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 | I've just finished reading this book and I'm amazed that it won the Whitbread Prize. From start to finish I was bored and didn't care about the characters or the plot.
I'm sure Frayn's writing style(moving between the adult and child voice, and first and third person narration) is skilled and to be admired, however, for the most part rather than being fluent and flowing it is distorted and confusing.
The book has been criticised for having an over elaborate plot, and is some ways it does. Nevertheless, it is a work of fiction and so I can accept that. What I can't accept is 200 pages of slow paced narrative. So much of Frayn's writing is centred on description of setting, and while I recognise that this is important when establishing atmosphere, there is simply too much and you find yourself reading 4 or 5 pages describing, for the hundreth time, the the smells and sights of the Close where Stephen lived.
I'm a teacher and read this book as I was going to read it with a Year 9 ... read more.
Written by Michael Frayn.
Published 20 January 2003.
Published by Faber and Faber.
rrp £7.99.
272 pages Paperback.
ISBN: 0571212964
ISBN-13: 9780571212965 | |
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