Synopsis
The author of A Landing on the Sun presents a novel of sex, politics, and chicanery, with the story of a love affair between a dedicated civil servant and a spineless, corrupt London politician. 20,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.
Reviews
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.
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.
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