Complacent Bounty 
Susan Eilenberg
For the past half-century Muriel Spark has been the recognised master of detachment. The closer she approaches matters of terror or outrage or betrayal or shame the more controlled her voice. To memory-summoned menace and ritually recalled violation her response has been severe amusement or colder revenge; to the threat of madness or obsession (her own or another’s), controlled glee. Her achieved indifference, the spectrum of its neutralities as wide as the world, is balanced on a point of lucid joy. She saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha.
Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.
Susan Eilenberg teaches in the English department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Other articles by this contributor:
With A, then B, then C · The Sexual Life of Iris M.
Forget that I exist · Mary Wollstonecraft
Leaf, Button, Dog · The Sins of Hester Thrale
print layout
tell a friend