Memento Mori

Nya Tejada ENGL 4230 King Memento Mori While I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I was left more than a bit broken in by the end of it. The characters were quite humorous and even disturbing at times with their scheming, blackmailing, hypocrisy, denials, and even their beliefs on the important matters in life which seemed so realistic whollyy self-centered that I could believe them to be real mess in authentic circumstances. And yet, the amount of characters to prolong track of was daunting in number as well as the numerous background stories and it was barely by their ties to each other that I was able to grasp on to the plot-line behind it.Muriel Sparks successfully created a reality of her turn in with a weave of wickedness that is so thoroughly layered in the span of near a century that I was left not necessarily insatiate but overjoyed that she left a question unanswered cashbox the very end. Who was that mysterious caller? Many suggestions were given and yet I was aware that one shined out among the rest. For Inspector Mortimer says it quite clearly that considering the evidence, which is alone vexing and baseless, the offender is Death himself. (p. 144)It didnt really matter who specifically the caller was and underlying the great mystery was a phantasmal resonance that forced the reader to grip the hold wanting to shout at the characters to stop their nonsense and exactly take advantage of their last stay years because death is waiting patiently to take them and they were ready to keep going with their secrets and their obsessions which manage invisible merciless gods, ruled over them all their lives until Jean Taylor, the just now morally sound character it seemed, decided to erupt Charmians own ongoing affair allowing progress for Godfrey to live a bit more passionately for conscionable a short spell longer. I had no qualms viewing the suspect as a spiritual entity because the last line of the book only validated this notion by refe rring to the quote at the beginning of the book as, Jean Taylor lingered for a time, employing her disquiet to magnify the Lord, and meditating virtuallytimes confidingly upon death, the first of the Four Last Things to be ever remembered (p. 224). In that final page, I was left sentiment everyone got their just desserts as they would inevitably reached and I was grateful for the review of how they all died just so I wasnt left even more overwhelmed by all the information given. save the very last line brought me back to thinking about the recurring theme of devotion throughout the novel as Charmian may have very well been the closest character to match Spark herself. I tried to look up a memorial for her to see if my suspicions were closer to the truth that she had filtered in her own experiences and was pleased by my findings that she did in fact have a son and he may very well have been an artist such as Eric was quick in that field but critical and resentful for his moth ers success as a writer. That got me thinking of how Sparks cut writing as a connection to her spirituality and perhaps this family mirrored her own feelings towards her sons Judaism when she was a Roman Catholic herself and how that came as a backhand to the face for her.It was also more than a coincidence that Charmian had been sending Eric money just as Sparks did for her son until she had enough of their strained relationship and nearly if not completely severed her ties with him. So to say that I was well aware of her own questioning and thought-provoking feelings towards her religion would be an understatement. For I have matte that same ghostly if not lingering call to my own Catholic roots, always feeling a sense of something greater, a presence working(a) its way in and out of the seams in this reality and yet piece wanting to place it inside of a religion, merely value it as a part of humanity to peer back at us in our most pro erect moments, which certainly includes the embrace of death. I found myself thinking again and again of the quotes placed before the start of the novel.For the book appeared to incorporate all three quotes but especially the third by having the reader judge each character themselves by their thoughts and actions, as though we are death waiting to take them justly for their either unimportant or purposeful lives, hoping to place them in either heaven or hell with every wrong or morally right hunt they made. I wanted such characters like Charmian to have a gratifying sleep, to just drift off because she was trying so to regain some strength for herself and reach such a point but for characters like Mrs. Pettigrew I wanted the exact opposite and was appalled by her having stock that wealth after-all. However, she did try so very ard to get exactly what she wanted and at least she had the drive to do something of purpose for herself, never opinion that she was a successful villain. I was left with a smile on my face for its originality and thoroughness which can only be executed by a talented author who is able to place herself in her characters without it being an angst or far too emotional diary altogether. If only the grotesque characters could have been given far worse deaths when death itself is not justly enough. But then, it wouldnt have been so realistic, and in that sense I could only agree with how she preferred it. Realism is always more convincing when relating to religion somehow anyway.