Headlong

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining farce
Review: I was waffling on reading this one but a friend gave me the final nudge I needed and I'm awfully glad he did. This book moves from comic novel to theatrical farce so smoothly you can practically see it on stage as you read. Farce is ridiculously hard to do and Frayn is very, very good at it. In fact, his play "Noises Off" is a farce about a farce and is one of the funniest productions I've ever seen.

Philosopher turned amateur art-historian Martin Clay and his art historian wife Kate take an extended stay in the country, mostly for Martin to finish his book on "the impact of Nominalism on Netherlandish art of the 15th century." They happen upon their neighbors -- Tony Churt and his wife Laura, owners of a dilapidated manor (and wonderfully vivid supporting characters) --and get invited to dinner where they are asked to assess the value of several paintings in the family estate. Among these paintings, Martin believes, is a lost masterpiece by Flemish artist Peter Bruegel. He doesn't say a word to the Churts about this "discovery"; instead, he sets out to prove its authenticity and immediately begins plans on staging an elaborate art theft.

The progression of plot depends very heavily on art history but because its told through the spinning wheels of Martin's over-active mind, it's very entertaining stuff, and you don't feel as if you've walked into an art-history text book (well, okay, there are moments when you do, but I found it all rather interesting). Martin is beautifully comical in his earnestness and completely believable at that. Very British too, which adds to his appeal.

The story comes to a frenzied head near the end, as farces generally do, and goes out with a bang. Fun stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Obsession, or a Moral Tragicomedy in Intellectual Apparel
Review: This is the first book by Michael Frayen I've ever read and I'm really impressed. The novel is a page-turner: the comical part of the plot is rather unobtrusive, it includes genuine pearls of humorous characteristics and funny remarks; the part depicting life and time of the great Flemish artist Peter Bruegel is excellent, it is cognitive and incentive, one will feel necessity to dive into bizarre world of painter's fantasies by visiting libraries or appropriate sites on the Net. The author invites you to solve the mystery of Bruegel's art and simultaneously entertines with masterly depiction of unfortunate attempts of Martin Clay, a hero of the novel, to obtain lost masterpiece.

But under the layers of comical effects one can discern elements of tragical events in some keeping with bloody history of the Netherlands under Spanish rule in the 16th century. Martin, a modern person who has everything he really needs - a loving young wife, wonderful daughter, decent work and income, by accident comes across a lost Bruegel's (probably) canvas in the home of his country neighbor who is unaware of his fortune and wants to sell it. Martin commences his efforts to acquire the picture with a proper desire to give it to the National Gallery in London and receive universal kudos for its discovery. But little by little the craving for its possession takes him all, he lies, cheats, commits illegal actions. Next comes possibility of adultery and even leaving his wife and daughter as a price for the canvas. Martin can not resist his monomania anymore, he is ready to justify all his unbecoming deeds. Even in the last ordeal by fire, when he has to choose between rescue of Laura, his neighbor's wife, and the longed-for canvas, he picks the latter at first and only Laura's desperate scream helps him to make right choice.

The last pages of the novel are rather sad...the life of the hero is normalizing again (or at least he thinks so). The book is Martin's confession, his endeavor to alleviate pain caused by his rash actions, to understand what has happened with him... And why...

Rating:
Summary: Clowns Frighten Me
Review: This is a witty and cleverly-constructed book. There are two problems with it. The first is that this sort of trick of juxtaposing a story in a contemporary setting with a narrative about some subtly parallel scholarly discoveries has already been done about as well as it ever could have been by A.S. Byatt in _Possession_. Frayn's novel rather suffers by comparison, although I didn't find the long digressions on Breughel here as annoying as some other reviewers seem to have.

The second more debilitating problem is that the narrator is a Fool. Not just a loveable stumblebum or a mild eccentric, but an out-and-out, unqualified buffoon. In many of his plays Frayn displays a formidable talent for the construction of hilarious bedroom farces, but these talents are misused in a novel like this, which in other ways attempts to be much more serious in what it communicates. Here the awful way that the guy treats his family and the casual delusions that he cultivates as a way to distract himself from his own research can't just be chuckled off as devices for keeping the door slamming and the bedpans flying - they make it awfully difficult for one to get excited about the hero's researches in the way that I think Frayn wants us to. He strikes a better balance between the forces of seriousness and farce in his two best novels (both absolutely wonderful, five-star reads) _The Trick of It_ and _A Landing on the Sun_.

Rating:
Summary: Intellectual Property
Review: "Headlong" is a very entertaining sort of novel that revolves around a wonderful plot device: a man finds, in his boorish neighbor's house, a neglected painting be believes may be a lost Bruegel. The rest of the novel revolves around his plot to confirm the painting's identity and to steal it from the undeserving neighbor. Frayn does a remarkably good job of showing how protagonist Clay, while neglecting his own philosophical scholarship, engages in his quest to confirm the painting's authenticity, and the history and art history are mixed in fast and furiously. The novel becomes one of those intellectual mysteries in which the clues are scholarly details, and this material is handled remarkably well, and I learned a great deal about Dutch political and aesthetic history. This aspect of the story, however, is hung on a less effectively executed plot to free the painting from its undeserving owner. If the book drags at times it is not because it gets bogged down in history, it is because it doesn't bog itself down sufficiently in the present. I would have liked to have seen the characters fleshed out a bit more, motives made clearer, and the emotional investments of the characters made more real. Ultimately, however, "Headlong" is an effective and engaging read.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the ride, including the detours
Review: If it is possible to experience whiplash while reading a book, then "Headlong" may be just the literary vehicle.

