson persistently suggests that January keep a daily journal, and her hesitant friendship with Jimmie begins to take on romantic shadings. Beneath the veneer of civility and cooperation that Robinson subtly enforces, the tension, ambivalence, and dislike among the four gradually increases, until a strange violence erupts and the survivors are forced to arm themselves against one another. Like Memento Mori (1958), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), and The Hothouse By The East River (1973) among others, Robinson's narrative revolves in part around a mystery. As in most of Spark's other work, the resolution of the mystery is ultimately superfluous: the genuine meaning of the book exists elsewhere. Robinson is less plot - driven than most of Spark's novels, becoming unexpectedly suspenseful only in the last quarter. Meditative, thoughtful, and unhesitating in its depiction of human nature, Robinson is back in happily print in America after thirty - odd long years of undeserved obscurity.
<< 1 >>
| 
