Memento Mori

Unforgettably astounding and a joy to read, Memento Mori is considered by many to be the greatest novel by the wizardly Dame Muriel Spark. In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone informs each, "Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone calls, and in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, unsavories like blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is witty, poignant and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more. From Library Journal Spark spikes the Geritol of a group of London senior citizens, who begin receiving anonymous phone calls reminding them that death is coming. These seemingly sweet old people, evidently, have some fairly dark pasts. Add in a dash of blackmail and a pinch of adultery, and you have some good, not-so-clean fun. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From The New Yorker She had been a starving writer and editor in the classic style when success bonked her on the head in the late fifties...with Memento Mori , a complex, beautiful, and terrifyingly insightful novel about old age, which Graham Greene claimed 'has delighted me as much as any novel that I have read since the war.' [Her oeuvre] now makes up one of the most trenchant and accomplished bodies of literary work since the Second World War. Remember You Must Die. Dame Lettie Colston Is The First Of Her Circle To Receive Insinuating Anonymous Phone Calls. Neither She, Nor Her Friends, Wish To Be Reminded Of Their Mortality, And Their Geriatric Feathers Are Thoroughly Ruffled. As The Caller's Activities Become More Widespread, Old Secrets Are Dusted Off, Exposing Post And Present Duplicities, Self-deception And Blackmail. Nobody Is Above Suspicion. Witty, Poignant And Wickedly Hilarious, Memento Mori May Ostensibly Concern Death, But It Is A Book Which Leaves One Relishing Life All The More. Books Included In The Vmc 40th Anniversary Series Include: Frost In May By Antonia White; The Collected Stories Of Grace Paley; Fire From Heaven By Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop By Angela Carter; The Weather In The Streets By Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water By Patricia Highsmith; The Return Of The Soldier By Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn By Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado By Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori By Muriel Spark; A View Of The Harbour By Elizabeth Taylor; And Faces In The Water By Janet Frame