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1kidzdoc
This thread is for reviews and discussion of Skios by Michael Frayn, which was selected for the 2012 Booker Prize longlist.
2DorsVenabili
I finished Skios last night and am trying to get my thoughts together regarding it. It's very well done and funny, but I have minimal experience with farce in novel form, so I really have nothing to compare it to in my head. Anyway, I'm going to give it four stars for now, but I doubt it will end up on the top of my list. I'll try to write a review today.
3DorsVenabili
Here are my comments on Skios. I gave it four stars.
The Toppler Foundation, headquartered on the beautiful Greek island of Skios, is holding its annual Great European House Party, where guests (mostly American) travel great distances to hear lectures and attend workshops on various fabulous subjects related to European culture. Dr. Norman Wilfred, this year’s guest of honor, plans to give the event’s culminating lecture on science management, his area of expertise. However, when the charming and sloppily handsome Oliver Fox makes a spur of the moment decision to steal Dr. Wilfred’s identity, a chain reaction of increasingly goofy events is set into motion.
This is a well-done, off-the-wall farce that effectively lampoons pretentious, shallow, rich folks with a bit too much time on their hands and the strange culture industry that the Toppler Foundation represents. Oliver’s ability to pull off his disguise points to the tendency for people to respond to charm over substance with disastrous effect. Not having much experience with this type of novel, I have little to compare it too, but I find it difficult to point out any flaws. It’s very funny, fast-paced, full of twists, and has a satisfying ending that I was not quite expecting. Although it may not be my thing, it’s very high quality writing, and I recommend it.
The Toppler Foundation, headquartered on the beautiful Greek island of Skios, is holding its annual Great European House Party, where guests (mostly American) travel great distances to hear lectures and attend workshops on various fabulous subjects related to European culture. Dr. Norman Wilfred, this year’s guest of honor, plans to give the event’s culminating lecture on science management, his area of expertise. However, when the charming and sloppily handsome Oliver Fox makes a spur of the moment decision to steal Dr. Wilfred’s identity, a chain reaction of increasingly goofy events is set into motion.
This is a well-done, off-the-wall farce that effectively lampoons pretentious, shallow, rich folks with a bit too much time on their hands and the strange culture industry that the Toppler Foundation represents. Oliver’s ability to pull off his disguise points to the tendency for people to respond to charm over substance with disastrous effect. Not having much experience with this type of novel, I have little to compare it too, but I find it difficult to point out any flaws. It’s very funny, fast-paced, full of twists, and has a satisfying ending that I was not quite expecting. Although it may not be my thing, it’s very high quality writing, and I recommend it.
4vancouverdeb
Great review, Kerri! I've been back and forth as far as reading Skios. Like you, I don't think I've ever read a farce, so I am not sure what I'd make of it. On the other hand, in a sense, I suppose Sisters Brothers was a farce of " cowboys" , at least in part and I LOVED that book!
I'm currently reading - ever so slowly as RL gets in my way, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I'm enjoying it quite a bit , but I don't see it as " Booker Material". I have The Lighthouse by Alison Moore arriving to my kindle tomorrow ( the day of it's release) but most of the Booker Longlisted have been difficult to find in the stores. Thumb up on your review!
I'm currently reading - ever so slowly as RL gets in my way, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I'm enjoying it quite a bit , but I don't see it as " Booker Material". I have The Lighthouse by Alison Moore arriving to my kindle tomorrow ( the day of it's release) but most of the Booker Longlisted have been difficult to find in the stores. Thumb up on your review!
5The_Hibernator
I enjoyed Skios. :)
My Review
Dr. Norman Wilfred has flown to Skios to give a distinguished speech to a group of rich academics at the Toppler Foundation. Due to an unfortunate string of coincidences, he is whisked off to a villa while a con artist, Oliver Fox, takes his place at the Toppler gathering. At first blush, this may seem like to be only a farcical comedy of errors. Fun is poked at the distinguished empty-headedness of academia, at silly assumptions people make when they don't have all the information (which, of course, they never do), and at the openness of people to accept whatever is said--as long as it is said by a charismatic person. However, I can see why this book was chosen for the Booker longlist--upon a more careful reading this book has a much deeper undercurrent. It asks questions about identity and about chance Eureka! moments. I found the ease with with Oliver Fox moved into Norman Wilfred's life almost believable because that IS how academia works sometimes. Sometimes, it IS more about how charming you are than about what's actually coming out of your mouth. Sometimes it IS more about your name and about who people think you are than about who you ACTUALLY are. I understand that this book isn't for everybody...but I'm a person who doesn't generally read farcical novels, and I enjoyed this one immensely.
