The Trick of It

Different from Frayn's other novels. I absolutely loved this book - read it in about 6 hours straight. It's psychologically engaging. Great to see the inside of a relationship from a male perspective.

This is a story of hero(ine) worship, a disastrous relationship, and the destructive power of envy, told in the form of letters from an English academic who becomes romantically involved with the famous author who is the subject of his studies. As in "Headlong", Frayn gives us a flawed protagonist we both like and despise. We can see the value of what he wants and wish him well in his quest, but then can only look on in agonized impotence as he goes about securing his object by entirely inappropriate means. The comedy of the scenario would be enough, but Frayn has more on his mind. This is a novel about novels, about writing. It's a kind of metafiction which explores "the trick" of fiction. What is it that writers do? How do they create their stories? Do they invent? Or do they plunder their own lives and the lives of those around them? In the manner of most good metafiction, this one raises more questions than it answers. In the end, the origin and status of what we have just read is never quite resolved. Is this simply a collection of the protagonist's letters? Or is it the 'factual novel' he has lately been writing in competition with his wife? Or is it in fact a novel written by his wife, based on their shared experiences? Or one written by his Australian academic friend to whom these 'letters' were addressed? Or even one by the biographer who was urgently trying to locate them for his own dire ends? We never really know - which is part of the trick of it.

Written in a form of protagonist's letters to his Australian friend, the novel is an subtle and psychologically exact depiction of moral degradation of an ordinary man (not a bad or evil one in his essence but somewhat bilious and self-absorbed) afflicted with envy. He has received a windfall of love, goodness and generosity, but being unable to surmount personal jealosity he loses respect of his colleagues and even his job itself and turns a sting of his malice against his wife and only friend until this destruction becomes his self-destruction.An excellent reading: exquisite form, rich language and characters that remain in memory.