Book Review with Photos: A Cluster of Separate Sparks

Title: A Cluster of Separate Sparks

Author: Joan Aiken

Date: 1972

Publisher: Doubleday

ISBN: none

Length: 231 pages

Quote: “It had been a long, hot, and upsetting day, but the violent death of my cousin Sweden was unquestionably the most upsetting occurrence.”

Though generally “irked by her bossy, patronising ways, and the undoubted fact that she bore a strong resemblance to Garbo,”

Greta Garbo: Photo donated to Wikipedia By MGM - ebay, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43023094

Sweden’s cousin Georgia comes to the fabulous Greek island of Dendros to apply for a job at the school where Sweden works, and she stays. Not only because she’s the right woman for the job. Not even because the men on Dendros react to Georgia in ways that ought to reconcile any young woman to any number of cousins’ resemblance to any number of movie stars. No; because on Dendros Georgia can carry out her final obligation to her dead lover, lay him to rest, and marry a living man.While eligible bachelors keep plopping at Georgia’s feet, her story never deteriorates into a mere romance—although “unlikely adventures of glamorous people in exotic places” is the classical definition of Romantic fiction, and that this book certainly offers.

Even for Greek readers Dendros, the Lost Island of Nice, must qualify as an exotic place. Even the criminals and corrupt policemen are terribly charming when they’re not actually committing crimes or refusing to investigate them; the murderers are glamorous and the hijackers are fully qualified to teach school when they’re not hijacking planes. Dendros is also the home of a fabulous species of butterflies, like monarchs only bigger and gaudier. Some of the Greek islands do harbor interesting animals, and many of them can claim scenic beauty and nice people, but the butterflies of Dendros may be unique. They look like giant silk moths and save some of the nicest characters’ lives.

Scientifically, the butterflies of Dendros appear to be a fictional hybrid of half a dozen real moths and butterflies...

Probably the butterflies of Dendros were inspired by the "butterflies," actually a species of day-flying moths, that flock to a "Valley of Butterflies" on Rhodes in summer. If not huge, they can be well camouflaged and startle people with a sudden display of bright red wings. Only adults flock to Rhodes; eggs and caterpillars are scattered around other parts of Europe including Britain. Photo donated By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT - Self-photographed, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27859459

Their large size might have been inspired by the Emperor Moth, the biggest moth typically found in Europe. Like other big silk moths, they don't flock, and the caterpillar "six inches from tail to tail" was undoubtedly exaggerated--four inches is more likely. They're basically brown, but can be a brighter red-brown than this individual. Photo By Velela - Tuscany, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=726843

Big, pretty butterflies that form huge flocks sound more like the mostly American Monarch butterflies, which cross the ocean and occasionally stray into Europe. Photo By Kenneth Dwain Harrelson, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14917505

If not quite as big or as interesting, the "Two-Tailed Pasha" (Charaxes jasius) is about as colorful as these. It's considered the biggest butterfly normally found in Greece, with wingspreads over three inches. Photo donated By https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Charlesjsharp

Although this Asian silk moth, Attacus atlas, can have a wingspread up to 11" across, even its caterpillars seldom exceed five inches long. Photo By Maghdp - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63807932

Two North American silk moths, Eacles imperialis (shown) and Citheronia regalis, are much smaller than Attacus atlas as moths but may grow bigger as caterpillars; living specimens over 5.5 inches long have been confirmed. Photo By I, Joelmills, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2382830

However, despite the unlikely adventures, glamorous people, exotic places, and marriage proposals, A Cluster of Separate Sparks is not what comes to mind when readers ask for a romance. It meets the requirements to be described as a murder mystery with spies, but it’s hardly even a mystery in the ordinary sense of the term. It’s a lively adventure story with enough character development in it to qualify as a novel, like Dorothy Sayers' or Jane Langton's detective stories.

Joan Aiken’s fictional signature is a pair of especially clever and lovable children, found in every novel. In this novel Paul and Suzanne, the ones Georgia most wants to adopt, are only the most adorable of a whole class of lovable children. Not all the children even get speaking parts, but all of them might have been inspired by an Adoptive Parents Recruitment Drive. The very, very private school where Sweden and Georgia work specializes in finding clever scholarship children in the world’s slums and orphanages to serve as doubles for the brain-damaged offspring of rich celebrities—and the bright children like the dim ones.

Such cheerfulness might seem false, even Gilbert-and-Sullivan, if it weren’t being presented by a narrator who wills herself to be fearfully cheerful to hide a broken heart. Georgia has obviously spent her whole life reminding herself, “I am Greek-Chinese on my father’s side and Russian-French on my mother’s. Anyway I was born in England,” and in order to fit into the country her parents chose for her she must “always behave with proper British sang-froid and presence of mind” even though she’s “not proper British.” She manages to be flippant about the fact that “I didn’t value my life above an expired season ticket” after her boyfriend’s suicide. The Age of Therapy had not yet convinced people that such detachment is a bad thing. What Georgia is about to get, in the way of attempted murders, philosophical discussions, and startling revelations, is the psychological equivalent of ten years in therapy.

All her emotional problems will resolve themselves in the end. When the ability to talk flippantly about your own grief is the worst of your emotional problems, and you have money, you simply pay to have everything but death arranged to suit you, which is very comforting and does much to reconcile you to mortality. Georgia will live happily ever after.

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