Towards the end of the morning: Michael Frayn

4 Responses to Towards the end of the morning: Michael Frayn

1. Mr Black says:

   April 20, 2014 at 4:04 pm

   The book made an excellent start, and at the end of the first chapter I was mentally salivating to see how the plot line would work out. Unfortunately it wandered off into a slightly pantomime style, where repetition of the same gag went stale very quickly. Perhaps Mr Frayn is really a playwright rather than an author?

   To be fair there were some very funny moments, particularly when Bob is ‘nipped’ by his landlady.

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2. Mr Orange says:

   April 22, 2014 at 10:41 am

   A humorous, well drawn depiction of old Fleet Street life – afternoon-long lunchbreaks of fags and booze. Although the story petered out before the end there were enough pleasures to make this an interesting bookend to Waugh’s Scoop, just not quite as good overall.

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3. Mr Green says:

   August 19, 2014 at 11:13 pm

   Frayn has a serious talent for humour and dialogue but although both were amply displayed in this book, it lacked the momentum and coherence to sustain a satisfactory narrative. Ultimately it was more episode and observation than story and perhaps the most interesting part of the book was the introductory reminiscence about the newspaper days of Fleet Street which he added in 2000, over 30 years after this novel was first published.

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4. Mr Red says:

   January 25, 2015 at 4:30 pm

   Hilarious satire on Fleet Street in its heyday; the first few chapters are on the level of “Scoop” – but it then runs out of steam, the plot lines peter out, and in the end it’s less than the sum of its parts.

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