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Title: Spies: A Novel by Michael Frayn ISBN: 0-312-42117-6 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.03 (31 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Scent of the Past
Comment: As a boy in wartime London, Stephen Wheatley is a target for bullies. His only friend is Keith, a neighbor boy with a seemingly perfect life. Keith is the leader whose imagination leads them on a series of games. When Keith says that his mother is a German spy, the borders between imagination and reality become blurred. The boys begin to spy on her and find that she does indeed have mysterious comings and goings. Years later, the harshly seductive scent of blooming privet takes Wheatley back to that time, to evaluate his boyhood actions and their consequences. Spies is a quiet book that builds to a suspenseful climax. As an old man, Wheatley reflects on that time and notes, "What we did to each other in those few years of madness! What we did to ourselves!" I finished the book before looking at the reviews, and must admit, I found the final pages to be a less than satisfying end to a thoughtful novel. But the mood of the story and the scent of privet are what remain for me now that the reading is done.
Rating: 4
Summary: A slow burn
Comment: I have to admit, I almost gave up on this book ninety pages in. For whatever reason, it just wasn't holding my interest. The story was only vaguely interesting and it went along at a rather mundane pace. But then, just when I thought I'd given up, something happened. The story started coming together, the characters and setting grew on me, and I discovered much to my pleasant surprise that I couldn't put it down. I raced to finish it and had to force myself not to glance down to the bottom of the next page to find out what was coming next.
This is a story of secrets and lies set in a tiny English village in the heart of World War Two. An innocent child's game of "spies" turns into an ugly and inevitably tragic tale of wartime recriminations and unrequited love with an ending to rival the surprising and equally devastating denouement of Ian McEwan's "Atonement."
Frayn's brilliance is subtle and exists mostly within the seemingly innocent yet insightful observations of his child narrator, Stephen Wheatley, through whose eyes the reader experiences the story.
I'm glad I persevered!
Rating: 5
Summary: Almost Like a Film - Great!
Comment: Frayn took a simplistic wartime storyline and made it unfold for the reader like a film. The characterization comes alive with the needling of going through the visage between childhood and adulthood, and innocence and wisdom. There's a yearning at the core of the story with an ending as if it were a short story, with a meaningful return to present reflections. It is a pretty good read!
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Title: Headlong (Bestselling Backlist) by Michael Frayn ISBN: 0312267460 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Piano Tuner : A Novel by DANIEL MASON ISBN: 1400030382 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Copenhagen by Michael Frayn ISBN: 0385720793 Publisher: Anchor Books/Doubleday Pub. Date: 08 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Trick of It: A Novel by Michael Frayn ISBN: 0312421443 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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