An elderly man returns to the scene of
his childhood and remembers the games he played with a friend during
the World War II. This book follows HEADLONG by
Frayn, a brilliant novel about art forgery and the delicious play
COPENHAGEN. I have a weakness for books where children get it all
wrong, perhaps because I always did. And this book concerns two boys,
overly caught up in the war, and inventing a role for one's mother
during wartime England-spying on her and coming to the wrong
conclusions. One boy convinces the other that his mother is a German
spy and they are both to ready to accept this, following her, taking
notes, making this pursuit their preoccupation. The plot eventually turns everything they believe on its ear.
Frayn perfectly captures the voice of children of that time: their ability to focus on behavior that is perhaps lost to modern kids. I wonder if kids today would bother to put down their cellphones and Ipods. I also wonder if adults have lost their allure. It did remind me of THE GO-BETWEEN, another wonderful British book by L.P. Hartley. You can't go wrong with either of these choices.
No comments:
Post a Comment