Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely fantastic!
Review: Having read the two previous reviewers comments I can only say, well: each to his own. This is one of the best WWII books I have read in a long time, precisely because it isn't really a war book at all. Rather it is in the tradition of J.G. Ballard's 'Empire of the Sun' where there were hardly any combatants, the book instead offering a child's eye view.
The writing here is masterly and the book really needs to be read twice to enjoy it to the full - as with E.M. Forster there is great use made of repetition and of symbolism. The character of Stephen occassionally irritates- but that is because we are seeing his actions and thoughts through adult eyes. To the child it all makes perfect sense.
However for me the best part of the novel is its sense of period - this is exactly how my Mum describes her childhood ( though she was born just subsequent to the war ). This is a very English novel and maybe that's why it hasn't gone down well with some of the reviewers - but please : persevere. This is a truly great work. ( Really bad cover though! The UK edition is much more attractive.)
Rating: 
Summary: A slow burn
Review: I have to admit, I almost gave up on this book ninety pages in. For whatever reason, it just wasn't holding my interest. The story was only vaguely interesting and it went along at a rather mundane pace. But then, just when I thought I'd given up, something happened. The story started coming together, the characters and setting grew on me, and I discovered much to my pleasant surprise that I couldn't put it down. I raced to finish it and had to force myself not to glance down to the bottom of the next page to find out what was coming next.This is a story of secrets and lies set in a tiny English village in the heart of World War Two. An innocent child's game of "spies" turns into an ugly and inevitably tragic tale of wartime recriminations and unrequited love with an ending to rival the surprising and equally devastating denouement of Ian McEwan's "Atonement." Frayn's brilliance is subtle and exists mostly within the seemingly innocent yet insightful observations of his child narrator, Stephen Wheatley, through whose eyes the reader experiences the story. I'm glad I persevered!
Rating: 
Summary: John Updike liked it, but it just didn't appeal to me
Review: I liked Fryan's play Copenhagen, I thought it intellectually stimulating, courageously able to deal with scientific topics and I loved the unravelling of the layers of meaning.
So I was eager to read this novel. Like many recent novels (Curious incident of the Dog in the Night, Vernon God Little) it is written from the viewpoint of a small boy.
The setting is Second World War Britain, and while the story is involving I just did not get moved by it. I was continuously reminded of the stories of Richmal Compton - just William, about the adventures of an eleven year old boys, his friends and their interaction with the adult world. In Spies there is even an annoying local girl - Compton's book had Violet `Violent' Elizabeth, Frayn has Barbara Berrill.
Between the Just William flashbacks and the feeling that the style was following a trend, I found it hard to warm to the story. That being said, the story flows well, the book is quite a quick read, the story is told with style - shifting between first and third person descriptions as the character moves in and out of reminiscences, there are excellent evocations of the memories, smells and atmosphere however the expectations which I had on starting the book were not realized
Rating:
Summary: The Children of War
Review: I was compelled to read this story by a recommendation from an Amazon reader, but couldn't put it down from the first page. I have often associated certain earthy smells with my childhood and neighborhood. That Stephen Wheatley felt this strong urge as an old man to retrieve memories by returning to the Close, especially given the events that took place there, was a terrific and realistic conscept in which to form the basis for a story by Frayn, and he pulls it off with style. I can think of no other author who can describe the relationships of a timid and unpopular big-eared 12 year old boy. Stephen was the follower of Keith, who was the idea man, which led them into a scheme that went from childish play to true adult horror. Keith knew that his mother had a secret and recruited Stephen to help him discover what it was. But I believe that Keith was subtley calling for help, and fearing his father, he drafted his only friend. To be sure, the vision of a wounded German pilot hiding and receiving aid produced fear and anxiety in Stephen, his loyalty to Keith and his later sense of empathy for Keith's mother, caused him to have a keep heavy secret that traumatised his very soul. What are we to make of this? There is a war, there are children, and they are affected in ways adults cannot know. Sixty years later we know that childhood trauma can result in a host of lifelong conflicts within a human's mind.
That the affairs were part war related and very related to matters of the heart, yet tragic to several families, does not diminish the suspense because nothing is really revealed until the end. I applaud Michael Frayn for his excellent work and look forward to reading his other works.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not his best work
Review: I've read other works by this author that have grabbed my attention from the outset. For the first few chapters I was bored, wondering if this was ever going to 'take-off'.
However, once it got moving, then I was enthralled, although I did have to re-read the last few pages after I'd finished it to see what clue I'd missed first time around.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, tightly written
Review: In a marked departure from his previous humorous novel, Headlong, Frayn delivers a wonderful look at the complicated world of a child. During his own childhood (the early years of World War II), Frayn's best friend makes the statement to him, "My mother is a German spy." In writing this novel, Frayn takes this true event and plays the "what if" game. The two friends know that this is just a game, just a means of passing a summer afternoon, but what if they spy on her and start to see actions that might indicate that she truly is a spy? It's a wonderful look at how perplexing the adult world can be to a child, and how wrong our impressions -- either as a child or as an adult -- can be when we don't explore the full picture. Frayn throws a clever curveball at the very end of the book, one which could have been predicted by the careful reader. It's unfortunate that this book has come out at the same time that Ian McEwan's book, Atonement, was issued, since they are somewhat similar in theme (the wide ramifications of a child's actions during World War II), and it may ultimately get lost in the literary shuffle. That's a shame, for reading it on its own is a terrific way to spend a weekend.
