The Driver's Seat

This is a really weird book. It's kind of the opposite of a murder mystery. The main character Lise travels to Europe to die. She spends the day walking around the city with an elderly woman and enjoying the day all the while looking for the man who will carry out the deed. I have a feeling I will be returning to this book.

Muriel Spark's most famous novel, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, was published in its entirety in the early 60s in THE NEW YORKER. Nearly a decade later they repeated this by published her short novel THE DRIVER'S SEAT in the same fashion. Although the later work is not nearly as famous as BRODIE, it sometimes has been called her best work of fiction; it certainly is her most shocking, and shows Spark at the peak of her abilities.The novel (more of a novella) centers upon the last day of life of Lise, a single woman working for an accounting firm somewhere in Northern Europe (the country is never specified). Mentally unsound, Lise has decided to take a vacation to a "Southern" city (which may be Rome) to find her type; we discover relatively early that Lise will be found stabbed the next day, and as the narrative progresses we come to understand that what Lise calls "my type"--the man for which she searches--is not an ideal lover but an ideal murderer. But Lise does not seem to be the only unstable figure in the novella: many of the people she encounters behave as strangely as she does, so that it begins to seem as if Lise's madness is merely symptomatic of her larger cultures. (Figures from the late 60s youth movements appear in the story, as does an odd character attracted to Lise who espouses the benefits of macrobiotic diets and something like an orgasmic theory of sexual health.) The novella is easy to finish in one sitting, propelled as it is by the engine of dread it engenders by its mentions of Lise's horrible doom for which she so meticulously planned. THE DRIVER'S SEAT is much better known in the United Kingdom than in the United States; the unappealing and badly designed cover New Directions has provided for the current edition is likely part of the problem.

This book was the selection of the reading group at my local bookstore. As always, the book selected is one that I would never have chosen on my own and which literary type people love. I was unique in the group because I really hated this book even though I can recognize that it is a classic and that is was well written.First of all the main character is completely unlikable. She's an office worker who is going on a holiday but from the beginning the reader knows that something is wrong. We see that she is definitely a little mental as she shops for an outfit that she tells the salesgirl she wants to stain easily. Then, as she makes preparations to leave the reader gets the feeling that she is not planning on coming back.She gets into a weird relationship with a man she meets on the plane, an elderly woman she meets in a shop and most of her actions make the reader know she is definitely mentally unbalanced as she goes about her vacation in this unnamed destination.It's a good thing the book is short because it is an unpleasant read and quite disorienting. The tension never stops and the characters are all unlikable. I guess it's a statement on unpredictability and free will but I just didn't get it.This 1970 book is somehow considered a classic. This is probably because it is so unique and weird. I can definably see the talent and creativity of the author and I think it's a good idea for me to read a wide variety of books.. However, I really did hate every word of it.

Book arrived with back cover folded, as if it had been dropped prior to shipping

Enjoyable read. You can fill in the 18 words with fine, good, enjoyable, and whatever you want. I do not like to waste time on this.

The conclusion of the book is literally foretold in the early pages and throughout the narrative, but the path Lise takes to arrive at her grisly end is bizarrely unnerving and always compelling. A one sitting read.

Okay, I call BS on The Driver’s Seat (1970), Muriel Spark’s self-consciously shocking ode to assisted self-slaughter. The (thankfully) short novella is about 34-year-old spinster Lise who goes on holiday for the first time in three years, apparently to Southern Italy, though it’s never specified.Anyway, the geography doesn’t matter. What does is that Lise will be found dead of multiple stab wounds a day after her arrival. This isn’t a spoiler. We are told this early on.I suppose there is a strong dramatic interest in finding out just how such a horrific crime came to be but the problem is that Lise is clearly irrational and not very sympathetic. She is confrontational and rather obnoxiously rude to numerous people she meets.The message seems to be that despite all her problems and hangups, Lise is still in “the driver’s seat” when it comes to ending her own life, and she manipulates several people to make it end the way she wants. Well hurrah for her…The writing is crisp and Lise’s actions perplexing enough to keep the dramatic drive going, especially given the short length it needs to be maintained. But in the end we are left with the rather banal conclusion that people off their rockers will do irrational things. From the author of such excellent fare as The Mandelbaum Gate, The Public Image, The Girls of Slender Means and, of course, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I was expecting a bit more than cheap thrills.

Il libro è arrivato un po' ammaccato. Si tratta di un thriller al contrario: seguiamo una donna che sappiamo che verrà uccisa il giorno dopo che la storia ha luogo e, camminando con lei lungo il percorso che la condurrà alla morte, dobbiamo cercare di capire chi è il suo assassino e perché l'ha uccisa. Il finale vi sconvolgerà! In un'unione di generi, dal thriller al post-modernismo, questo romanzo cerca di decostruire il rapporto tra autore e opera narrativa, mentre Lise, la protagonista, cerca di determinare il suo destino in un mondo predeterminato. Una lettura davvero interessante! Consigliato!

Muriel Spark’s ‘The Driver’s Seat’ is an exceptional piece of literature. I read it in a day.From the very start of the novel I was kept on edge, eager to comprehend as to why Lise disliked stainless dresses. Such emphasis on the mundane, a dress that distinct in colour, drives us to think about the mundane in reality. However, Spark draws us into Lise’s reality; and that is the metaphysical aspect of the novel. We do not see her death coming, but we do. Spark informs us of her narrative death, fragmenting the text and the text’s temporality. In doing so, I believe she is commenting on the illusionary power of the mundane. What is the significance of a distinctly colorful dress? What is the significance of a paper-knife? Why and how did Lise convince a man, previously convicted of murder, to kill her? The answer is made clear throughout. Lise wanted her dress to stain. She wanted to make her death known; planting evidence herself, with us, as readers, not even aware due to Spark’s smart use of language - we are not only manipulated by the protagonist, but also, in turn, by the author itself.We become part of The Driver’s Seat, falling victim to Lise’s illusory reality. We become part of the text; aware yet unaware, suspicious yet not suspicious. Perhaps Spark is doing this to critique how one can become manipulated by reality, by strangers. The novel basically becomes an adult way of saying ‘Stranger Danger’, as the stranger in the text, (paradoxically the protagonist Lise who is not a stranger to us), ends up becoming psychotic. Did we expect it? Yes and no (you have to read the text to understand how it can be both yes and no... trust me)!Highly recommend this text. Got me thinking...

História super bem escrita e rápida de ler (acredito que escoceses já nascem contadores de histórias).

Has not held up well over time.

Perfect transaction... book in very good condtions... no damage... recommended sellerreceived in stimated time... eveything okI don't know what else to say, I need to complete this section to give my opinion about the purchase :)