I think Muriel Spark is best read and then reread. First for story and then for all the stuff that happens underneath, because the surface story tends to be deceptively simple. If you blink, then you'll miss it, and I suspect it is easy to miss the point in her work. Spark's 1968 novel The Public Image was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It's a slip of a thing, much like the central character Annabel Christopher. Written in the glamorous era of La Dolce Vita and the dawn of the paparazzi, this is a story that could easily to applied to the here and now of today's all-consuming celebrity culture. Maybe it is even more applicable considering the public persona that is built up around a very average actress like Annabel, who may have little talent but a really good media team to cultivate her public image. And cultivate it they do.
Annabel begins with small roles and increasingly becomes in demand since she perfectly fits a certain type. Her husband, a would-be actor, has little of the same success so Annabel's earnings support them both. She sees it as proof he does not want to work and indeed he stays at home more and more in their Kensington flat living on her money and reading all the books he had not the leisure before to do so.
"Perhaps he was never happier in his life than in those long mornings at home while reading various literature on the theme of The Dance of Death, and annotating Strindberg, while Annabel was at the studios, or was working out of the country for a few weeks, with her meager skill and many opportunities to exercise it."
While Frederick is watching from the sidelines, in turmoil of Annabel's seemingly effortless success getting angrier and angrier, she is blithely going along becoming famous. His idea of acting, or creating is far different than that of Annabel. While she agrees with him, she doesn't actually understand what he means. It's something she learned or heard in acting school, but with experience she manages to circumvent her ignorance.
"In practice her own instinctive method of acting consisted in playing herself in a series of poses for the camera, just as if she were getting her photograph taken for private purposes. She became skilled at this; she became extremely expert. Ten years later, with the good assistance of Luigi Leopardi, she was recognized as a very good actress on the strength of this skill."
With the aid of Leopardi she becomes known as the English Tiger-Lady, famous and in demand, so the couple moves to Italy to pursue her career. All the while Frederick is seething as Annabel is posing. The pair are anything but happy, but she continues putting off separating in fear it might ruin her reputation. No success at acting he writes scripts for films, all this putting into motion this wonderful dark story of image and identity and facade--the lack thereof and the careful creation of one that is all scaffolding but little that is solid and real.
In one of the nastiest and most vicious take downs that I have ever read, what Frederick does to sabotage Annabel and her public image, which he loathes for its vapidity (but maybe he is just jealous?), is truly taken to extremes. The hints I'll give to this very dark deed are only to say, keep in mind his reading material and his abilities to write a script, imagine a situation, which he devilishly puts into motion. All through it, Annabel considers her image and how to uphold it even in the most dire of situations. You might call it damage control. It does make one wonder if she is not perhaps a much better actress than everyone assumes.
This is indeed quite a drama, both literally and figuratively. I'm not sure this is Muriel Spark's best and probably not her most famous, but I do like how she skewers her characters, and it makes me wonder if I am reading them and her story quite right (hence the need to read a second time at least). Along with Frederick and Annabel, there is the slimy best friend of Frederick, a most effective publicist and a preciously annoying small child who would love to blow Annabel's cover. This is a slender novel that is darkly humorous, which if it has not been filmed really should be. This year marks her centenary birthdate (February 1, 1918) and it is a good time to revisit her exquisite writing.