Rating: 
Summary: Engaging combination of coming-of-age novel and mystery
Review: Most readers spent much of their childhood reading mystery stories written for children, in which children or teenagers caught spies or bank robbers by carefully noting their comings and goings and making brillant deductions. Michael Frayn has taken this formula and turned it on its head in Spies. Set during World War II, Spies is the story of what happens the narrator and his best (and only) friend begin observing the friend's mother based on the friend's idiotic notion that she is a German spy. Just like their counterparts in the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (there must be British equivalents), they start going through her things, and observing her comings and goings. Unfortunately, while she is of course not a spy, she is up to something, and the boys' investigation uncovers secrets that the adults are trying to keep quiet. The story is told in flashback, with the narrator as an old man looking back at his youth. However, he tries to report things as he remembers them. This allows the narrator to realize things the narrator doesn't, such as the flaws in some of the characters. It will also many readers to anticipate events before they occur. Nevertheless, there are a number of twists to the plot that will surprise the most. Some will find the ending, in which we learn of things hinted at in the main story, but so peripheral to the plot as not to enage our attention, too clever and unnecessary. As I like suprises, I enjoyed the final summing up. Frayn, who has written on a wide range of subjects, has succeeded here.
Rating: 
Summary: Marvellous
Review: Once again Michael Frayn delivers a novel which succeeds on so many levels: as a comical tale of two imaginative youngsters; as a fond memoir of wartime England; as a commentary on growing up and growing older; as a reflection on phenomenology (particularly the way our observations are coloured by our assumptions); and, more simply, as just a cracking good yarn which will have you rapidly turning the pages until way after midnight. As in his most recent "Headlong", Frayn draws us into what could be just a delightful little comedy, and then has us closing the book to discover we have been given, instead, an opus on human frailty. An opus so compelling because it is delivered in Frayn's direct and amusing voice - rather than the ponderous, self-important prose favoured by so many novelists. Frayn's genius is to edify while entertaining. Unlike so many of his stodgy contemporaries, Frayn can afford to reject obscurantism for one wonderfully refreshing reason: he knows precisely what he is doing. He knows just how much, or how little, he actually needs to say.
Rating:
Summary: Foggy Tunnels of the Mind
Review: Remember the stereotypical figure of a spy in his overcoat silhouetted against the night sky? The figure was pretentious, intriguing, and alluring in some romantic fashion. Michael Frayn's "Spies" is much the same. Frayn's narrator is Stephen Wheatley, a boy living in England during WWII. He and his friend Keith begin keeping tabs on Keith's mother, believing she is a German spy. What starts out as an innocent game leads to discoveries about life, love, and betrayal. The tragedies of war are funneled through this story into the damaging affects of family secrets. Stephen and Keith, our young spies, will never be the same. With finesse, Frayn leads us through the foggy tunnels of a British neighborhood and the foggier tunnels of his narrator's mind. Stephen is a complex and well-drawn creation. Symbolism plays a pleasing and unifying part. "Spies" does so many things efficiently that it's easy to overlook its faults. Perhaps my greatest hindrance in plodding through the first 150 pages was the conspicious brevity of dialogue. Too bad. When the characters spoke, I found myself actually involved in their story. We spend so much time in Stephen's head that I found it hard to know or care deeply for any of the periphery characters. Stephen is so self-absorbed with his own insecurities and logic that he gives us little time to know others around him. Sure, that may be his personality, but I found it distracting. Who, reading this book, wouldn't like to know more about Keith or Barbara or Keith's mother or...? Well, I don't want to give anything away. Having scanned reviews before reading the book, I expected to dislike the ending much more than I did. Actually, I felt the slow unveiling of the truth was well-paced and surprising without being forced. The final chapter was, indeed, a flightly sketch of Stephen's entire life. Although I wanted to know more, by that time I was so tired of being in his head that I was simply ready to turn the final page. Overall, I enjoyed the elements of story, plot, and setting. If you're ready for a jump back into childhood days of imagination, then take the time to know young Stephen Wheatley. You'll be spending a lot of time with him.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderful read
Review: Spies is a lovely, beautifully written novel about childhood, mysteries and memories. Don't read it if you're looking for high drama. Do read it if you like good prose, an interesting story (yes, there is a story, and even a bit of a surprise ending)wonderful images, and an evocative look back.
