And I loved how he showed kids with a feverish imagination inventing an adventure and then having to suspend disbelief, just like readers, to sustain the narrative.
Then came the ending. The endings somehow like the vacuum cleaning of a carpet — which never for me achieves a result that quite rewards the effort. Character, plot and pace are about as close to perfect as it gets. His intellectual subtlety is enviable. His ethical sense is acute. He knows how to tell a story.
The reader might expect, therefore, a less than up-beat moral. The theme of Spies is the sort of quantum physics of everyday life.
We change the world into something different by our smallest and most passive acts. You take them for granted. It could be the definition of youth. So it has to be learned, if it is learned at all, by every generation.
Or dream that we see, or imagine that we see, or imagine later that we remembered seeing? In a way, that is also how political propaganda and ideologies work - there's the backdrop of WW II, after all.
While told by a much-older Stephen looking back on his past, the protagonist is still conveying the story from the point of view of his younger self — the reader almost always remains ahead of young Stephen, as from the point of view of a grown-up outside of the game, what is happening will be judged very differently.
These two levels work nicely and add to the suspense, because the question how Stephen and Keith will interpret a situation always lingers. All in all, the true mystery to me is how come this book was not shortlisted for the Booker but you shortlisted Unless? Vit Babenco. And then one night it happens. In your head, in your stomach. Spies is a very powerful and extraordinary coming-of-age novel. If I hadn't had to read this book for English I never would have finished it.
The concept for the book was interesting, the actual story however was really slow and I just couldn't get into it. In the last chapter it was like the writer suddenly decided that he needed to add in some thing to shock the audience, however it was delivered in such away that there was no real shock value to it. Author 10 books 80 followers. I can't decide whether to give this book four stars or five. The language was a lot more straightforward than the dense, breathless wordplay I usually love, but the further I got into the book the more I came to see this as another mark of Frayn's genius, because the language picks up and becomes more urgent and complex as the plot does.
The plot is brilliant; no question about it. I couldn't put this book down, and those of you who know my distractible self will know that this says a LOT. I'm sure part of my total absorption owes itself to the fact that this book handles some of my favourite themes: the fallible nature of memory, the weight of childhood mistakes.
The narrator and a friend he is desperate to impress begin what seems at first like another rollicking adventure of the kind they've always played: spying on the friend's mother because they suspect she's a German spy oh yes: it's World War II. Along the way, as you might well suspect, their game turns horrible and terrifying. Perhaps the most terrifying discovery the narrator makes, and that we achingly remake with him, is the vulnerability of adults.
Frayn had told us at the beginning of the evening that he had given the book to the childhood friend who was the original of Keith, and that this friend had recognised himself and the depiction of his softly threatening father.
At the end of the evening, a reader made an eloquent plea for sympathy for this character. Did the novel not suggest that he might have suffered in the first world war? He is an older father, too old to do military service in the second world war. Indeed, was he not the potential twin of Peter, the terrified "hero" who has suffered such trauma as a bomber pilot? The character is "an awful man, obviously" — but for a reason. Frayn thought this was indeed a clever reading, of which he had not been conscious.
The man on whom he was based had been horrible; the fictional character had slipped away from his original and become somebody altogether more complicated. Book club Books. Spies by Michael Frayn. Week four: readers' responses. As Stephen refuses to go with her or to tell her about the contents of the basket, Barbara accuses him of When Stephen confesses he hoped they could be friends, she stops being aggressive and shows himthat she has taken from They smoke it together.
Barbara Berrill takes out Among them, she finds , which she wants to open. Stephen opposes the idea, but Barbara leans forward and Then, she takes —from the trunk and slits the —open.
At that moment, Stephen realises there is somebody peering through the leaves. It is —, who wants to —and also asks him to bring Wednesday, 29 June Chapter 9 up to "L Justify your answer with detail from the text. Mrs Hayward looks different. Explain in what ways and account for the changes. She is compared to a beggar. Mrs Haywards explains who the man in the Barns is. Mrs Haywards gives some new information about the man. She asks Stephen to go under the piece of corrugated iron to check if the man needs anything else.
