Spies

The novel opens with Stephen Wheatley, as an older man, reflecting on his childhood days during World War II when he and his friend Keith were playing at tracking German spies. Stephen’s naïve enthusiasm for their spy games gradually transforms into fear and confusion when he stumbles upon real secrets in the adult world. The storyline explores how innocence and imagination can lead to dramatic misunderstandings with serious consequences.

It is an unusual coming-of-age novel in that it focuses on psychological factors from a child’s perspective. Stephen narrates the story, so we are privy to his inner thoughts. I think the use of the same person in different stages of life is quite effective. Of course, Stephen as an adult can show more provide the context that younger Stephen misses entirely.

It is both a story of wartime intrigue and an exploration of how memory, perception, and guilt leave lasting effects. Frayn’s use of the setting, an isolated English neighborhood, enhances the suspense and sense of entrapment. The wartime atmosphere with its pervasive paranoia adds to the dramatic tension. Readers know something bad is going to happen and will try to anticipate what it might be. The author does a great job of keeping it under wraps until the end and I suggest going into it without knowing too much ahead of time. This is an impressive and well-crafted novel with something to say about how childhood experiences shape our adult lives. I loved it. show less

I adored this. The writing was very powerful, it brought the story to life - I felt I could actually see, hear & smell the surroundings. The characters were strong, the story unwound at a great pace & it captured that strange place between childhood & teenage years really well. I figured out what the mother was up to fairly early on, but that didn't detract from the story.

Having said all that, I wasn't too keen on the ending...it seemed a little rushed. But its definitely a keeper for the bookshelf.

Another from the 2002 Booker longlist, this one is a quiet revelation and a masterly piece of storytelling.

The action is narrated by an old man revisiting the scene and remembering his childhood adventures in suburban England during the Second World War. The story is narrated from the childhood Stephen's perspective, with occasional interludes in which the older man reflects on the story, the nature of childhood memories and what he did and didn't know when.

Stephen is a follower, not a leader, a second child prey to bullies at school, who is befriended by Keith, a lonely child from a better school. Keith develops a fantasy that his mother is a German spy, and co-opts Stephen into a scheme to spy on her. The game becomes more serious show more because she does indeed have secrets, and the nature of these secrets and their gradual revelation form the core of the book, along with what Stephen learns about his own family.

Some of the key revelations are held back until very late in the book, others are hinted at earlier, but the whole is very satisfying. A lovely book which deserved better than a mere longlisting. show less

A gyermekkor és a felnőttkor közti távolság nem csak időbeli. Nem csak arról szól, hogy régen máshogy festettek az utcák, megvolt még az a fagyalsövény, amit azóta ledózeroltak, nem csak arról szól, hogy akkor még zajlott a második világháború, most meg már nem. A gyermekkor egyszerűen egy másik világ, gyermeknek lenni azt jelenti, hogy máshogy érzékelünk, más szabályok szerint cselekszünk. A felnőttek nyelve idegen nyelv, sőt, mintha más fajhoz tartoznának: nem lehet megérteni őket, ahogy ők se tudnak megérteni minket. Amikor egy felnőtt azt mondja: „Jaj, de szépen játszanak ezek a gyerekek”, akkor a gyerekek alkalmasint nem játszanak, hanem valami véresen komoly világot konstruálnak show more épp, amiben felhasználják azokat a töredékinformációkat, amelyek a felnőttek világából szivárognak le hozzájuk. Például ha a felnőttek német kémektől tartanak, akkor az ő világukban az, aki gyanúsan viselkedik, kém, mégpedig olyan bizonyosan, mint az egyszeregy. Amikor pedig megértik, hogy a gyanús viselkedés mögött talán a véltnél mélyebb drámák rejtőznek, bonyolult, érthetetlen titkok, komplex, veszélyes érzelmek – nos, az egyben a gyermekkor vége is. show less

A strangely detached, yet gripping story of wartime childhood secrets, told by Stephen Wheatley with fifty years hindsight. The framing device of the return trip to his childhood home is usefully deployed to obtain perspective and the ability to analyse what is now the past. And the story itself is beautifully and masterfully told, even if the level of detail recalled seems unrealistic to me.
As John Updike puts in his 2002 New Yorker review:
“Aside from the understated tact and ingenuity of its mystery plot, Frayn's novel excels in its rendering of the power of early impressions, a power that fetishizes and eternalizes such modest phenomena as certain vague smells, certain details of dress coded with signs of class and origin, certain show more sounds betraying the life in other houses, certain coveted elegancies...”
The book is a wonderfully wrought story, although the pace of the plot is somewhat too fast towards the end compared to the leisurely start. show less

In this 2002 Whitbread winner, an elderly man returns to the street in suburban London where he grew up during World War II. As he wanders the street, he relives one of the seminal events of his childhood.

As a boy, he was somewhat of a loner, but became friends with Keith, the boy across the street, who had similar problems fitting in. One day Keith says six words that will irrevocably change his life: 'My mother is a German spy.' The boys begin to monitor Keith's mother's movements, and indeed they find a lot of strange and inexplicable things going on. Their childish game, however, quickly develops into something much more sinister.

The author brilliantly evokes the sensibility and reasoning of an imaginative ten year old boy. In show more reading the book, we are truly returned to a world of childhood where the world of adults is puzzling and illogical.

Spies is similar to Atonement in that both explore the consequences of a child's misinterpretation of adult actions. The narrator in both books is the child looking back at these actions from the distance and wisdom of old age, trying to reconcile his/her childhood self with the person they have become. It's been a while since I read Atonement, but I think I liked Spies more than Atonement. It succeeds, where Atonement did not, in making a child's world very real to me.

This book was both humorous and tragic and I highly recommend it. show less

An elderly man goes back to the English village of his childhood and looks back at events during WWII. He recounts and examines his friendship with Keith, another boy in the village and an only child (and he is basically Keith's only friend). Everything changes when one day Keith announces his mother is a German spy.

This is a story that plays with perspective. It was interesting how the narrator sometimes referred to his childhood self in the 3rd person - distancing himself, examining this stranger's actions, looking back in puzzlement or dismay at who this person was. Other times he tells the story in the 1st person - bringing the reader in to the immediacy and urgency of the events, the importance that the boys gave them at the time, show more but also to keep the reader from fully knowing what is really going on (though we clearly know more than the boys). Frayn creates a tense atmosphere and mounting dread about what the truth behind the boys' suspicions is. He takes a fun child's game of spying on and tailing neighbors and makes it ominous, laden with layers & real dangers that the narrator only understands better in his adulthood. At the same time, he brings you in to his frustrations - those moments as a child when you want to do the right thing (or something other than what you actually do) but find yourself doing something else. Highly recommended. show less