The deliciously measured pace with which Frayn leads us into his farce picks up speed as our art-besotted hero pratfalls his way to nabbing the missing masterpiece from its bumpkin owner.

Yet no sooner does Frayn have you hurtling along his farcical highway when he slams on the brakes and takes a sideroad into the arcane world of iconography, iconology and Netherlandish painting.

Then just as you've adjusted yourself to Frayn's scholarly, languid and rather taxing explorations of these disciplines, wham! He's put his foot to the floor and once again we're careening along with Martin Clay and his roadshow of inept scheming and second-guessing.

In the end, the reader requires a virtue which Martin seems to entirely lack: patience.

But it's worthwhile to endure with Frayn's detours and pedantry. Not only are they fascinating exercises in genuine scholarship, but they also make Martin Clay a thoroughly plausible art detective, dogged academic and blinkered buffoon.

Though sometimes ponderous, Frayn's meanderings through the artistic and political history of Europe are a curiously successful counterbalance to the slapstick results they engender.

There is one superbly comic moment which ties these two polar opposites together. It comes when Clay finally clutches his prize. His words of triumph are surprising yet obvious, and like the novel, hilarious.

Rating:
Summary: Satirical farce and historical mystery
Review: In his previous works, including the plays "Copenhagen" and "Noises Off" and the novel "The Trick of It," Frayn has proved himself an expert at meshing two or more disparate genres into unique hybrids. With "Headlong," he's done it again: merging satirical farce and historical mystery--the sort of novel P. G. Wodehouse and Umberto Eco might write together.

The plot is nothing short of brilliant in conception and nearly perfect in execution. Martin Clay, a professor of philosophy, and his wife Kate, an art historian, have gone on a sabbatical at their country home. "We don't want to drive 100 miles out of London only to meet people who have driven 100 miles out of London to avoid meeting people like us." (Frayn is a master of the quotable quip.) Martin has procrastinated writing a book on a topic that sidesteps a bit into his wife's field--both his delays and his turf-crossing are sources of tension between the two--but the couple soon encounter a new and imposing distraction: the neighbors. The initial meeting, a side-splittingly funny dinner between the frumpish academics and two not-so-bright members of the rural gentry ("My God, I've never met a philosopher before"), is as funny as anything Wodehouse ever penned.

There's a catch to the dinner invitation: the neighbors have a few paintings that they'd like the two "experts" to examine, just to see if they just might be worth anything. The first is by an Italian artist named Giordano. (Here Frayne makes his first mistake: anyone who knows much about the art world will know instantly that this one's not as insignificant as the author wants you to believe.) The second and third seem to be unremarkable 17th-century Dutch canvases. After his wife leaves the room, Martin views the fourth painting and is convinced that it's the missing panel from the six ''Seasons'' paintings by the Flemish master Bruegel--a work that, if it exists, would be priceless and instantly famous.

Now, there is absolutely no record of what this Bruegel might even look like, but that doesn't stop Martin from falling "headlong" into a comedy of errors. He embarks on a scheme to convince his wife (and himself) of the validity of his initial surmise and to "relieve" the owners of their possession in exchange for a small payment that is still high enough risk everything that Martin and Kate own. At this point, the farcical comedy turns intellectual mystery, as we read summaries of Martin's research on Bruegel's life and work, sixteenth-century Netherlands, the Inquisition, the Counter-Reformation, and more. Admittedly, some readers might find all these "facts" a drag on the story, but I think Frayn skillfully weaves the elements of the mystery and the historical detail with the themes of his satire and the various plot elements (including his depiction of the Clays' marriage). If you love history and art--even (or perhaps especially) if you don't know a thing about Bruegel--the payoff is especially keen.

The only false note is the portrayal of Martin's wife. Although Martin himself is a buffoon--perhaps too much so--it's easy to visualize the type of stubborn, myopic know-it-all Frayn means to lampoon. Kate, however, is little more than a plot device--a compliant marshmallow who accommodates her husband's tomfoolery without offering much in the way of resistance. She's hard to imagine and impossible to believe, and if the author means to aim his barbs at a particular target, it's lost on me.

Although the ending is a little more than predictable, it's still both hilarious and satisfying. But "Headlong" isn't a book you read simply for the unfolding of the plot and the solution to the mystery; instead, its main satisfaction is the cerebral stimulation offered by the author's adroitness at linking all the loose ends and the many disparate themes. And, after you're done, you'll probably want to buy a book on Dutch art history.

