I have so many unread books already in the house and so many books that I want to read that it can be rather irksome when a book group choice is something you have already read, and you need to read it again. (Although not as irksome as when it turns out to be something you have already read but discarded.)
However, it is also surprising how often I appreciate and enjoy a book more on a second reading and that was certainly the case with Spies by Michael Frayn. Set during the Second World War it is a very well-written, amusing and mysterious account of a particular summer seen through the innocent eyes of children.
There are many layers to the book, which is set in a quiet cul-de-sac on the very edge of what I took to be London. The comings and goings of the residents were reminiscent of one of Frayn’s well loved farces, with much more serious consequences.
The story is told by an elderly gentleman revisiting his childhood home and recalling the summer he and his friend Keith, who both have particularly vivid imaginations, discover a German spy living in their midst. Their discovery and subsequent actions lead them into something much more upsetting than either could have imagined or were aware of.
As the story unfolds, and right to the very end, the reader becomes aware of just how many of the residents were involved in ‘spying’. And very little was as it had appeared.
The very common, and often despised, garden shrub Privet also has a starring role!
[The library has a copy of Spies]
