242. Memento Mori – Muriel Spark

August 2009
History: This book was published in 1959.
Plot: The title translates to "Remember you must die" and is the message delivered by a series of insidious phone-calls made to the elderly Dame Lettie Colston and her acquaintances. The recipients reflect on their past lives whilst trying to identify the culprit. Many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, unsavories like blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed...
Review: Death is calling. An interesting approach on how several old people deal with their impending death. Brilliant, if sad.
Opening Line: “Dame Lettie Coston refilled her fountain pen and continued her letter.”
Closing Line: “Jean Taylor lingered for a time, employing her pain to magnify the Lord, and meditating sometimes confiding upon death, the first of the four last things to be ever remembered.”
Quotes: “Remember you must die.”
Rating: Good, but depressing.