Rating:
Summary: Boring and Slow, but at least it teaches something
Review: This book has some serious pacing problems. Rather like Dostyevsky's Crime and Punishment (without the second half), the book focuses on a man who is desperately trying to fulfill an obsession that he has. In this case, it is an iconologist (different from an iconographer, don't ya know), who becomes completely, irrationally, and annoyingly obsessed with bringing to light what he believes is a long-forgotten, long-lost masterpiece.

During the course of the book, we are subjected to probably at least 100 pages of Dutch history between the ages of 1530 and 1570. This would all be well and good if the book didn't consist of 340 pages. That is correct, almost 1/3 of this book is history from forty years. Forty years that were not terribly important in the grand scheme of European history. The fact that we are subjected to it in such mundane detail is painful. The fact that, in the end, it all comes to naught, is even worse.

Other reviewers have called it a mystery, and I think that is misleading. From the start, we know, simply know, that the fool will take the painting, by hook or by crook. He is obsessed, and, like a drug addict, he will do anything to fulfill his need, even mortgaging his child's future. This may be part of what one of the other reviewers referred to (along with the extramarital "relations") when they said it was part morality play, which I can accept. Boring, but about morality, sure.

There are some novel things in this book. For example, his interpretations of the complex silences between his wife and himself are kind of interesting. However, that gets old really, really fast. I purchased this book expecting something like a cross between Gregory Blake Smith's "The Divine Comedy of John Venner" and Arturo Perez-Reverte's "The Flanders Panel". I was sorely disappointed. It had the history of the latter, indeed, and the moral difficulties of the former, but it had far too much of both and not enough payoff to make reading it worthwhile. I am sincerely glad that I only paid four dollars for it.

If you want moral plays, find The Divine Comedy of John Venner. If you want art history in a fun, fictional format, findThe Flanders Panel or The Da Vinci Code. Skip this. It isn't really worthwhile unless you want to punish yourself.
Harkius

Rating:
Summary: "I was having an attack of moral panic."
Review: In the witty novel "Headlong" by Michael Frayn, Martin Clay, a Philosophy professor, has already wasted 7 months of his sabbatical. He is supposed to be writing a book about "the impact of Nominalism on Netherlandish art of the fifteenth century," but so far he's only managed to distract himself with a useless pursuit into the subject of the Master of the Embroidered Foilage. His wife, Kate--who's a specialist in comparative Christian iconography, is a very sensible woman, and she drags them all off to their country home. Here, Kate believes, Martin will not be distracted from his work. Ironically, the moment the Clays arrive, they are pounced upon by a local landowner, Martin Churt, and invited to dinner to take a look at some paintings he owns.

After spending a perfectly awful evening in the Churt's decaying mansion, Martin, although initially rather disinterested in Churt's paintings, can't believe his good luck when he spots--what he thinks--is a Bruegel. From that point on, Martin plots to get the painting away from Churt and into his possession. He is obsessed with the painting, and the fact that he is supposed to be a rational philosophy professor just makes his greed even funnier.

Martin doesn't let anything stand in the way of getting his hands on "the Merrymakers"--as he calls the painting--domestic bliss, fidelity, honesty, morals--well they all fly out the window of opportunity. The book on Nominalism is dropped, and suddenly Martin is researching Bruegel frantically in an effort to authenticate the painting. Some of the funniest moments are found in Martin's justifications of his behaviour, or when he ad-libs plans as complications arise.

"Headlong" is not a particularly easy read. Large sections of art history break up the action. I found myself wanting to rush through some of the heavy details so that I could return to the characters in the novel, but it is worth the effort to concentrate and stick with the details about Bruegel--you will see why when you get to the end of the novel. Without exception, all the characters are very well-drawn, and the atmosphere of moral mayhem is consistent throughout the novel. One of my very favourite poems is "Musee de Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden, and so this book had a very special appeal to me due to its subject matter. Knowing a little bit about Bruegel's work beforehand helped too. I found this book by looking at the books shortlisted for the Booker prize. I seem to have better luck with the finalists than the books that actually win the prize. If you like this book, I would also recommend "Lying on the Couch" by Irvin Yalom--displacedhuman

Rating:
Summary: Stunning book!
Review: This is one of the better books I have read in a long time. I know nothing about Dutch art in the 1600's, but I don't have to. Frayn lays everything out for you, and the art history is a vital and exciting element of the book.

The book is so well written, you understand exactly what motivates the main character. Frayn's writing style is easy to read, but very well developed and intelligent. I had to force myself to slow down, I was so caught up in the plot, but wanted to enjoy the writing.

Excellent book!

Rating:
Summary: The art keeps you going
Review: I greatly enjoyed this book, but less for the mystery plot than for the art history. I know next to nothing about art history, so I may well be easy to please in that department. The lead character is unraveling the mystery of a painting--is it the original he suspects, if so how will he prove it? The "how he proves it" bit is what makes the novel a very entertaining read. The other plot point--what will he do about it if it is genuine?--is not developed in sufficient detail to really motivate the reader, in my view, and his choices don't seem all that well motivated. Nevertheless, you will likely find yourself much more interested by Brueghel than you thought possible. Best of all, the book illustrates for the art ignorant (me) what the fascination is: seeing a timeless record of an artist's thoughts and feelings that were painstakingly set down, and then trying to work backwards to figure out what they were.