A Landing on the Sun [Hardcover]

Michael Frayn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1992

A novel which explores the mysterious death of a taciturn civil servant named Summerchild, who has been working on a project of strategic significance at the Ministry of Defence.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Frayn, a hit British dramatist ( Noises Off ) and comic novelist ( The Trick of It ) has created a tender civil service comedy of the kind that only an Englishman could bring off. The almost anonymous narrator, a basically dry-as- dust denizen of Whitehall, is charged with investigating the mysterious demise of a colleague, Stephen Summerchild, who had fallen to his death from high in the Admiralty offices years before. Bit by bit, through old files, photographs and a cache of uproarious tapes, he pieces together the strangest romance: that of Summerchild and a Russian-born Oxford philosophy don who had been summoned, in a moment of government madness, to investigate the nature of happiness. Amid much beautifully spoofed academic chatter, the two find a profound attraction and create a literal love nest in a tiny room high under the government eaves. Meanwhile the narrator so enters into their ridiculous but poignant relationship that he almost, but not quite, breaks loose of his own fusty ways; and he does learn why Summerchild fell. Frayn writes with great wit, a haunting sense of the atmosphere and texture of quiet London lives and places, and a profound knowledge of the official heart. This is a masterly comic performance with a hint of rue.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

After a slow start, Frayn's story-within-a-story technique finally takes off. As the novel opens, British Civil Servant Brian Jessel is asked to investigate the mysterious death of former employee Summerchild. Although 15 years in the past, this death appears to be an embarrassment within the Whitehall establishment. But no one knows why. What had Summerchild been working on and with whom was he working? Jessel immerses himself completely in the project. The ludicrous nature of Summerchild's situation is best summed up by the narrator: "Yes, better they our enemies should see the plans for a nuclear submarine than this!" Frayn's poke at the foibles of bureaucracy will appeal to devotees of satirical fiction. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/91.
- Patricia C. Heaney, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (February 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670839329
• ISBN-13: 978-0670839322
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,366,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Frayn was born in London in 1933 and began his career as a journalist on the Guardian and the Observer. His novels include Towards the End of the Morning, The Trick of It and Landing on the Sun. Headlong (1999) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while his most recent novel, Spies (2002), won the Whitbread Novel Award. His fifteen plays range from Noises Off to Copenhagen and most recently Afterlife.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect masterpiece, February 29, 2000

By 

Jonathan Bennett - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Landing on the Sun (Mass Market Paperback)

I cannot find that any reviewer has properly taken the measure of the virtuosity of this work, apart from any of its other merits. Frayn anchors Jessel in the very same place as Serafin and Summerchild, the two people whose history he is investigating, and from that conceptual base he goes out on forays into differences of time and of identity. Jessel plays and experiments with abolishing those differences, but the sameness of place is flatly literal. It's delicious. --As well as the interplays between his time frame and theirs, and between his identity and theirs, there is the interplay between his happiness and theirs; and, for good measure, Frayn explores the interplays amongst these other interplays. All of this finely interwoven, never tangled; so funny and so sad; and bound together with a terrific detective story. --Frayn makes a brilliant job of making us believe (in a way) Jessel's own representation of himself as a dry, grey, prosaic civil servant, while also showing us how lively and responsive a mind he has. --The philosophy tutorials are wonderful: a lot of mockery, but also some real philosophy. Frayn makes the unlikely love between Serafin and Summerchild seem almost inevitable: all it took was an exchange of truly personal reminiscences, their sheer intimacy being the magnet that pulls the two people towards one another. --This is the most complex thing Frayn has ever done; he ran fearful risks with it; and the upshot is a triumphant, dazzling success. `

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sweet, haunting, intense, October 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Landing on the Sun (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book almost a year ago, but even at this distance I can say it haunts me. When I think of books I've loved, this is certainly one. In structure, it reminded me a little of AS Byatt's Possession (if not quite that complicated). It's smart and funny about the lives of civil servants, and keeps your sympathies shifting and swelling. A brilliant book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly accomplished, January 31, 2003

By 

Steven Reynolds (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Landing on the Sun (Paperback)

With its enticing blend of sex, death, Establishment politics and academic philosophy (in this case the theory of happiness), the setup for this intriguing novel sounds like something by Ian McEwan. But Frayn brings to it his trademark sense of humor, so it never quite gets into the same territory. The comic aspects of an unlikely love affair between a devious public servant and the Oxford academic who is also his boss are fully exploited, providing a nice counterpoint to the more intellectually engaging philosophical material. In that sense, this novel makes a nice companion piece to Frayn's two most recent efforts - "Headlong" and "Spies" - both of which similarly deploy comic plots as devices for discussing more serious concerns. In the right hands, this kind of thing can really work. Frayn consistently manages to pull it off because he makes clever narrative choices. Here, he uses the first-person narration of an investigator, the transcripts of meetings, and audio tapes of the lovers to tell a story which unfolds in two timeframes. He also sets up an intriguing mystery - Who killed Stephen Summerchild? - to pull you through. Highly original and engaging, this should appeal to readers who prefer literary fiction but also enjoy the intrigue and pacing of crime/mystery novels. It's a challenging fusion of the two.