Now You Know (Acting Edition) [Paperback]

Michael Frayn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2011 | Series: Acting Edition

Genre: Comedy

Characters: 4 males, 4 females

Scenery: Interior

Personal and public duplicity are juxtaposed in this foray into the shambling offices of Open, a plucky pressure group campaigning for freedom of information and dedicated to sleuthing out government malpractice. The group's driving force, Terry, is preoccupied with the case of an Asian who allegedly attacked some skinheads, beat up a police posse and put himself to death in jail. A high flier in the Home Office gives him a confidential report confirming a cover up: the man was kicked to death while in police custody. Terry is torn between exposing the truth and protecting his source. Meanwhile, there is discord in the mail room, subterfuge in the office, and a romantic cover up to plot.

"Frayn's gently ironic comedy ... picks up a cluster of ideas about secrecy, openness and the unpalatability of truth and dices them into a series of dilemmas." Time Out.

"There is some good, lively writing here... The play is funniest when it involves the human workings of Open, a crusading group where locked drawers and suppression of feeling are the norm." London Times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Frayn ( A Landing on the Sun ) again wickedly anatomizes the British civil service; this time his effort is more virtuosic, yet ultimately less affecting. His protagonist, Terry, runs an eccentric group dedicated to digging out and publicizing the government's dark secrets. While Terry is trying to expose the Home Office's handling of a case in which a man has been badly beaten by the police, a bewildered Home Office official, Hilary Wood, meets him by chance, trying to escape her ineffectual boyfriend. Hilary is drawn to Terry's massive self-confidence; briefly, they are lovers, and she begins to turn over precious departmental secrets to him. What this does to Terry and his wonderfully observed office colleagues--ever-smiling Shireen at the switchboard, bossy socialite Jacqui (another flame of his); secretive, smart Liz; and hopeless Kevin and Kent, the office boys--is the story. Frayn manages to enter each of their psyches in the first person (leading to some confusion at first), and with extraordinary mimicry he sets forth their various obsessions and self-justifications, which end in a magnificent office row. Despite Frayn's extreme skill and his keen sense of human foibles, however, the book doesn't quite come to life for an American reader; Terry is perhaps too English a type to be entirely convincing on this side of the water, while painfully bewildered Hilary is frankly unbelievable in American terms.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In his seventh novel, Frayn tilts at the windmills of the British civil service and the dissident pressure groups that it spawns. His protagonist Terry confides, "I haven't got many qualifications for running a political campaign. I'm an ignorant bastard." What Terry can do is ask embarrassing questions, often staging public hijinks to entice media coverage and, to vary the pace, indulging in sexual escapades (giving the lie to his 61 years). Terry's office explodes when Hilary, a civil servant, hands over the document he's been seeking--and herself as well. Disillusioned, she chucks her career and joins The Campaign, creating havoc in the already chaotic office. Although Frayn uses an odd first-person style to narrate the tale, each character thinks and speaks so distinctively that keeping track is scarcely a problem. Unlike his Landing on the Sun ( LJ 1/92), which also pilloried the civil service but was hauntingly sad, this is a macho romp that any anglophile will enjoy as much for its wit as for its rueful portrayal of the servants of Her Majesty. For all readers who enjoy robust farce.
- Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Samuel French Ltd (June 6, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0573018480
• ISBN-13: 978-0573018480
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,762,108 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.