... His novel 'Spies' is set in an almost surreally self-contained community, neither town nor country, a mini-suburbia bounded by railway lines, allotments and rural dereliction. Within this setting, secrets are uncovered. Innocence is tarnished. Paradise is lost.
Michael Frayn, 70 this year, ... Read review
In Michael Frayn's novelSpiesan old man returns to the scene of his seemingly ordinary ... more
suburban childhood. Stephen Wheatley is unsure of what he is seeking but, as he walks once-familiar streets he hasn't seen in 50 years, he unfolds a story of childis...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In Michael Frayn's novel Spies an old man returns to the scene of his seemingly ordinary ... more
suburban childhood. Stephen Wheatley is unsure of what he is seeking but, as he walks once-familiar streets he hasn't seen in 50 years, he unfolds a story of child...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
There is very little evidence of the war where Keith and Stephen live. But the two friends ... more
suspect the inhabitants of the close aren't what they seem. As Keith informs his trusting friend, the district is riddled with secret passages and underground la...
Postage & Packaging: refer to website Availability: in stock
In Michael Frayn's novel Spies an old man returns to the scene of his seemingly ordinary ... more
suburban childhood. Stephen Wheatley is unsure of what he is seeking but, as he walks once-familiar streets he hasn't seen in 50 years, he unfolds a story of child...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
There is very little evidence of the war where Keith and Stephen live. But the two friends ... more
suspect the inhabitants of the close aren't what they seem. As Keith informs his trusting friend, the district is riddled with secret passages and underground labs.
Advantages: Beautifully-written evocation of childhood guilt and fear Disadvantages: Maybe wrapped up a bit too neatly at the end
Close to the neighbourhood where Stephen Wheatley grew up is a place called Paradise. It's no accident that Michael Frayn, the author of Stephen's story, chose that particular name. His novel 'Spies' is set in an almost surreally self-contained community, neither town nor country, a mini-suburbia bounded by railway lines, allotments and rural dereliction. Within this setting, secrets are uncovered. Innocence is tarnished. Paradise is lost.
... ...novels, a dozen or so plays, and several translations of Chekhov. But Spies, published last year (2002) is the first of his books that I have read. It won the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award and was also nominated for the Booker Prize. It's a shortish story (272 pages in paperback) told from the point of view of Stephen Wheatley. In his early 70s, he revisits the place he grew up in wartime England, trying to make sense of the disturbing events that changed ... more
Close to the neighbourhood where Stephen Wheatley grew up is a place called Paradise. It's no accident that Michael Frayn, the author of Stephen's story, chose that particular name. His novel 'Spies' is set in an almost surreally self-contained community, neither town nor country, a mini-suburbia bounded by railway lines, allotments and rural dereliction. Within this setting, secrets are uncovered. Innocence is tarnished. Paradise is lost.
Michael Frayn, 70 this year, has written 10 novels, a dozen or so plays, and several translations of Chekhov. But Spies, published last year (2002) is the first of his books that I have read. It won the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award and was also nominated for the Booker Prize. It's a shortish story (272 pages in paperback) told from the point of view of Stephen Wheatley. In his early 70s, he revisits the place he grew up in wartime England, trying to make sense of the disturbing events that changed his life.
It all starts when Stephen's friend Keith reveals a secret about his mother. She is, Keith says, a German spy. As the two boys' childish imaginings come up against the realities of the adult world, the truth, we discover, is at once stranger and more mundane than they know.
Frayn moves easily from the past tense, third-person memories of the elderly Stephen, to the present-tense, first-person of his wartime self. You hardly notice that you are being drawn into the exciting, yet baffling world of a child. The "harsh and coarse" reek of privet blossoms prompts the memories which the book rebuilds. The smells of plants, of filth and decay, fix the story in an earthy reality at odds with its themes of imagination and uncertainty.
Frayn builds the tension gradually. As the two boys trespass further from childish detective games into the murky world of grown-up deceptions, irony turns to tragedy. The tension and mystery gather pace. Where does Keith's mother disappear to on her numerous shopping trips? Who is the strange 'tramp' lurking on the outskirts of the village? What strange language is spoken by the shadowy strangers who visit Stephen's father?
It would be wrong to tell too much about the story, as the book works mainly by encouraging the reader to infer the truth. You also have Stephen's conclusions, and are then shown the reality, either as it is, or as it seems to be. You can work out much of what is going on, but Frayn takes care not to elucidate every detail, leaving you to wonder whether you've really fathomed it all out.
