THE PRIME OF Miss JEAN BRODIE, by Muriel Spark (187 pp.; Llppincott; $3.95). Knowledgeable readers of Muriel Spark's novels admire such crystalline structures of malice as Memento Mori and The Ballad oj Peckham Rye partly for the economy with which they are built. Avoiding bravura writing as she would a vulgar display of pound notes, this Scotswoman sits composedly among her characters, goading them by silence and an infrequent equivocal smile to disclose their sins. Rarely does the exposure require more than 200 pages, and at the end of a Muriel Spark novel, most readers find themselves wondering why other writers...
Books: Also Current: Jan. 19, 1962
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