Slender but spirited

If you like Muriel Spark, you will relish this. Read with great precision. A dry delight. Such a distinctive writing style works well as an audio book. Every word matters.

29 people found this helpful

Amusing tale of relationships in post-war London

Well written, witty and occasionally illuminating; read beautifully by Juliet Stevenson, whose different voices bring the characters to life. Relaxing to listen to, with an unexpected climax at the end.

22 people found this helpful

Slender indeed...

The May of Teck Club in London’s Kensington is a place for “for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London.” The book tells of the lives of the crop of “girls” in residence just as the war in Europe had ended in the summer of 1945. These girls may be somewhat impecunious, but they are not from the poorer classes of society – rather they are the daughters of the genteel and the minor upper-classes, and for most of them, their main occupation is to seek a suitable husband. While the rules state an upper age limit of thirty, a few women have stayed on, becoming almost surrogate matrons to the younger girls and desperately trying to stop the bright young things from allowing standards of behaviour to fall.

There’s a bit of time-shifting in the book. As it begins, we’re in the ‘60s, when we learn of the death of Nicholas Farringdon, a man who used to be a frequent visitor to the club in 1945. He was in love with the beautiful, slinky Selina, who not only had slender means, but also hips so slender she was able to slither out of a small upstairs window for the purposes of having illicit sex on the roof. We see the story mainly through the eyes of Jane Wright, a resident of the club in the ‘40s, and now a journalist in the ‘60s, who wants to determine why, twenty years later, Nicholas should die a martyr in Haiti where he had gone off to be a Jesuit missionary. This is not out of any concern or warmth for him – she merely thinks she may be able to make a story for her paper out of it.

In truth, though, the plot is negligible – for the most part we simply observe the girls as they go about their lives in the club, and we rarely step over the threshold into the wider world. The club is very much like the boarding schools as depicted in so many school series of that era – these girls may be older and sex may have replaced midnight feasts as their method of rebellion, but there’s the same kind of dynamics of different types of people having to learn to rub along together, and the same kind of loyalty to the club as schoolgirls show to their schools (in fiction).

The girls have survived the war, but seem to have been relatively untouched by it. Some have worked in administrative and secretarial roles as part of the war effort, and are wondering what they will do now that peace will soon remove the need for them. We hear about how some have lost young men of their acquaintance, but their ghosts are not allowed to darken the tone. The girls are rather proud of the bomb that narrowly missed the club – they like to point out the damage to visitors – and there’s a rumour that another bomb is buried somewhere in the garden, unexploded.

This is rather an odd little book and I’m not at all sure if it has some deep and profound meaning that was lost on me. From my perspective, to be honest, it read like a bit of well-written and sharply observed fluff. I know that sounds rather harsh and dismissive, but I kept waiting to be startled by great insights, to be blown away by the depth of the characterisation, as I was with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. But it never happened with this one. I enjoyed it – there’s a lot of humour in it and the girls were an entertaining bunch to spend time with. When I finished, however, I felt it had been something of a sorbet – delicious but hardly satisfying.

I think I felt this way partly because the ‘slender means’ of these girls seems to relate as much to their shallow lives as to their financial status. In some ways, I felt Spark’s depiction of them was rather cruel, though undoubtedly amusing. I found myself laughing at the girls for the most part, rather than with them. Again, this was very different to my reaction to the girls and women in Miss Jean Brodie, who had my complete sympathy even when they were behaving rather badly.

I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Juliet Stevenson, which was something of a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed her straight narration of the narrative and her delivery of the girls’ dialogue, but I found her accents for two of the male characters, one Russian, one American, overdone and distracting.

Perhaps I missed something in this book, or perhaps there’s not much there to be missed. In summary, an entertaining read that I enjoyed as it was happening but felt rather underwhelmed by in the end. I do recommend it for the writing, the observation and the humour, but I feel that anyone who loved The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie should lower their expectations a little before embarking on this one.

77 people found this helpful

A slow start.

Juliet Stevenson was a wonderful narrator. Every character was differentiated and both male and female voices were excellent. I found I didn’t like any of the characters enough to love the book until almost the end. For me, it took too long to get going.

3 people found this helpful

Perfection

Life in a hostel for young women in London at the end of World War 2. Immaculate reading by Juliet Stevenson of Muriel Spark’s unforgettable, sad and funny, novel.

1 person found this helpful

Great portrait of life in post war London

I did not know much about Muriel Spark before I listened to this other than she was the author of the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which is a great story.
The Girls of Slender Means is a short novel about life of a group of young women who live in a hostel, the May of Tech Club, in London which covers the period in 1945 from VE Day in May to VJ Day in August. The young ladies' wants and needs largely revolve around food and clothes rations' elocution and men. Some interesting and exotic characters crop up including communists and anarchists and although the story ambles around rather than going anywhere specific it is a good listen.
Juliet Stevenson is, as always, an excellent narrator and she voices the characters perfectly.

1 person found this helpful

Women of Teck

It’s ages since I read this and I am pleased to say I loved it even more read by the amazing Juliet Stevenson my favourite narrator. She brings out the wit and sadness plus bits I missed 40 years ago. The perfect short listen

interesting characters, good listen

I really enjoyed the prime of miss jean Brodie and this for me was just as good. interesting characters. whenever I am working it will now be referred to as doing brain work

Has not aged well

Beautifully read but story has not aged well. Overall just a bit dull - almost could not be bothered to listen to the end.

Great listen

Narrator is great. Really great little book. Writer really takes you to the time and place. Great characters too.