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The Driver's Seat Paperback – May 27, 2014

by Muriel Spark (Author)

3.6 394 ratings

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The Driver’s Seat, Spark’s own favorite among her many novels, was hailed by the New Yorker as “her spiny and treacherous masterpiece.”

Driven mad by an office job, Lise flies south on holiday ― in search of passionate adventure and sex. In this metaphysical shocker, infinity and eternity attend Lise’s last terrible day in the unnamed southern city that is her final destination.

Length

112
Pages
Language

EN
English
Publisher

New Directions
Publication date

2014
May 27
Dimensions

5.2 x 0.3 x 8.0
inches
ISBN-10

0811223019
ISBN-13

978-0811223010
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Muriel Spark (1918–2006) was the author of dozens of novels, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Memento Mori, A Far Cry from Kensington, The Girls of Slender Means, The Ballad of Peckham Rye, The Driver’s Seat, and many more. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions (May 27, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0811223019
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811223010
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.3 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #73,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,885 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.6 394 ratings

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Muriel Spark

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Muriel Spark (1918–2006) was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film. Spark became a Dame of the British Empire in 1993.

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3.6 out of 5

394 global ratings

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Jay Dickson

The end of the line

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2011

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Muriel Spark's most famous novel, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, was published in its entirety in the early 60s in THE NEW YORKER. Nearly a decade later they repeated this by published her short novel THE DRIVER'S SEAT in the same fashion. Although the later work is not nearly as famous as BRODIE, it sometimes has been called her best work of fiction; it certainly is her most shocking, and shows Spark at the peak of her abilities.

The novel (more of a novella) centers upon the last day of life of Lise, a single woman working for an accounting firm somewhere in Northern Europe (the country is never specified). Mentally unsound, Lise has decided to take a vacation to a "Southern" city (which may be Rome) to find her type; we discover relatively early that Lise will be found stabbed the next day, and as the narrative progresses we come to understand that what Lise calls "my type"--the man for which she searches--is not an ideal lover but an ideal murderer. But Lise does not seem to be the only unstable figure in the novella: many of the people she encounters behave as strangely as she does, so that it begins to seem as if Lise's madness is merely symptomatic of her larger cultures. (Figures from the late 60s youth movements appear in the story, as does an odd character attracted to Lise who espouses the benefits of macrobiotic diets and something like an orgasmic theory of sexual health.) The novella is easy to finish in one sitting, propelled as it is by the engine of dread it engenders by its mentions of Lise's horrible doom for which she so meticulously planned. THE DRIVER'S SEAT is much better known in the United Kingdom than in the United States; the unappealing and badly designed cover New Directions has provided for the current edition is likely part of the problem.

15 people found this helpful

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Anne E H

Bizarre story

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2016

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This is a really weird book. It's kind of the opposite of a murder mystery. The main character Lise travels to Europe to die. She spends the day walking around the city with an elderly woman and enjoying the day all the while looking for the man who will carry out the deed. I have a feeling I will be returning to this book.

4 people found this helpful

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This is a classic. But I hated every word of it.

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2013

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This book was the selection of the reading group at my local bookstore. As always, the book selected is one that I would never have chosen on my own and which literary type people love. I was unique in the group because I really hated this book even though I can recognize that it is a classic and that is was well written.

First of all the main character is completely unlikable. She's an office worker who is going on a holiday but from the beginning the reader knows that something is wrong. We see that she is definitely a little mental as she shops for an outfit that she tells the salesgirl she wants to stain easily. Then, as she makes preparations to leave the reader gets the feeling that she is not planning on coming back.

She gets into a weird relationship with a man she meets on the plane, an elderly woman she meets in a shop and most of her actions make the reader know she is definitely mentally unbalanced as she goes about her vacation in this unnamed destination.

It's a good thing the book is short because it is an unpleasant read and quite disorienting. The tension never stops and the characters are all unlikable. I guess it's a statement on unpredictability and free will but I just didn't get it.

This 1970 book is somehow considered a classic. This is probably because it is so unique and weird. I can definably see the talent and creativity of the author and I think it's a good idea for me to read a wide variety of books.. However, I really did hate every word of it.

11 people found this helpful

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Claudia

Backcover of book is folded

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2023

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Book arrived with back cover folded, as if it had been dropped prior to shipping

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Alexander Strain

Brilliant and efficient thriller

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2013

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The conclusion of the book is literally foretold in the early pages and throughout the narrative, but the path Lise takes to arrive at her grisly end is bizarrely unnerving and always compelling. A one sitting read.

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Alexander Graden Kalamaroff

A Cruel Delight

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020

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While not my favorite Muriel Spark's book (I perform the ones that are equally charming and cruel), The Driver's Seat is certainly worth reading! --Alexander Graden Kalamaroff

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M. Buzalka

Well, She Asked For It...

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2016

Okay, I call BS on The Driver’s Seat (1970), Muriel Spark’s self-consciously shocking ode to assisted self-slaughter. The (thankfully) short novella is about 34-year-old spinster Lise who goes on holiday for the first time in three years, apparently to Southern Italy, though it’s never specified.

