Customer Reviews
Just boring! - By: Mr. D. Mellor, 30 Oct 2008 
I've just finished reading this book & I'm amazed that it won the Whitbread Prize. From start to finish I was bored & didn't care about the characters or the plot.
I'm sure Frayn's writing style(moving between the adult & child voice, & first & third person narration) is skilled & to be admired, however, for the most part rather than being fluent & flowing it is distorted & confusing.
The book has been criticised for having an over elaborate plot, & is some ways it does. Nevertheless, it is a work of fiction & so I can accept that. What I can't accept is 200 pages of slow paced narrative. So much of Frayn's writing is centred on description of setting, & while I recognise that this is important when establishing atmosphere, there is simply too much & you find yourself reading 4 or 5 pages describing, for the hundreth time, the the smells & sights of the Close where Stephen lived.
I'm a teacher & read this book as I was going to read it with a Year 9 class. Having read it I feel it would be a cruel & unusual punishment to make them endure reading this book. It simply wouldn't appeal to any normal teengager.
I was actually considering suicide... - By: Booh, 04 Sep 2008 We had to read this book as part of AS English Literature course, &in all honesty, it was an awful book. I pushed on though & forced myself to read chapter after boring chapter expecting a half decent ending after reading pages & pages of drivel but no....a completely random ending that just sprang itself out of nowhere! There was too much description & not enough actual story!
Pretentious and boring - By: C. March, 26 Feb 2008 From the first chapter to the last, this book was painful to read. The plot was ridiculous & the over-used theme of childhood innocence is neither new or exciting.
As a student... - By: Raven Smith, 22 Feb 2008 
Yes, this book is long-winded, overly nostalgic & pointless, & yes, I hated studying it at A level, but it is that ridiculously over-crafted tone that makes this a perfect exam text. Every character can be seen from infinite angles & argued about for eternity, the plot is unclear & unstructured, but that's exactly Frayn's point. It's almost as if he's writing to be studied, picked apart, & only then understood.
If you want a little bedtime reading, this is perfect - it will send you to sleep. If you want something enjoyable or meaningful, keep well away. And if you're an A level student, stop complaining & just get on with it. Either way you'll have to sit the exam, & if you work with Frayn rather than against him, you'll find it so much easier.
Nostalgic wallow - By: E. Potter, 01 Jan 2008 
I thought this was going to be a wartime novel along the lines of 'Enigma' or something like that: however I found it was basically about 6 weeksin the life of a boyin a rather dull roadin a rather dull London suburb. I couldn't stand the girl Barbara & her purse - I don't know whether this was intended. By the way I'm 55 years old & didn't have to read the book for AS level.
