From Publishers Weekly
Frayn, a hit British dramatist ( Noises Off ) and comic novelist ( The Trick of It ) has created a tender civil service comedy of the kind that only an Englishman could bring off. The almost anonymous narrator, a basically dry-as- dust denizen of Whitehall, is charged with investigating the mysterious demise of a colleague, Stephen Summerchild, who had fallen to his death from high in the Admiralty offices years before. Bit by bit, through old files, photographs and a cache of uproarious tapes, he pieces together the strangest romance: that of Summerchild and a Russian-born Oxford philosophy don who had been summoned, in a moment of government madness, to investigate the nature of happiness. Amid much beautifully spoofed academic chatter, the two find a profound attraction and create a literal love nest in a tiny room high under the government eaves. Meanwhile the narrator so enters into their ridiculous but poignant relationship that he almost, but not quite, breaks loose of his own fusty ways; and he does learn why Summerchild fell. Frayn writes with great wit, a haunting sense of the atmosphere and texture of quiet London lives and places, and a profound knowledge of the official heart. This is a masterly comic performance with a hint of rue.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
After a slow start, Frayn's story-within-a-story technique finally takes off. As the novel opens, British Civil Servant Brian Jessel is asked to investigate the mysterious death of former employee Summerchild. Although 15 years in the past, this death appears to be an embarrassment within the Whitehall establishment. But no one knows why. What had Summerchild been working on and with whom was he working? Jessel immerses himself completely in the project. The ludicrous nature of Summerchild's situation is best summed up by the narrator: "Yes, better they our enemies should see the plans for a nuclear submarine than this!" Frayn's poke at the foibles of bureaucracy will appeal to devotees of satirical fiction. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/91.
- Patricia C. Heaney, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
