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Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1970. Plot Summary. Muriel Spark’s novel The Driver’s Seat (1970) utilizes the present tense, giving the story a sense of urgency even though there is very little action. Lise is shopping for a colorful dress to wear on a trip on which she is about to embark.
The Driver's Seat is a novella by Muriel Spark. Published in 1970, it was advertised as "a metaphysical shocker". It is in the psychological thriller genre, dealing with themes of alienation, isolation and loss of spiritual values. It was made into a film in 1974 starring Elizabeth Taylor and featuring Andy Warhol.
- Muriel Spark
- United Kingdom
- 1970
- English
Jan 1, 2001 · Muriel Spark, John Lanchester (Introduction) 3.61. 9,903 ratings1,454 reviews. Alternative cover edition of ISBN 0141188340. Lise is thin, neither good-looking nor bad-looking. One day she walks out of her office, acquires a gaudy new outfit, adopts a girlier tone of voice, and heads to the airport to fly south.
- (9.9K)
- Paperback
- Who Is The Protagonist of The Driver’S Seat?
- The Missing Woman
- The ‘Second Narrative’ Theory
- The First Narrative
- The Hidden Narrative in The Driver’S Seat
- Freeing Lise
- Appearance vs Reality
- Killing Herself
- Everything Upside Down
- What to Read Or Watch Next
What we learn about Lise is confusing and contradictory. In the opening scene, she’s described as a young woman. Later there’s a clinical description, almost as if lifted from the police report, or from someone who barely knows her: She appears inappropriately flirty when talking to the airline clerk, and greedy and ignorant with Bill. She’s irresp...
There are no substantial details about Lise in The Driver’s Seat because this isn’t her tale. One of the story’s many subversions is that, despite the use of the present tense, Lise is already dead. She is ‘missing’ from the narrative and instead, witness accounts recreate the events that follow. There’s testimony from the salesgirl and office coll...
At the novel’s opening, we’re invited to eavesdrop on a shop’s changing room: This memory – its tense, wording and even ingredients – is revised just moments later, almost as if under questioning or examination: Events that happen in the plane are also given twice. First there’s a description of the businessman inexplicably vacating his seat to mov...
On first reading, the story unfolds like this: Lise is going on holiday. It’s important to her to find a remarkable dress – the gaudier, the better. Her colleagues support her vacation (there’s a suggestion of an illness). Lise lives an arid, untouched life: she’s a loner. She’s somewhat unhinged, laughing alone and talking on the phone even after ...
If you read the book as a kind of police report, the plot feels quite different. Here, Lise has been killed and the book is a reconstruction of the events leading to her death. Lise prepares to go on holiday. She lives alone, but has a few supportive friends and colleagues. She finds a dress and coat she thinks look good together. Lise covers up th...
To accept the narrative as the sum of many voices throws doubt on its reliability. Why should we accept their portrayal of Lise, given each has their own agenda? The biggest consequence unbuckles Lise from the driver’s seat altogether. Rather than some Machiavellian femme fatale, Lise is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That the first rea...
As with any detective yarn, The Driver’s Seat sets up the thrills by masking the identity of the killer. Spark does this firstly by throwing Lise in the path of a number of men whom we assume must be bad news because of appearance, cliché, or action. We write-off the killer as a respectable businessman: “a rosy-faced, sturdy young man of about thir...
When Lise finally finagles her man, she dictates how the relationship is to be consummated: If this doesn’t make it plain enough to the police later, the words are placed in Lise’s mouth: Arguably it’s Richard who puts these words in Lise’s mouth. It’s his phoney recollection that shapes the novel, and the reader’s judgement: Lise is killed, and he...
So, everything is upside down in this book. Present tense masks past events. The narration hides who is and isn’t speaking. Ultimately, they play into the biggest swap of all: victim and abuser. The sex-death Lise plans is stand-in for the romance, intimacy and full-blown eroticism that elude her in life. It’s a compromise on the loneliness that fo...
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rebecca(photofit female characters)Jul 10, 2023 · Book Summary: ‘The Driver’s Seat’. ‘The Driver’s Seat’ is a haunting exploration of identity, control, and the quest for freedom. The story revolves around Lise, a woman in her thirties who leaves her monotonous job in Northern Europe to embark on a journey to the South.
Jun 17, 2016 · The Driver’s Seat is about a 34-year-old single female professional named Lise who goes on vacation at the behest of her supervisor. She travels from an unnamed Northern city (probably London) to an unnamed Southern city (probably Rome).
The Driver's Seat. Written by Muriel Spark. In Muriel Spark’s brilliantly dark novella, a search for adventure, sex and the obsessional experience turns into a journey of self-destruction. After having been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants’ office for 16 years, Lise flies south in search of passion and adventure.