Rating:
Summary: Childhood re-created
Review: Looking back on events of his childhood from the wisdom of old age, Stephen Wheatley recounts important events from his childhood. Frayn tells a story of 2 boys inventing a world around them, with the second world war unfolding around them, unsurprisingly they are obsessed with the idea of spies in their midst. Their increasing obsession with their game, leads them to some unexpected discoveries. This book is full of acute observations of youth. Outlandish games, the fickleness of children towards each other, the towering and unquestionable domination of adults over their lives. I enjoy stories where the innocence and naievity of youth is retold through knowing adult eyes and this book was no exception. Its part mystery, part rites of passage. Well written and incredibly evocative of childhood and days gone by.
Rating:
Summary: Astutely intertwining of action and reaction
Review: Michael Frayn brilliantly weaves the misunderstandings of a child with the adult world during World War Two London into an astounding testament to the naïve struggles of children to enter into the terrifying world of reality. The narrator, Stephen returns home to London and walks through his old neighborhood on a pilgrimage to discover the truth that was right before his eyes as a child. Stephen looks at his house fifty years later and sees himself as a boy leave, play, watch, and spy on his friend Keith's mother after Keith declares 'she is a spy'. The painful ignorance Stephen confronts during his realizations and epiphanies concerning Keith's mother and life finally resolve consciously for the older pilgrim returning home. He spells out all the horrible accidents committed and ones merely thought while intertwining the intimate fears of maturity and adolescence. Overall, a powerful read and an provocative look at one side of any war that is never told.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthwhile Venture
Review: Michael Frayn's "Spies" recounts a childhood incident of a boy named Stephen Weatley who narrates the story through the perspective of a now grown man. Stephen pieces the story together using nostalgic smells and sounds as a memory trigger. When Stephen's friend Keith announces that his mother is a German Spy, the boys embark on a childish game of espionage as they try to solve the enigma of Keith's mother's actions. The boys' innocence and childish mentality are exploited as they delve into issues of friendship and morality. Frayn demonstrates his skillful ability to manipulate the plot to keep the reader in anticipation, and to keep the boys in the dark long enough to keep your attention up for clues. When Stephen finally discovers the answer to the puzzle the "world had changed forever." Frayn develops Stephen's persona, mixed up in the ongoing wartime in Britain, through a complex process of metacognition that rings of Joycian style.
Rating:
Summary: Recalling L P Hartley's "Go Between", "Spies" is a winner !
Review: Michael Frayn's "Spies", the 2002 Whitbread Prize winner, is a quintessentially English novel that recalls L P Hartley's classic "The Go Between". Both novels begin with an old man indulging in the queasily pleasurable habit of visiting the past when as a young boy he was innocent of the tragedy his childish detective games would set in motion for the adults and end with a stark recognition that resonates with an indescribable pain we feel for the ruined lives they have caused. The rush of familiar smells and the recollection of other childish secrets like a misspelled password trigger off a flood of memories for the adult Stephen Wheatley. These in turn become the catalyst for unravelling the secrets that underlie the mystery that consumed the boy Stephen and his playmate Keith one fateful summer. Frayn flits skilfully between past to present but when we enter the world of the boy Stephen, we become child observers too. We don't have a head start in our understanding of what is happening among the adults because our senses are his. Even Keith's mother - like all mothers - doesn't have a name. The suspicious routines that preoccupy Keith's mother - her constant shuttling between home and her sister's or the post office, and her mysterious disappearance from sight every time she turns the corner - is shrouded in a mystery that deepens with vague hints of cruelty and abuse that only the adult Stephen is able to discern. Indeed, the relationship between Stephen and Keith is hardly a friendship, more an emblem of their class differences, which allow the middle class Keith to play leader to the socially inferior Stephen. In the same way, Keith's parents exude a distance and coolness that is slightly unnerving. Frayn's characterisation is flawless. His characters are all vividly drawn personalities that leap out of the pages at you. Stephen's torment and debilitating lack of confidence as a socially underprivileged child is especially resonant and a masterpiece of characterisation. Then there's Keith's mother. Her icy elegance and well groomed exterior conceals the desperate and terrible turmoil beneath it. Keith's father, constantly at work in his home garage, is a lurking and quietly menacing presence. Then there's Keith. His haughty silence and his cruel smirk, duplicating his father's, is a precursor for when he draws blood. Finally, there's Barbara. Her precocious spitefulness makes her every pre-teen boy's nightmare big sister. "Spies" is a delicious psychologically thriller that fans of the English novel will delight in. It is beautifully written and a real page turner. You will find your pulse racing as the story approaches its climax. But Frayn eschews an explicit revelation, so you might have to read the last chapter carefully (if not twice) to get it. Sadly though, he decides to wrap with a contrived shock revelation about Stephen's own family history that is unnecessary and brings the story to an end on a false note. "Spies" is otherwise an excellent and ingeniously crafted little novel that deserves to be read and enjoyed widely. I'm glad it won the Whitbread.
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