Michael Frayn is a satirist who has moved from newspaper columns to novels to television productions to stage plays. Judging from the critical responses, he seems to have conquered each medium. His pl...
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Michael Frayn had five novels published between 1965 and 1973. The second and third of these, The Russian Interpreter (1966) and Towards the End of the Morning (1967), are conventional, the former a ...
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Michael Frayn's versatility has prevented his full recognition in any of the areas he has worked in during a forty-year career: novelist, comic novelist, lay philosopher, humorist, translator of class...
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In 1998 Michael Frayn had his first original play, Copenhagen, staged at the Royal National Theatre on London's south bank. This production was not the first time his work had been seen at the presti...
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Critical Essay by Jeremy Brooks
It can't be easy to write even a weekly funny column. To be constructively funny—i.e., satirical—three times a week would seem an impossible task....
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Critical Essay by Irving Wardle
One's heart starts sinking from the first moment of Michael Frayn's play [The Sandboy] when Eleanor Bron drops an armload of cushions to stare at us agha...
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Critical Essay by Leonie Caldicott
'And this is what the product is all about,' declares [John Garrard] at the end of Make and Break, swinging round the final section of his firm'...
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Critical Essay by Harold Hobson
[Mr Frayn's play Make and Break] is wretchedly constructed; old-fashioned in its views of women; relies on a surprise ending which would have suited a comedy th...
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Critical Essay by Michael Ratcliffe
['Benefactors'] is a seriously amusing four-hander which takes Frayn away from the richer emotional resourcefulness of (in my opinion) his best play ...
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Critical Essay by William F. Gavin
It has become impossible in the last few years to watch television, read a periodical or book, listen to records, or attend a show without being subjected to the la...
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Critical Essay by Anthony Thwaite
The pieces in On the Outskirts, like its predecessors [The Day of the Dog and The Book of Fub], have the remarkable virtue, shared with some books of poems, of gaini...
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Critical Essay by William Trevor
Michael Frayn's first novel, The Tin Men, is a fast, swooping performance by one of our very few serious satirists. In the past he has exposed so brilliantly s...
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Critical Essay by Julian Gloag
There was every reason to look forward to Michael Frayn's first novel with the mouth already formed for laughter and wry smiles…. Mr. Frayn at his best is...
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Critical Essay by Robert Taubman
Maybe it won't be without effect on the Cold War itself that the entertainment media men have gone over in a big way to spoofing it. Michael Frayn stands rathe...
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Critical Essay by Pamela Marsh
Michael Frayn has been compared to Evelyn Waugh. It is easy to see why….
[In The Russian Interpreter] Mr. Frayn succeeds in a tricky job of juggling deceivers...
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Critical Essay by Benedict Nightingale
Michael Frayn has long been concerned with what one might portentously call the nature of reality and, until now at least, he's always stood squarely opp...
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In the following review, Worth asserts that Frayn proves himself a master of the stage farce with Noises Off.
“Is God?”, asks Professor George Moore in Stoppard's Jumpers. ...
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In the following review, Thomas assesses the strengths of A Landing on the Sun, describing the novel as witty, touching, and intelligent.
This [A Landing on the Sun] is a marvelous novel, wise and ...
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In the following review, Eder extols the strengths of A Landing on the Sun, calling the book a satirical examination of bureaucracies, academic institutions, and the differences between men and women....
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In the following review, Banville argues that A Landing on the Sun effectively displays Frayn's talents for comedy, but notes that the plot is overly contrived in some places.
The novel is a...
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In the following review, Reading offers a positive assessment of Now You Know, calling the novel witty and entertaining.
It will surprise no one to learn that Michael Frayn's new novel, Now ...
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In the following review, King contends that Frayn makes convincing use of different narrative voices in Now You Know.
In recent years there have been an increasing number of cases of civil servants...
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In the following review, Raymond observes that Frayn is a clever and adroit writer but argues that Now You Know falls short in its construction, plot, and ethical values.
In the effective modern st...
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In the following review, Parrinder compares the central motifs in Now You Know to similar themes in Frayn's earlier novels and plays, praising Frayn as an inventive and innovative comic writer....
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In the following review, Duguid asserts that the strength of Here lies in the play's sense of dramatic immediacy.
Many of the jokes in Michael Frayn's new play [Here] come from famili...
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In the following essay, Filbin discusses several recent novels—among them Now You Know—which he argues hold greater value and significance than other works of contemporary fiction.
Am...
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In the following review, Lezard judges the stage version of Now You Know as a successful adaptation of the novel, commenting that the play “both raises and dodges issues of openness and secrecy...
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In the following review, Wall praises Frayn's engaging, readable narrative voice in The Trick of It, describing the novel as “a fable of literature's ambivalent power.”
...
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In the following essay, Blansfield discusses the themes of work and professional life in Frayn's plays, concluding that Frayn's interest in these themes is based on “a perception ...
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In the following review, Dyson observes that many of the comic moments in Remember Me? are predictable but effective, further commenting that the film's resolution is unsatisfying and improbabl...