By carefully maintaining the viewpoint of the young Stephen and, for most of the book, minimising the explanations from his older self, Frayn explores the nature of knowledge, and the impossibility of certainty. As we approach the truth, he suggests, it only slips further from our view. "I'm not sure," the adult Stephen muses, "if I really understand even what it means to understand something".
This could have been little more than a Just William story - its protagonists, the action and the setting are very similar. Its comic irony, however, is not neatly resolved. It is much closer to the sinister implications of the collision between childhood innocence and adult duplicity which Ian McEwan handled with similar skill in his most recent novel 'Atonement'.
There is gentle comedy in the relationship between the scruffy, slight, jug-eared Stephen, who is teased and bullied at school, and his confident, decisive friend Keith. Frayn expertly dissects the nuances of Stephen's meek submission to his domineering friend. For a novel that touches on the darkest of human motivations, and some tricky philosophical questions, it is blissfully easy and compelling to read. Most readers - either as parents, or remembering their own schooldays - will recognise the ever-shifting allegiances and misunderstandings that characterise childhood friendships.
Because, as the young Stephen realises, "adults are not after all members of some completely different species from myself." When trying to atone for his first betrayal of adult trust, Stephen senses that he has entered a world where the games are played for higher stakes than a childish oath. In the book's repeated mantra: "everything is as it was, and everything has changed."
Paperback published by Faber and Faber - list price £6.99. Waterstones currently have it in a '2 for £10' offer.
I first read this book at the end of last year, and thrououghly enjoyed it. A bildungsroman from the perspective of Stephen Wheatley as both a ten year old boy and as an old man. The book provides an insight to what a child sees and how the child thinks, especially in a time of war. The adventures that lead to more than Setphen and Keith had wished for were only started as fun... but the mystery of Uncle Peter is unwrapped as a tunnel becomes an ... ...^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Through following the dual narative, the reader picks up the thoughts and feelings of Stephen Weatley more and more as the book goes on. We are able to understand the childs thoughts and feelings, however naive, but we can also understand the old man's thoughts when he adds to and questions his childhood memories. leaving us with an almost full understanding of Stephens past
Class
^^^^^^^
With Frayn touching on every aspect of ...
chris213west 15.07.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Spies - Michael Frayn
Advantages: Setting detail Disadvantages: At times can be slightly disjointed
...think maybe this is why Spies is rather successful, the books realism, depth and at times understanding is somewhat pleasurable.
AUTHOR
Frayn started off writing for the Guardian and later, the Observer, publishing plays and novels. What year I am unsure, however I know a few of his novels which include Tin Man (1965), The Russian Interpreter (1966), Alanding on the sun (1991). So as you can Frayn has been writing for a great number of years. Frayn ... ...truth.
THE NOVEL
Spies is not a novel for those who enjoy a happy ending as such, Frayn remains still to this day haunted by his heretage and his childhood, Spies is a novel that condenses into a few hundred pages a mans childhood story and experience of death, defiance and the start of understanding the hidden truths of Who he really is? At times the modern novel is not an easy read, not for the faint hearted as other reviews have pointed out, ...
jpearson772 05.08.2006 (03.11.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Spies - Michael Frayn
Advantages: Beautiful imagery Disadvantages: The narration can feel disjointed, Stephen is an unattractive main character
In the enclosed world of Stephen and the boy it is his "infinite good fortune" to be best friends with, Keith, a simple make-believe game of spying gets out of hand, and over the course of the summer, Stephen and Keith will discover secrets about Keith's mother far beyond the limits of their childish imaginations, in the distant world of adulthood. The story is told by both the younger Stephen, constantly on the cusp of adolescence and understanding ... ...and the older Stephen, who has made his journey back to England to remember the events of sixty years ago. This dual narrative is one of the most striking devices in the story, as Frayn weaves motifs of beautiful sensory imagery to hint to the reader into the younger Stephen's narrative, whilst withholding information from the older Stephen's storytelling, leaving a the reader with a disjointed patchwork of events which they must piece together to ...
lexyloo 26.05.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Spies - Michael Frayn
Advantages: A Brilliant World War 2 novel Disadvantages: Not long enough
This is a very good novel and would be enjoyed by any one who has an interest in World War 2. The book is written frm the perspective of a man who lived through the war, he analyses the way he behaved as a child. The story is set around two children from different backgrounds who believe they have discovered a german spy and the far reaching consequences of their childish games.The story invetigates the way children behave and think, and how as adults ...
foxmul42 11.04.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Spies - Michael Frayn
In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live, the only sign of the Second World War is a single random bomb-site. But the boys suspect that the ordinary houses in the Close and their inhabitants are not what they seem. Then one day Keith announces that the Germans have infiltrated his own family.
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