Synopsis/Review (credit: amazon.co.uk & The Nation)

Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly-dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime.

"A long, elusive joke that casts as deep an irony on life's arbitrariness as do the more 'compassionate' ironies of, say, EM Forster. Muriel Spark's vision is oblique; her clarity underscores life's mysteries, she asserts the relations between time and eternity by juxtaposing poetry and mess."

Shortlist: Lost Man Booker Prize.
On the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List.

(Bought second-hand at Help the Rural Child Charity Bookshop, Main Road, Sea Point.)

Told with a unique, quirky style, the build-up of ostensibly frivolous actions by the main character does not prepare the reader for the startling conclusion. An interesting read.

Donated to Help the Rural Child, a charity second-hand bookshop.

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