Mrs Haywards starts crying. Stephen thinks Auntie Dee was the first one to fall for the man, and that, later, Mrs Hayward took him away from her. Stephen feels responsible for what is going on. Stephen discovers adulthood and childhood are not that different after all. Mrs Haywards has to leave Stephen because Keith is calling her. She makes a comment on the perfume of the privets before she leaves. We notice a change in Stephen in chapter 6. Even though he still depends a lot on his friend Keith and considers him as a leader, Stephen becomes bolder, more independent and more aggressive in this chapter.
At the beginning of the chapter, we are reminded of how Stephen is hiding some information from Keith. Even though he feels uncomfortable and guilty about not sharing all this information with his friend, this is a first step towards a more autonomous behaviour.
Sometimes, these hypotheses can be illogical and childish, but they can also help us construct our own theories of what is going on. As in a real investigation, the children gradually gather new pieces of information, which make their hypotheses transform. The evolution of these changes can be clearly seen in chapters 4 and 5. Labels: chapter 4 , chapter 5 , hypotheses , spying. Wednesday, 22 June Questions on chapter 8-section 3. Answer the following questions:. What does Stephen brag about?
Whose do they think it is? How does Barbara get around Stephen to open his secret trunk? What do they use the matches for? Comment on the roles of the children in this new experience and the reasons they want to try it. Spies draws on the tradition of coming-of-age novels.
How is the growing up process described in this chapter? Whose cigarette does Stephen suddenly realise it might be? Labels: chapter 8 , questions. Questions on chapter 8- second section. The next house the policeman visits is Trewinnick. When the policeman emerges to the street again, Stephen regrets his own inaction. Quick revision on chapter 8- first section. Barbara Berrill intrudes in the hideout again. Keith is the one who does the shopping for his mother and his aunt now.
Compared to Stephen, Barbara seems to have a greater understanding of what is going on at the Haywards'. Mr Hayward seems to guard his wife closely now. Justify your answer explaining what the children see from Braemar. In spite of his vivid imagination and the rich workings of his mind, Stephen seems to become inarticulate when he has to interact with most of the other characters in the book.
Labels: chapter 5 , chapter 6 , Stephen. Wednesday, 8 June Spies- Chapter 7. Underline a quotation in the book that justifies your answer. The narrator wonders about the way in which he understood what was happening at the time the events took place.
Stephen and Keith only played together at Braemar now. The old Stephen stares at a pot of geraniums that stand today at the same spot where his former self used to sit in the lookout. The narrator imagines how a boy who is looking out of the window interprets his behaviour.
However, he thought he had done nothing wrong. He had the impression things in the world were more complex than he had supposed. Stephen realised Mrs Hayward was behaving as suspiciously as a spy. He was firmly convinced she was a German. He believed the hidden man was a German. He believed the hidden man was a tramp. He believed the hidden man was an old German tramp.
How does Stephen interpret his behaviour? In your opinion, what other reasons may he have for not wanting to continue their investigation?
Look for a simile in the text. Pay attention to the way he speaks, to his words and his gestures. How does Keith behave? Do you feel sympathy for him? How does Stephen want to help Keith? Why is the sharpening of the bayonet such a frightening event?
Labels: chapter 7 , questions. They remember there was — living there somewhere. What do they start doing out of boredom? What do they discover? What do they do to the piece of corrugated iron? Do they have any response from the tramp? What do they do? When she finally turns up,. What does she tell Stephen at the end of the chapter? Summarise what we learn in this chapter about….
Mrs Haywards. Labels: chapter 6 , questions. In chapter 5, both Barbara Berrill and Mrs Hayward provide some new information as regards Keith, which throws light on his character.
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