Skios - Michael Frayn

55%
01.01.13

I'm keen on Michael Frayn but not so keen on farces, which is a pity because Frayn is regarded as the master of British farce. I just can't be doing with all those mistaken identities and misunderstandings and ridiculous coincidences but if anyone can move them from the superficial to the philosophical, it's Frayn. Well, maybe. There's nothing really deep here, unless it's so deep that it's buried beneath the comic awkwardness. There's nothing noticeably insightful but it's diverting enough - for a farce.

Spies - Michael Frayn

69%
11.11.12

Normally, I hold boldly to the view that life's too short to read a book twice, but exceptions can be made. Reading group choices, for example - life is not too short to chat about books with your friends over a nice cup of tea. In any case, I first read this 10 years ago and, despite thinking it really rather good, I remembered almost nothing about it. And yes, I still think it's really rather good and yet... painstakingly structured, deeply evocative, nuanced, an hilariously painful account of childhood confusion... and yet... the emotional depth is somehow lacking, the semi-surprise ending a little hurried. Or perhaps my older self is just harder to please.

Spies - Michael Frayn

76%
17.04.03




A gripping, well-paced tale of the secrets of suburbia, elegantly told and psychologically complex. Rather brilliant.

Headlong - Michael Frayn

70%
15.10.01




Not a promising book at first sight - an outrageously unsympathetic narrator, an unattractive picture by a Dutch (or was it Flemish?) painter I'd never heard of, the politics of the Netherlands in the 17th century... but once it gets going, it's hard to stop. It's the thought-processes of the narrator, and the emotional nuances that really catch the imagination. Clever and funny.