Rating: 
Summary: off to a good start, fades
Review: The beautiful, soft focus beginning of this book was perfectly wrought, and made me think this would be something special. Evidently, however, those were the last arrows the author had in his quiver. The rest of the book meanders at a slow pace, with little development and lots of innuendo. The suprises aren't so surprising. It becomes tedious rather than heartfelt. I rather thought this would be better done as novella or short short --it has a feel of being stretched. A for effort, C for execution.
Rating:
Summary: The Ignorance of Youth
Review: The ignorance of youth can be both a blissful and terrifying thing, for while ignorance of the "adult" world, with its nasty realities allows for a period of innocence, this same ignorance can lead to times of horrible terror when children are forced to play roles in an adult world beyond their comprehension. This book takes the form of an old man visiting the street he grew up on in suburban London during WWII, where he unwittingly stumbled into the dealings of adults. In flashback narrative, he tells the story of what happened when his best (and only) friend Keith uttered the words, "My mother is a German spy." Against the backdrop of wartime shortages, blackouts, and night time German bombing, young awkward Stephen follows his friend Keith in all matters. Keith is more affluent than the rest of the neighborhood kids, but is an insufferable snob, which is why Stephen is his only friend. When Keith makes his pronouncement, the two boys engage is play spycraft, only to discover that indeed, Keith's mother is up to something fishy. As the investigation continues, Stephen starts to grow bolder, leading to Keith's snubbing of him. Stephen is ultimately propelled into a situation well out of his depth, and comes to the frightening realization that adults are not all-powerful. By recounting the story from the younger Stephen's perspective, Frayn allows the suspense to build, revealing events and information as his child-self came to understand it. The ultimate revelation is a minor letdown, as is the epilogue about Stephen's own family (which won't come as much of a surprise to readers who pay attention at the beginning and notice a few rather obvious clues dropped along the way). Still, that's a minor quibble with an altogether gripping read. Frayn brings the secret ways of young boys to life in a vivid and sympathetic portrait, replete with the cruelty of youth. Very likely to become a movie.
Rating:
Summary: Spies like us
Review: This is a delicious little novel about the abiguities of memory and sentiment. The story centers on the recalled events of the main character's childhood during World War II in England. The character, Stephen Wheatley, is about 10 or 11 years old and definitely a square peg. Stephen's apparently only friend confides that his mother must be a German spy and the two boys begin an adventure of "spying" on her that leads them where they never dreamed. Frayn's pacing is deliberate and precise, and each new revelation in the adventure raises more questions than answers. The novel, however, is mostly about Stephen's growing up, learning about himself, what he is capable of, and what it means to live in the world of adults. It traces a path that many children go through at that age, and I found I had a lot of sympathy for Stephen. An excellent story.
Rating:
Summary: Elegent literary puzzle
Review: This is a masterful tale of time, memory, love and deception seen from the memory of a child now grown. It is a puzzle wraped in a metaphor for the very subjects it revelas: The sense of living from a past that shaped lives now revisited with the presence
Rating: 
Summary: Spies
Review: This is by far the most horrible book that I have ever come across. It's just horrible. Simple as that. Read the first paragraph and you'll see what I mean. Frayn might be good at writing plays, but not novels (Spies, anyway). Its too descriptive and poetic, and doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Don't waste your money on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Pretentious and Amateurish
Review: This is one of the worst novels I have read in a long time. The writing, which attempts to be post-modern, is frequently pretentious and often simply incompetent. The main character becomes more and more unrealistic and unsympathetic as the story progresses - especially since he never seems to remember the most important events that occurred during the period of time covered by the narrative. The ending - where the author desperately tries to tie all the loose ends together in the last ten pages - is laughable.
Normally I would have tossed this book aside after the first thirty pages, which are dreadfully slow. But I kept reading to see how bad it could get. It exceeded all my expectations.
I have the feeling that Mr. Frayn wrote a single draft of this book and then turned it in to his publisher as good enough. It isn't.
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