Sixty years after its publication: this is what the “Singles” were like in London in the 1950s according to writer Muriel Spark

If your dream partner hasn’t arrived, there’s nothing to worry about; in bad weather good head. You may not have someone to hug Valentine’s Daybut it gives you time to sit down and read a good book, maybe sitting on a bench, in a park, gazing into infinity, dreaming of that ideal love, but it would be better if you took them with a book in your hands and, better still, captivated by the story and not by what hasn’t been and could be.

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In GlobeLiveMedia Lisons, We wanted to put together a book that, in addition to being good, seems to have been made just for the occasion. It is an ingenious novel which gives an account of a series of characters in the most difficult stage of their lives, and is a sample of the pen of one of the most interesting writers of recent times in Europe.

There are 288 pages that make up the Spanish edition of “Singles”the novel of Muriel Sparkalso translated by the author, Juan Cardenasauthor of titles such as “The Strata” oh “The Devil of the Provinces”.

In the novel, a lawyer, a priest who is not a priest, a detective, a professor who works for the British Council, a handwriting expert who suffers from epilepsy, a lovesick Irishman who flees sex opposite, are the bachelors who the author has chosen to tell this story full of characters who spend their days being victims of apathy.

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Those who are inside “Singles” they are too British characters, they chat in bars, go shopping in Fortum & Mason, and they imagine all kinds of horrors around their lives. Their existence will one day be turned upside down by the appearance of a medium named Patrick Seton, who will make them all transform their lives once and for all. Suddenly, they will cease to be what they were and will occupy the positions of crooks, thieves, blackmailers, spiritualists, and everything will end up leading to a grotesque episode.

With great success, the British author recounts each of the adventures of these bachelors in London in the 1950s, articulating the plot with an episode worthy of the fictions of Patricia Highsmith. Around these characters, the women appear somewhat disoriented in the face of life, not very reassuring, not very autonomous, which would be usual in these times. It was the 50s, the conditions and the mentality were different. What Spark does is make sure to represent them as they were at the time.

The medium who then arrives brings with it the twist of the story. He is a sinister and ambiguous character. At his side, the others, who do not lose importance, but rather their protagonism is interposed by the magnetism he carries within him.

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There is a religious background around it, allusions to guilt, to sin, to atonement. It likely has to do with when Spark converted to Catholicism. His ideology permeates his fictions.

A novel with a bit of everything, with unique characters, yes, but an entertaining plot. Irony abounds in its pages, making the story enjoyable to read. Maybe Muriel Spark Wrote “Singles” without thinking of the readers who would identify with the adjective, but the truth is that now, in truth, there will be more than one single person who will benefit and whose company will serve as a distraction as soon as the day of the angel of lovers will arrive.

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