This was very simply a lovely book to read. It takes place in 1945 just after the Second World War. We enter into the lives of the girls of the May of Tech club, which is essentially a girl’s hostel. The girls live within limited means, often exchanging rations and sharing one Schiaparelli dress for an evening out. Nicholas Farrington, a writer who is introduced to the club by Jane Wright, a publisher, falls in love with the May of Tech club and is intrigued by it and its members and we get to view the girls through his eyes. Muriel Spark uses amusing snippets from life within the club to reveal to us the everyday happenings within, like spreading margarine over their bodies so the girls can slip out the lavatory window to sunbathe on the roof, and the older members of the club bricking up the skylight to the roof as it was rumoured a burglar (or lover) had entered through it. It is youthful and lighthearted in places, yet Spark aptly includes slices of poetry throughout the book that culminate in a dramatic ending. All the events that take place in the club seem like unrelated stories at first but they are all skillfully brought together in the end. It is cleverly written, switching from the present to the past and my only disappoint was that it was such a short book.
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