The Only Problem edition by Muriel Spark Literature Fiction eBooks
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Having led a successful, comfortable life, Harvey Gotham retires to the French countryside to pursue bookish obsessions and writing. But when the French police discover his estranged wife's involvement in a terrorist group, suspicion falls on Gotham himself and a series of misfortunes threaten to destroy everything he holds dear.
The Only Problem edition by Muriel Spark Literature Fiction eBooks
I wish I read this novella before reading her The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; that little book blew me away. This novella was fine, good characters and interesting plot, just more understated than I expected. Not a bad read, just not very memorable.Product details
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The Only Problem edition by Muriel Spark Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
I had five minutes to kill before a lunch meeting and ducked into a local used bookstore in Oakland. I had recently become enamored of Franklin books and asked what they had. Right in front of me was a collection of about 25 such volumes. One of them was "The Only Problem" by Muriel Spark signed by her. Ms. Spark is one of my two towering literary heroes, the other being Haruki Murakami.
Obviously, I bought the book and read it quickly on vacation. "The Only Problem" concerns Harvey Gotham, a British academic roughing it in France to work on his book on "Job." And that is the source of Spark's title, "The Only Problem" which for Harvey is the dilemma of believing in a a benevolent God when that God has allowed for such widespread human suffering. The plot concerns Harvey's estranged wife Effie, her sister Ruth, Harvey's good friend Edward Jansen, married to Ruth but now estranged from her because she goes to live with Harvey. Effie appears to have joined a terrorist group and Harvey is now implicated by marriage and the French police question him several times.
If this summary sounds uninspiring that is no accident. The story is weak, the characters aren't fleshed out and the philosophical element concerning "Job" doesn't go anywhere. Yet despite all that, the book is written by Muriel Spark which means her intelligence, distinctly minimalist style and humor shows up on every page. I can't recommend the book for anyone other than die-hard fans. But this fan thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience of flipping the gold-leafed pages and handling this leather-bound autographed copy on my vacation.
After abandoning his radically inclined, gorgeous wife Effie on a holiday trip, rich Canadian Harvey Gotham settles into a French country retreat to write a book about the meaning of the biblical Job's sufferings. Then the French tell him his wife has joined a Baader-Meinhof-style gang of '80s terrorists, now at large in Eastern France, and that he is suspected of being a terrorist too. His brother in law, his sister in law,his aunt and other characters descend on him and as he struggles with his relatives and interrogators, he finds himself in rather a Job-like situation himself.
Initially repellent, Harvey grows in perception throughout the story, ultimately realizing far too late that he has deeply loved Effie. He has learned the worth of suffering even in the possible absence of a God who dotes on inflicting it.
Spark's little book covers much he same territory as Philip Roth's much-lauded "American Pastoral." But "The Only Problem" is to me a far less pretentious and much more effective essay on the subjects of divine intentions and modern terrorism. And of course it lacks Roth's hysterical misogyny. This makes it a better, deeper book. One of Spark's best.
Odd -- a bit too philosophical for my taste.
I bought this book because I had read and enjoyed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie after watching the picture. This book is quite a departure from the other. It is the story of a wealthy man who lives a solitary life to be near a painting of Job. He is fascinated by Job's story and plans to publish a monograph on the subject.
His estranged wife, whom he left because of her kleptomania, is now a terrorist wanted by the police. The police don't believe him that he has no contact with her or knowledge of her whereabouts.
That's the bare bones of the story. Miscellaneous people drop in and out of the story without adding much interest. All in all I wonder why she bothered to write about them.
I wish I read this novella before reading her The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; that little book blew me away. This novella was fine, good characters and interesting plot, just more understated than I expected. Not a bad read, just not very memorable.
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