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Spies: A Novel (Paperback)

~ Michael Frayn (Author) "The third week of June, and there it is again: the same almost embarrassingly familiar breath of sweetness that comes every year about this time..." (more)
Key Phrases: pig bins, red brick path, lemon barley, Auntie Dee, Barbara Berrill, Uncle Peter (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Michael Frayn's novel Spies an old man returns to the scene of his seemingly ordinary 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 childish games colliding cruelly with adult realities. It is wartime and Stephen's friend Keith makes the momentous announcement that his mother is a German spy. The two boys begin to spy on the supposed spy, following her on her trips to the shops and to the post office, and reading her diary. Keith's mother does have secrets to conceal but they are not the ones the boys suspect. Frayn skillfully manipulates his plot so that the reader's growing awareness of the truth remains just a few steps beyond young Stephen's dawning realization that he is trespassing on painful and dangerous territory. The only false notes occur in the final chapter when the central revelation is too swiftly followed by further disclosures about Stephen and his family that seem somehow unnecessary and make the denouement less satisfyingly conclusive. This is a much sparer and less expansive book than Frayn's 1999 novel Headlong, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. --Nick Rennison, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

By the author of the bestselling Booker Prize finalist Headlong, this dark, nostalgic and bittersweet parable evokes the childhood escapades of an isolated and hapless young boy caught up in the uncertainties of wartime London in the early 1940s, just after the horrors of the Luftwaffe blitz. Stephen Wheatley, now a grandfather living abroad, is drawn back to London to revisit his boyhood home, to deal with the complexities and eventual tragedy engendered by what seemed a harmless game of spy when he was just a schoolboy during WWII. His best friend at the time was Keith Hayward, the bright son of rather standoffish parents; Keith and Stephen embark on a childish adventure after Keith announces that his British mother is a German spy. The murky plot follows their frustrations as they try to shadow Keith's mum as she goes through the mundane ritual of stopping by her sister's house with letters and a shopping basket, only to disappear into the neighboring streets. Discovering at last that she takes a route through the culvert beneath the railroad and leaves letters in a box hidden on the other side, they eventually learn that she sometimes meets a tattered, bearded tramp hiding in a bombed-out cellar. When Keith's mum finally realizes they have found her out, she secretly seeks Stephen's loyalty, making him complicit. Thrust into a role far beyond his years, but helpless to refuse, he is overwhelmed. As it plays out to a surprising denouement, this enigmatic melodrama will keep readers' attention firmly in hand. (Apr. 3)Forecast: Fans of Headlong may miss that novel's dark comedy, but those who appreciate Frayn for the rigorous intelligence of his fiction will find him in fine form here.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 261 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (January 18, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312421176
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312421175
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,046 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Michael Frayn
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The third week of June, and there it is again: the same almost embarrassingly familiar breath of sweetness that comes every year about this time. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pig bins, red brick path, lemon barley, old tramp, old bean, chocolate spread, cow parsley
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Auntie Dee, Barbara Berrill, Uncle Peter, Norman Stott, Miss Durrant, Stephen Wheatley, Dave Avery, Peeping Tom, Roger Hardiment, Elizabeth Hardiment, Keith Hayward, Eddie Stott, Great War, Secret Service, Home Guard
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Spies: A Novel
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Spies: A Novel 3.9 out of 5 stars (42)
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Customer Reviews

42 Reviews
5 star:
 (16)
4 star:
 (15)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (42 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, tightly written, May 21, 2002
By Glenn Miller (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)   
This review is from: Spies: A Novel (Hardcover)
In a marked departure from his previous humorous novel, Headlong, Frayn delivers a wonderful look at the complicated world of a child. During his own childhood (the early years of World War II), Frayn's best friend makes the statement to him, "My mother is a German spy." In writing this novel, Frayn takes this true event and plays the "what if" game. The two friends know that this is just a game, just a means of passing a summer afternoon, but what if they spy on her and start to see actions that might indicate that she truly is a spy? It's a wonderful look at how perplexing the adult world can be to a child, and how wrong our impressions -- either as a child or as an adult -- can be when we don't explore the full picture. Frayn throws a clever curveball at the very end of the book, one which could have been predicted by the careful reader. It's unfortunate that this book has come out at the same time that Ian McEwan's book, Atonement, was issued, since they are somewhat similar in theme (the wide ramifications of a child's actions during World War II), and it may ultimately get lost in the literary shuffle. That's a shame, for reading it on its own is a terrific way to spend a weekend.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Recalling L P Hartley's "Go Between", "Spies" is a winner !, March 25, 2003
By A Customer
Michael Frayn's "Spies", the 2002 Whitbread Prize winner, is a quintessentially English novel that recalls L P Hartley's classic "The Go Between". Both novels begin with an old man indulging in the queasily pleasurable habit of visiting the past when as a young boy he was innocent of the tragedy his childish detective games would set in motion for the adults and end with a stark recognition that resonates with an indescribable pain we feel for the ruined lives they have caused. The rush of familiar smells and the recollection of other childish secrets like a misspelled password trigger off a flood of memories for the adult Stephen Wheatley. These in turn become the catalyst for unravelling the secrets that underlie the mystery that consumed the boy Stephen and his playmate Keith one fateful summer.

