Memento Mori
The voice on the telephone won't stop reminding Dame Lettie Colston that she must die. The police won't take her seriously and even her brother doesn't believe her until he starts receiving calls himself. 'Memento Mori' primarily involves two groups of elderly people: Dame Lettie's set, and the residents of a ward in the state nursing home her sister-in-law's maid retired to. As the novel goes on, more and more of their acquaintances receive these phone calls and there appears to be nothing they can do to stop them.
Spark's characters, whether they are those resigned to wait in their hospital beds or carrying on in London are preoccupied with managing their estates, comparing each others ailments, and scheming for the future. Each of them take the phone calls differently, but the majority of them react with anger and disbelief: the cheek! who would dare? No one wants to accept the fact of their mortality. They are dealing with crippling illness and blows against their dignity, they want power or money or a glimpse of garter. Spark makes her humor by pointing out the ridiculousness of "everyday" pursuits. Memento Mori strides into this potential quagmire effortlessly and Spark never betrays any sentiment in the treatment of her characters.
I should have known from having read Spark before, but this novel was a lot of fun to read - death and all - and no description of mine can do it justice.
