Product Description

In mid-twentieth-century London, aspiring young writer Fleur Talbot becomes secretary to a motley group of egoists who are composing their memoirs in advance and uncovers material enough for any novelist, but is perplexed by the familiarity of their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #796729 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Spark sure has some spark!
'Loitering with Intent' is enchanting. From the very first page the reader will appreciate Spark's keen, creative ability in being able to draw a first-person narrator who is almost faultless, with a strong, contemporary, female voice. Name: Fleur Talbot.

It is a quality rare in most other books with a strong, modern, singular voice -- demonstrated by few other contemporary authors, certainly Greene and Murdoch.

The astute narration ensures great storytelling with unforeseen, complicated twists -- a combination of who-dunnits, what-ifs? and how-on-earths? -- that will keep the reader continuously entertained.

Furthermore, it offers excellent insight into the mind of a writer, as Spark creates a literary protagonist. Fleur's observations are highly witty, intelligent and perceptive, creating real, mildly-ridiculous characters. As we warm to Fleur's vivacity we can't help but share in her mocking.

The parallels of art (literature) to life is a prominent and cleverly developed theme. What is Spark saying? As life starts to dangerously imitate art, does Spark reiterate her character's belief that the two are entirely intertwined; life is not life without art?

Similarly, the relationship between life and religion is then considered (the subtle subtext of the novel), adding a dimension to the tale, whilst remaining highly, and surprisingly, contemporary).

In fact it is the subtleties of the novel that should enthuse the reader, always conveyed with wit and half-explored satire, demanding the participation of the reader's own imagination.

We leave the novel with the conviction that Fleur is infallible. Her triumph becomes our triumph. From her handling of events, her perceptive insight into others both superfically and deeply, her organised chaos and simple attitude to life and aspirations, she becomes the object of deep admiration and envy in every reader.

Whilst the plot may thicken (and sometimes detach the reader), Fleur never fades, nor do her group of friends, the unlikely Edwina and colourful Solly, along with the arrogant Leslie and desperate Dottie. For once, Fleur might agree that a name has been chosen well!!

A fantastic, light read, concise, entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking...

Bright Spark
Fleur Talbot lives on what she'd probably call the grimy fringes of literary London in the early 50s. It reeks with atmosphere - eating sardines in a bedsit, writing poetry in a graveyard, having a brief affair with a married man who then goes off with another man. Fleur becomes close (and, we discover, lifelong) friends with her lover's wife. But this is just incidental. Or is it? In a Spark novel, you never know where you are. Information is dished out parsimoniously, and apparently out of sequence. Life imitates art, art imitates life. Fleur takes a job with a rickety outfit called the Autobiographical Association. She becomes convinced that the man who runs it, Sir Oliver Quentin, has a long term plan to blackmail the members, who include (of course) a defrocked priest and an aging minor aristocrat nicknamed "Bucks" (her real name's Bernice). Fleur begins to feel that she is inventing everyone she knows as her novel takes shape. Skullduggery ensues as Sir Oliver tries to get her novel suppressed (it gives away his evil plans). There's an awful moment (you saw it coming) when Fleur finds that all copies of her novel have disappeared. Who triumphs in the end? Well, it's Fleur herself telling the story.

I loved this novel
I loved the blurring of the boundaries between fiction and 'real life.' The story is told by an author who finds that what she writes begins to happen. As the reader I wondered whether life was imitating the story or vice versa. This is a book which is difficult to put down.