Book Review: Skios by Michael Frayn

Skios: A Novel

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting," said Dr. Wilfred. "Someone took my bag."

"No problem," said Skios Taxi. "Fox Oliver?"

"What?"

"Fox Oliver?"

Phoksoliva? Dr. Wilfred was too tired to start struggling with a strange language at this time of night. Surely they could have found someone to meet him who spoke English! (ch. 9)

Title: Skios: A Novel by Michael Frayn
Published June 19; Metropolitan Books
Genre: fiction, comedy

Setting: At a lavish party on the private Greek island of Skios, wealthy guests of a cultural foundation wait to meet this year's guest speaker, Dr. Norman Wilfred, an expert on the organization of science. Things start to fall apart when a social dilettante, Oliver Fox, takes over Dr. Wilfred's identity and his place at the function. With the mix up of suitcases, guests, taxi drivers, friends, lovers, and love nests, this farce took off in full gear, very much to my delight!

Comments: Laugh out loud comedy/farce set on a beautiful Greek island. Witty and clever. The plot reminds me of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, involving hilarious situations caused by mistaken identities. If you like satire, you will love this spoof on academics, pretentious scientists, and those who idolize them.

I found out that Michael Frayn wrote Noises Off, a successful play turned into a movie. I must get a hold of this one and Frayn's other books written in the same satirical/farcical style.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book.

Sunday Salon: Mystery Novels and a Few Other Books

Welcome to the Sunday

I've been in the mood for good thrillers and mysteries lately.

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I've posted a review of The Fear Artist: A Poke Rafferty Mystery #5 and really enjoyed the book and the setting - Bangkok, a city where I lived four years in the early 1980s.

A great thriller set in exotic Bangkok that will draw you in, into the relationships between what will seem like real people, and into a political situation with what will seem a true life villain.

Spencer Quinn's ARC of A Fistful of Collars: A Chet and Bernie Mystery is a clever series which features the man and dog detective duo.

Another new thriller I'm reading is Ridley Pearson's The Risk Agent, a novel about business and government corruption, set in modern Shanghai.

On a different note, here are a few other books I have on my list for variety:

The Wedding Guests by Meredith Goldstein, described as

One wedding. Five nightmare guests. Five ways to ruin the happiest day of someone else's life:

- Cry uncontrollably over your ex in front of the bride and mix calming herbal remedies with copious amounts of alcohol so that it's hard to stand up - especially if you're a bridesmaid

- Dress like you are attending a funeral and look for opportunities to re-enact scenes from steamy novels

- Turn up late wearing a T-shirt covered in mud and something that looks like blood

- If you are the bride's uncle, who no one likes anyway, try to cop off with her friend who's way too young for you

- Wear a suit that stinks of chicken wings and then spend the whole reception propping up the bar. Who said going to a wedding solo couldn't be fun?

Also,

Skios: A Novel by Michael Frayn. "The master of farce turns to an exclusive island retreat for a comedy of mislaid identities, unruly passions, and demented, delicious disorder."

Laugh out loud comedy/farce set on a Greek island. Witty and clever. The plot reminds me of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. If you like satire, you will love this spoof on academics, pretentious scientists, and those who idolize them.

Keeping cool during these hot days? I'll be indoors watching tennis today. How about you?