Anyway, the geography doesn’t matter. What does is that Lise will be found dead of multiple stab wounds a day after her arrival. This isn’t a spoiler. We are told this early on.

I suppose there is a strong dramatic interest in finding out just how such a horrific crime came to be but the problem is that Lise is clearly irrational and not very sympathetic. She is confrontational and rather obnoxiously rude to numerous people she meets.

The message seems to be that despite all her problems and hangups, Lise is still in “the driver’s seat” when it comes to ending her own life, and she manipulates several people to make it end the way she wants. Well hurrah for her…

The writing is crisp and Lise’s actions perplexing enough to keep the dramatic drive going, especially given the short length it needs to be maintained. But in the end we are left with the rather banal conclusion that people off their rockers will do irrational things. From the author of such excellent fare as The Mandelbaum Gate, The Public Image, The Girls of Slender Means and, of course, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I was expecting a bit more than cheap thrills.

2 people found this helpful

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Mr. D Burin

Insightful and innovative; but not a pleasant read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2010

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Though known better for her subtly subversive, insightful and often tragic novels, such as 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' and 'The Girl's of Slender Means', Muriel Spark's 'The Driver's Seat' is perhaps her most innovative, and definitely her most provoking novel. The short, staccato novel tells the tale of Lise, an office worker, stifled by her mundane and uniform existence, who goes abroad in an attempt to find 'the one' in the form of a man. Spark's cruel, and quickly apparent twist, appears to be that 'the one' will be a man whom she wants to invoke some form of sexual crime or severe sexual deviancy upon her, whilst she is forced to subjugate to him, and this realisation gives the novel a sense of horror from the very early stages. Set around a vapid, soulless expanse of shopping malls, traffic jams and faceless hotels, Spark's novel gives a very powerful evocation of the sense of an absence of humanity and connectedness in the mid-late 20th century of her writing.

In Lise, Spark has a heroine who is a sort of diametric opposite of characters such as Jean Brodie. Terse, antagonistic and clearly in the throes of mental dissipation; the outlandishly dressed Lise forces the novel to unravel in a purposefully hectic style, as Lise appears to become more convinced of her plans, and equally further away from her sanity. Hugely troubling and genuinely startling, even for the contemporary reader; the only thing the novel falls down on is Spark's purposeful but sometimes maddeningly repetitive implications of what is wrong with this modern world in which Lise exists. Equally, though the technique of making the reader feel a sense of alienation by making Lise so other, and not giving her the qualities with which one would traditionally empathise, makes the novel especially hard to connect with, as superbly written as most of it is. For those looking for a gripping and challenging look at the human condition on the brink of itself, this is a superb work; but one that most readers aren't going to find themselves altogether enjoying the experience of.

20 people found this helpful

Eni

My favourite book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2023

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I read this before, just wanted a physical copy

Tyrone Marsh

Stranger Danger!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2020

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Muriel Spark’s ‘The Driver’s Seat’ is an exceptional piece of literature. I read it in a day.

From the very start of the novel I was kept on edge, eager to comprehend as to why Lise disliked stainless dresses. Such emphasis on the mundane, a dress that distinct in colour, drives us to think about the mundane in reality. However, Spark draws us into Lise’s reality; and that is the metaphysical aspect of the novel. We do not see her death coming, but we do. Spark informs us of her narrative death, fragmenting the text and the text’s temporality. In doing so, I believe she is commenting on the illusionary power of the mundane. What is the significance of a distinctly colorful dress? What is the significance of a paper-knife? Why and how did Lise convince a man, previously convicted of murder, to kill her? The answer is made clear throughout. Lise wanted her dress to stain. She wanted to make her death known; planting evidence herself, with us, as readers, not even aware due to Spark’s smart use of language - we are not only manipulated by the protagonist, but also, in turn, by the author itself.

We become part of The Driver’s Seat, falling victim to Lise’s illusory reality. We become part of the text; aware yet unaware, suspicious yet not suspicious. Perhaps Spark is doing this to critique how one can become manipulated by reality, by strangers. The novel basically becomes an adult way of saying ‘Stranger Danger’, as the stranger in the text, (paradoxically the protagonist Lise who is not a stranger to us), ends up becoming psychotic. Did we expect it? Yes and no (you have to read the text to understand how it can be both yes and no... trust me)!

Highly recommend this text. Got me thinking...

6 people found this helpful

Otto

Breve ma intenso!

Reviewed in Italy on December 9, 2021

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Il libro è arrivato un po' ammaccato. Si tratta di un thriller al contrario: seguiamo una donna che sappiamo che verrà uccisa il giorno dopo che la storia ha luogo e, camminando con lei lungo il percorso che la condurrà alla morte, dobbiamo cercare di capire chi è il suo assassino e perché l'ha uccisa. Il finale vi sconvolgerà! In un'unione di generi, dal thriller al post-modernismo, questo romanzo cerca di decostruire il rapporto tra autore e opera narrativa, mentre Lise, la protagonista, cerca di determinare il suo destino in un mondo predeterminato. Una lettura davvero interessante! Consigliato!