The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Even though it is relatively short, I struggled through this book! What makes me suffer more however is the fact that I bought it!

There are two aspects of this novel: the characters and the narration. For me, it failed miserably in both. Here's why:

Jean Brodie is a primary teacher, who claims to be in her "prime", a phrase repeated so many times in the novel that it becomes something of a brain stab by the time you reach the end.
Unfortunately, the only thing Miss Brodie does in her prime is show her arrogance by looking down upon her colleagues, the education system and practically everything under the Sun. She shows more interest in teaching the things that she likes to little girls under her care than what she's supposed to.
Over the years, this teaching turns to living vicariously through the sexual life of one of these girls, whom she instigates to have an affair with a married colleague she loves.

Yes, so far, it does sound like something that you might want to read but let's come to the characters in the book. They don't develop gradually, they simply just develop. Also, there are so many of them and almost every line about them is so full of repetitive descriptions and notions, you don't grow fond of any of them. You just grow more and more tired of them.
The same fault lies in the narration, which is boring, repetitive and lacks both pace and lucidity, except in the last 20 pages or so.

All in all, you can save yourself the horror simply by watching Maggie Smith's awar winning performance in the movie rather than crawling through the book. So, yes, read it only if you absolutely have to, like I did, however, even if you die without reading this, you're not missing out on anything grand!

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