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In the following review, Brookner evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Headlong.
The journey [in Headlong] begins with a literal journey: a couple travelling north with their young baby. They ...
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In the following review, Jensen asserts that Frayn's treatment of the protagonist's relationship with his wife in Headlong is the book's main asset, but faults the novel for lacki...
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In the following review, Dunford contends that Headlong demonstrates Frayn's abilities as an intelligent, funny, and clever writer.
What would we readers do without the infernally brilliant ...
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In the following review, Natale describes Headlong as a successful novel that effectively blends farce and social comedy.
Can a master playwright and skilled columnist also produce a successful nov...
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In the following review, Wood discusses the theme of self-delusion in Headlong, commenting that the book has a fine beginning but loses its momentum when bogged down by the plodding details of the pro...
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In the following review, Hensher provides an overview of Frayn's novels and plays, focusing on the theme of failure in interpersonal communication, with specific emphasis on the novel Headlong....
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In the following review, Bien describes Headlong as “urbane and funny,” but comments that some readers may find the academic and research portions of the book to be tedious and uninteres...
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In the following review, Heller contends that The Trick of It is thoughtful and funny, observing that the novel explores the difficulties of writing fiction and the mysteries of the creative process.
...
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In the following review, Fearn praises Frayn's sense of humor in Celia's Secret, calling the work an “entertaining record of folly.”
People who claim to have seen God wh...
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In the following review, Filbin describes Headlong as witty, sardonic, engaging, and droll.
On a perfectly indolent June evening last year, my wife and I sat in a restaurant in Edinburgh enjoying t...
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In the following review, Harper asserts that the strength of Headlong lies in its effective mixture of philosophy and farce.
Michael Frayn's current Broadway play, Copenhagen, dramatizes a h...
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In the following review, Winder offers a positive assessment of Celia's Secret, praising the book as “clever.”
There are, as any writer will be quick to tell you, not very many...
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In the following review, Gee asserts that Celia's Secret is a factual account of a hoax carried out between two friends.
This curious little book is a coda to Michael Frayn's successf...
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In the following interview, Frayn discusses the writing of The Trick of It while reflecting on his literary career and writing process.
Michael Frayn is renowned for debunking the interview. In the...
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In the following essay, Moseley notes that Headlong, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize, was his personal choice to win the award, asserting that Headlong is “a novel of lasting si...
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In the following essay, Hensher discusses what he perceives as the central theme throughout Frayn's columns, novels, and plays—a concern with the problematic relationships between people...
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In the following review, Kamine praises Frayn's entertaining, witty, and dexterous prose in The Trick of It, stating that the central themes of the novel include the writing process and the way...
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In the following review, Wall comments that A Landing on the Sun treats themes similar to those in The Trick of It, but less successfully, contending that the narrative voice of the former is dull and...
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In the following review, Mackenzie asserts that although many of the characters in A Landing on the Sun are irritating stereotypes, Frayn skillfully blends the genres of philosophy and literature in t...
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In the following review, Mitchison lauds Frayn's accomplishment as a writer, judging A Landing on the Sun to be a skillful depiction of Britain's stodgy upper classes.
Michael Frayn...
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In the following review, King comments that reading A Landing on the Sun is a pleasurable experience due to Frayn's successful combination of seriousness and humor.
Since Harold Wilson was a...
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How appropriate is the title of Frayn's text Spies?
Within Frayn's enigmatic and richly nostalgic text, the theme of spies is undoubtedly significant. The title has immediate connotations of secrecy,...
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Consider the ways Frayn presents Keith's mother
Frayn presents Keith's mother, Mrs Hayward in many different ways by his use of imagery, metaphors and irony. From being a perfect, composed lady who ...
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Within Frayn's enigmatic and richly nostalgic text, the theme of spies is undoubtedly significant. The title has immediate connotations of secrecy, danger and mystery. Frayn has cleverly left a trail ...
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The world is a scrim, left blank for the tints and whorls of the ego. Void an object of its quantum of human aspiration, and you might as well annihilate it. I think, therefore I am. Fine, but even...
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The four most promising words in any language are "Once upon a time .... " Unless, that is, we use just two, "One day .... " And this much I know. One day, Martin McDonagh sat down someplace and wr...
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I would like to offer a hearty mazel tov to Joseph V. Melillo, executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, who has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (or O.B.E.) from Queen Eliza...
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Let me welcome the new year by celebrating August Wilson's underestimated, fantastic, risky achievement of Gem of the Ocean (directed with such assurance by Kenny Leon at the Walter Kerr). Any seri...
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The four most promising words in any language are "Once upon a time .... " Unless, that is, we use just two, "One day .... " And this much I know. One day, Martin McDonagh sat down someplace and wr...
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On Jan. 31, 2005, the BBC made it official: On the evening news, the anchor gravely announced the publication of Ian McEwan's new novel, Saturday, and proclaimed the author "the international voice...
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