Frayn flits skilfully between past to present but when we enter the world of the boy Stephen, we become child observers too. We don't have a head start in our understanding of what is happening among the adults because our senses are his. Even Keith's mother - like all mothers - doesn't have a name. The suspicious routines that preoccupy Keith's mother - her constant shuttling between home and her sister's or the post office, and her mysterious disappearance from sight every time she turns the corner - is shrouded in a mystery that deepens with vague hints of cruelty and abuse that only the adult Stephen is able to discern. Indeed, the relationship between Stephen and Keith is hardly a friendship, more an emblem of their class differences, which allow the middle class Keith to play leader to the socially inferior Stephen. In the same way, Keith's parents exude a distance and coolness that is slightly unnerving.

Frayn's characterisation is flawless. His characters are all vividly drawn personalities that leap out of the pages at you. Stephen's torment and debilitating lack of confidence as a socially underprivileged child is especially resonant and a masterpiece of characterisation. Then there's Keith's mother. Her icy elegance and well groomed exterior conceals the desperate and terrible turmoil beneath it. Keith's father, constantly at work in his home garage, is a lurking and quietly menacing presence. Then there's Keith. His haughty silence and his cruel smirk, duplicating his father's, is a precursor for when he draws blood. Finally, there's Barbara. Her precocious spitefulness makes her every pre-teen boy's nightmare big sister.

"Spies" is a delicious psychologically thriller that fans of the English novel will delight in. It is beautifully written and a real page turner. You will find your pulse racing as the story approaches its climax. But Frayn eschews an explicit revelation, so you might have to read the last chapter carefully (if not twice) to get it. Sadly though, he decides to wrap with a contrived shock revelation about Stephen's own family history that is unnecessary and brings the story to an end on a false note. "Spies" is otherwise an excellent and ingeniously crafted little novel that deserves to be read and enjoyed widely. I'm glad it won the Whitbread.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Childhood re-created, November 22, 2002
This review is from: Spies: A Novel (Hardcover)
Looking back on events of his childhood from the wisdom of old age, Stephen Wheatley recounts important events from his childhood. Frayn tells a story of 2 boys inventing a world around them, with the second world war unfolding around them, unsurprisingly they are obsessed with the idea of spies in their midst. Their increasing obsession with their game, leads them to some unexpected discoveries.

This book is full of acute observations of youth. Outlandish games, the fickleness of children towards each other, the towering and unquestionable domination of adults over their lives.

I enjoy stories where the innocence and naievity of youth is retold through knowing adult eyes and this book was no exception. Its part mystery, part rites of passage. Well written and incredibly evocative of childhood and days gone by.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Glimpse into childhood perceptions
I had to write this review after noting the Publisher's Weekly and general editors' reviews. An old man recalls his childhood? Read more
Published 1 day ago by J. Edvenson

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Four Intriguing Books!
Here's what I suggest for an utterly intriguing run of books: read Frayn's Copenhagen, Headlong, The Copenhagen Papers, and Spies in that order. Read more
Published 2 days ago by A reader

3.0 out of 5 stars childhood mischief in war-torn Britain...
'Spies' has a great premise: elderly man visits his childhood street in Britain recalling various spying mischief performed by himself and his best friend during WW II. Read more
Published 18 months ago by lazza

4.0 out of 5 stars "Sometimes people have things they want to do in private."
At first, "Spies" seems like an elegiac remembrance by an old man revisiting the village where he grew up during the tense but oddly halcyon days of the British countryside during... Read more
Published on November 15, 2007 by D. Cloyce Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a time machine
When given this book, I was told it would make me remember what it was like to be a child. I honestly didn't think that was possible. Read more
Published on September 14, 2007 by Andrea Elise

4.0 out of 5 stars The confusion of childhood revealed
A page turner to make you think about pre-adolescence, wartime, and child rearing. The book's WWII setting is engrossing, and, while Frayne does exhibit some of the carefully... Read more
Published on June 23, 2007 by Slatternly Jones

4.0 out of 5 stars Spies- Michael Frayn
Spies is an assigned novel I have to study for English Literature at AS level.
To be honest I agree with all reviews, good and bad. Read more
Published on January 24, 2006 by brokendream88

2.0 out of 5 stars This one misses its mark
I really enjoyed reading Headlong and Copenhagen, but Frayn missed with this one. Frayn is excellent at satirical farce or philosophy. Read more
Published on June 7, 2005 by Gail Dohrmann

2.0 out of 5 stars Would Make A Great Short Story
The book takes place during WWII and follows the lives of two eleven year year old boys as they play a game of spy. Read more
Published on March 27, 2005 by Rose Main

2.0 out of 5 stars John Updike liked it, but it just didn't appeal to me
I liked Fryan's play Copenhagen, I thought it intellectually stimulating, courageously able to deal with scientific topics and I loved the unravelling of the layers of meaning... Read more
Published on January 29, 2005 by Hugh Claffey

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