Day 02 - A book you've read more than three times.
I thought a lot about which book to choose for this one, because I've read many books more than three times, although that's usually because I've quite clearly missed the entire point of the book, or I've had to read it for a module, gotten bored and skimmed it, and then realised that I have an essay/exam on said book, and would probably benefit from actually reading it to minimise the chance of failure. So I picked a book that ticks all these categories, and is actually a book that I genuinely love (now that I've read it properly.)
Spies by Michael Frayn was a book that I had to read for my A-Levels. At that time, I found it dreadfully dull, (a sentiment shared by most, if not all, of my classmates) and so I didn't really try to absorb myself in the story, or indeed, like it. The narrative seemed to plod along at a lazy pace, and for a long time, nothing much happened. Gradually though, Shaun (our teacher) manage to impress upon us the seriousness of the imminent exam, and that we all really must try to make more of an effort with it. In fact, he warned us that this book was so incredibly complex, it was very difficult to get a good mark - the average grade for students up and down the country (taking the exam for the first time) was a D. English literature was one subject I'd always felt an affinity with, and the lowest mark I'd ever received (on a really, really bad day) was a C. I could not, and would not get a D. No, absolutely not. And so, I started to try a little harder, listen a little closer and consequently, my copy of the book is now littered with annotations. I discovered that the book wasn't really that bad, and was in fact actually rather good. By the time the exam rolled around, I wasn't feeling especially confident, but figured I'd give it my best shot. I'm aware that I'm rambling a little bit here, and have gone off on quite a major tangent, so I might try and reign it back in a little, and focus a bit more on the book. If anyone's interested, I got an A on that exam and was one of only two people (I think...) in my entire college who didn't need to re-sit it. Hooray for me!!
ANYWAY. The book. Spies is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Britain in WW2. The story is told from two viewpoints, which are at once very different and yet completely the same. The main character, Stephen Wheatley, returns to his childhood street an old man, reflecting on the events that occurred there one summer, and so the story is told from the perspective of Present-Day-Stephen and WW2-Stephen. The (very basic) premise to the plot is two boys, Stephen and Keith, bored in the heat of the summer, suspect Keith's mum of being a German spy, and so make it their buisness to spy on her, and discover exactly where it is she goes and who she's posting the mysterious letters to. Unfortunately for the boys, they find themselves mixed up in a dangerous mystery neither of them could have bargained for - but before you go guessing, it's not at all what you think it is. Frayn weaves his story in a mesmerising fashion, and the true scale of their childish games isn't revealed until the final pages, which is both compelling and infuriating.
It is a book primarily about memory and imagination, and the effortless way in which a child can blur the lines between reality and fantasy, and ultimately live their own make-believe creation of life - until they realise the detrimental effect their games have on the realities of those around them.
When I first read this book, the pace seemed to me to really bog the narrative down, and the lack of any action meant I found it exceedingly dull. But now, having read the book a few years later, I finally understand the point to Frayn's writing techniques. What he doesn't say is equally as important as what he does say, and the meandering narrative I now see as a reflection of the main character's lack of understanding of what's really happening. It is as much a work of suspense as it is a saddened reflection, and the surprises and plot twists towards the novel's end are revealed so casually that the effect is somewhat jarring - but in a good way. I only wish I'd tried harder to absorb myself in the book when I read it for the first time. But the good news is, this book has since become one of my all time favourites. Hurrah!!
