Jamie's Reviews > The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

This one's been sitting on my shelf for a couple of months now (which means it's one of the lucky ones-so many books have been sitting on my various bookshelves for years), and I randomly grabbed it for a long train ride over the weekend because it was slim and I'd heard it was funny. It was, for one thing, easily completed on the train with time to spare, and it was about the most plainly enjoyable thing I've read in some time. Brisk, bright prose with a large dose of hilarity and sinisterly tender moments (the comment about Mary's fate in the first several pages was somehow amusingly fitting at the same time as it was horribly tragic, for instance). Miss Brodie handpicks young girls from her class to become the 'creme de la creme,' and one of the most wonderful things about the novel is how deeply you're drawn in by Miss B even as you're completely repulsed--much as the Brodie set is. Her dabble with fascism is of course a fabulous parallel for Miss Brodie's relationships with the girls; though they're intended to become the very best, the price they would have to pay is by becoming clones of Miss Brodie. As avant-garde as she strikes us on first glance, Miss Brodie is in fact a profoundly conservative figure, as she wishes only to replicate what she already knows or has experienced upon others without thought to how they may think or feel about it.

Nonetheless, you so want to love Miss Brodie that frequently you just do. The girls, in fact, are the vaguely horrible figures of the novel, though of course they're rightfully the heroines. A fascinating way of creating what is largely a character study here. In any case, I feel that I'm only going to spoil things if I go on, so all I can say at this point is that the book is short, sweet, and should be enjoyed by all--in that way, perhaps I'd impose it like Miss Brodie might. A real pleasure, while still managing to be provocative--often without your noticing it. Highly recommended, in short.