The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark
Featured on the Time Magazine Top 100
To be perfectly honest I picked this book up because it was nice and short and I had just read a long book that hit boring around halfway through and never really turned it around. I picked this up because I needed a win. This is not an easy admission. I would be lying if I said that I never picked up a book out of interest and then put it back on the shelf because it was too long, and the idea of getting through it seemed overwhelming. I have. Lots of times. But to pick up a book that is just over a hundred pages and then subconsciously high-five one's self seems so...lazy? I had no idea what it was about, felt no real excitement about reading it except I would be able to scratch it off of my list upon completion.
I don't really know what to make of this book. The setting was Scotland during the 1930's. The central character, Jean Brodie, is a teacher at an all girls school. She is, as she tells her students on the first day "in her prime," and this prime is not to be wasted on a boring curriculum. Instead of teaching lessons that the school has approved, she tells them about art history, her own love life, and her fascination with fascism. One interesting--and rather disturbing--trait is her obsession with Mussolini. She falls in love with one of the male teachers at the school, a married Catholic artist, but breaks this off because he is married. Instead she halfheartedly pursues the single music teacher. This, again, is something that makes its way into her lessons. She decides the girls are at exactly the right age to hear this instruction. Six of the girls, who go on to become the "Miss Brodie set," have a relationship with her that continues past their time in her classroom. As the girls become more mature they see the love triangle that exists in the adult world, and one of the girls decides to enter into it, with some pretty tough repercussions.
I really wanted to like this book. I think if I were to read it again, I probably would. As it stands, I had a really hard time getting interested in any of the characters. Miss Brodie was interesting, but, and maybe because I'm a teacher, I had a hard time being on her side when she got into the really crazy shenanigans. And yet, I think that is such a silly cop out. If I were watching Die Hard with a cop it would annoy me to no end if he were to keep saying "No, no, no, that is not how that would happen." And I did start out the book enjoying her as a character. Is it okay that this time, I am perfectly willing to say it is me, the reader, who is at fault? I can tell there is something going on in this book, just sort of behind the scenes that I couldn't get to. Maybe I was just too burned out, and wasn't willing to put in the work. After all, I reached for the shortest book on the shelf.
There is a film version, which I have not seen. It stars Maggie Smith as Jean Brodie. I am curious, if for no other reason than it is a British movie and I'm sure half the cast will have been in Harry Potter movies later in life, and my wife and I can point at the screen and say, "Hey, isn't that..." and what have you.
Coming soon: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury.
