Loitering With Intent

Art, reality and the strange ways the two imitate one another are at the core of Muriel Spark's delightful Loitering with Intent, first published in 1981. Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot works for the snooty, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, whose members are all at work on their memoirs. When her employer gets his hands on Fleur's novel-in-progress, mayhem ensues when its scenes begin coming true. Generating hilarious turns of phrase and larger-than-life characters (especially Sir Quentin's batty mother), Sparks's inimitable style make this literary joyride thoroughly appealing. ( June 28) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review A delicious conundrum. -- The New Statesman Generating hilarious turns of phrase and larger-than-life characters...Spark's inimitable style make this literary joyride thoroughly appealing. -- Publishers Weekly , 18 June 2001 I found it a delight from start to finishfunny, unexpected and compulsively readable...this strange, immensely enjoyable novel. -- Auberon Waugh, Daily Mail One of Spark's very best novelsfunny and clever and surprising. -- The New Republic The most intensely Sparkian of her books. -- The Listener Though first published only 20 years ago, Spark's offbeat fiction certainly deserves a place in [ND's] line of contemporary classics. -- Kirkus Reviews, , 15 February 2001 Unsurpassable. -- The Times Literary Supplement [London] What a coolly crafted, wickedly funny novel this is! -- Daily Express [A] delirium of delight....robust and full-bodied, a wise and mature work, and a brilliantly mischievous one. -- The New York Times Book Review Book Review [O]ne of Muriel Spark's most accomplished moral fables or puzzles...it provides considerable insight and wit, and no easy answers. -- A.S. Byatt From *Publisher's Weekly*: "Art, reality and the strange ways the two imitate one another are at the core of Muriel Spark's delightful Loitering with Intent, first published in 1981. Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot works for the snooty, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, whose members are all at work on their memoirs. When her employer gets his hands on Fleur's novel-in-progress, mayhem ensues when its scenes begin coming true. Generating hilarious turns of phrase and larger-than-life characters (especially Sir Quentin's batty mother), Sparks's inimitable style make this literary joyride thoroughly appealing."