Memento Mori

Synopsis: 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.

Review: I enjoyed this one, it's macabre but with a comic touch. All the characters are elderly and in various stages of decrepitude and some of them are beginning to lose the plot. When they start receiving disturbing phonecalls saying "Remember you must die" they are at a loss to discover who is making them. One thing in particular is peculiar, the voice on the end of the phone appears different to each listener although the message always remains the same. Having lived fairly full lives they each have their secrets and intrigues to hush up and plenty of enemies to suspect of foul play or blackmail. As the title suggests this is a book about being mortal and how we cling tenaciously to life even when it becomes insupportable. Each character reacts differently to the phone calls, one is not that concerned, one refuses to acknowledge, even to themselves, that they've received a call and others draw up lists of suspects. One of the suspects cannot confirm or deny the accusations saying that as far as they are aware they haven't made the calls and yet they might have made them during a Mr Hyde moment. There is a particular sinister 'Mrs Danversish' type maid who lurks about listening at keyholes and amassing evidence to use as blackmail ... a real boo-hiss character.

Despite there being plenty of absurdity, it's also a bit depressing. You feel slightly uneasy reading it, realising even when you're laughing that it's an all too accurate portrayal of old age and a reminder of what lies in wait for us. All the horrors of old age are here, vulnerability, fear, failing health and intellect .. the slow decline etc but for all that you can't help but smile at it ...

'I have quite decided to be cremated when my time comes' said Godfrey. 'It is the cleanest way. The cemetries only pollute our water supplies. Cremation is best.'
'I do so agree with you,' said Charmian sleepily.
'No, you do not agree with me,' he said. 'R.C.s are not allowed to be cremated.
'I mean, I'm sure you are right, Eric dear.'
'I am not Eric,' said Godfrey. 'You are not sure I'm right. Ask Mrs Anthony, she'll tell you that R.C.s are against cremation.'
He opened the door and bawled for Mrs Anthony. She came in with a sigh.
'Mrs Anthony, you're a Roman Catholic, aren't you?' said Godfrey.
'That's right. I've got something on the stove.'
'Do you believe in cremation?'
'Well,' she said, 'I don't really much like the idea of being shoved away quick like that. I feel somehow it's sort of ...'
'It isn't a matter of how you feel, it's a question of what your Church says you've not got to do. Your Church says you must not be cremated, that's the point.'
'Well, as I say Mr Colston, I don't really fancy the idea ...'
'Fancy the idea ... It is not a question of what you fancy. You have no choice in the matter do you see?'
'Well, I always like to see a proper burial, I always like ...'
'It's a point of discipline in your Church,' he said, 'that you mustn't be cremated. You women don't know your own system.'
'I see, Mr Colston. I've got something on the stove.'
'I believe in cremation, but you don't - Charmian, you disapprove of cremation, you understand.'
'Very well, Godfrey'
'And you too, Mrs Anthony.'
'OK., Mr Colston.'
'On principle,' said Godfrey
'That's right,' said Mrs Anthony and disappeared.

Muriel doesn't tie up all the ends, she allows the reader to come to their own conclusions (not always wise in my case) and gives them plenty of food for thought. Not a cheerful read overall but an interesting one.