My Review
Dr. Norman Wilfred has flown to Skios to give a distinguished speech to a group of rich academics at the Toppler Foundation. Due to an unfortunate string of coincidences, he is whisked off to a villa while a con artist, Oliver Fox, takes his place at the Toppler gathering. At first blush, this may seem like to be only a farcical comedy of errors. Fun is poked at the distinguished empty-headedness of academia, at silly assumptions people make when they don't have all the information (which, of course, they never do), and at the openness of people to accept whatever is said--as long as it is said by a charismatic person. However, I can see why this book was chosen for the Booker longlist--upon a more careful reading this book has a much deeper undercurrent. It asks questions about identity and about chance Eureka! moments. I found the ease with with Oliver Fox moved into Norman Wilfred's life almost believable because that IS how academia works sometimes. Sometimes, it IS more about how charming you are than about what's actually coming out of your mouth. Sometimes it IS more about your name and about who people think you are than about who you ACTUALLY are. I understand that this book isn't for everybody...but I'm a person who doesn't generally read farcical novels, and I enjoyed this one immensely.
6kiwidoc
Very funny, hits the mark as a farcical commentary on fame, academia, and the age-old supremacy of style over substance (or is it the other way around). A really shame he is not on the short-list, as Frayn is one talented guy.
Headlong, which reached the shortlisted Booker list, is also a fabulous read, and altogether different.
Headlong, which reached the shortlisted Booker list, is also a fabulous read, and altogether different.
7Mercury57
This is an extract from a review I posted: I agree with kiwidoc that Headlong is fabulous. You might also want to try Spies.
Masterful? Yes in terms of handling a complicated plot line. Enjoyable? Marginally so – you could read this on a sun lounger with eyes half closed and enjoy the odd chuckle or too. But that’s about it. The problem for me was that the characters seldom rose above the level of painting-by-numbers figures – the plot device too often turned on that well-worn device of miscommunication between foreigners who can’t speak each others language. It’s difficult to care about what happens to any of these people.
Skios does have its moments of acutely observed behaviour and attitudes. The world of the academic lecture circuit is an easy target for comedy and ridicule (think David Lodge’s Small World). Frayn’s satire is evenly balanced between the academics and their audiences: Norman lectures to “the Something Centre. Or the Something Institute. The Something Something. The Something Something for the Something of Something.” to audiences who “had already had lectures on “the Crisis in this and the Challenge of that. They had an Enigma of, a Whither? and a Why?, three Prospects for and two Reconsiderations of.”
Such moments get lost however amidst the frantic rushing about that farce requires. Equally, there seems to be a theme about identity in which Frayn asks us to consider how we really know who we are – if our name and everything we supposedly represent can so easily be taken by another person, then what is left? But again, the comedy takes over and this question is never really explored.
Overall, this is a book that is well short of Frayn at his best. The kind of novel that is instantly forgettable once finished.
Masterful? Yes in terms of handling a complicated plot line. Enjoyable? Marginally so – you could read this on a sun lounger with eyes half closed and enjoy the odd chuckle or too. But that’s about it. The problem for me was that the characters seldom rose above the level of painting-by-numbers figures – the plot device too often turned on that well-worn device of miscommunication between foreigners who can’t speak each others language. It’s difficult to care about what happens to any of these people.
Skios does have its moments of acutely observed behaviour and attitudes. The world of the academic lecture circuit is an easy target for comedy and ridicule (think David Lodge’s Small World). Frayn’s satire is evenly balanced between the academics and their audiences: Norman lectures to “the Something Centre. Or the Something Institute. The Something Something. The Something Something for the Something of Something.” to audiences who “had already had lectures on “the Crisis in this and the Challenge of that. They had an Enigma of, a Whither? and a Why?, three Prospects for and two Reconsiderations of.”
Such moments get lost however amidst the frantic rushing about that farce requires. Equally, there seems to be a theme about identity in which Frayn asks us to consider how we really know who we are – if our name and everything we supposedly represent can so easily be taken by another person, then what is left? But again, the comedy takes over and this question is never really explored.
Overall, this is a book that is well short of Frayn at his best. The kind of novel that is instantly forgettable once finished.
