Susan's Reviews > A Landing on the Sun

This is the third Michael Frayn novel I have read this year and he is undoubtedly becoming a firm favourite of mine. I am just upset that I did not find his work earlier.

Like the other novels of Frayn's that I have read, this is set in the workplace; in this case the Civil Service. Brian Jessel is asked to investigate the suspected suicide, fifteen years earlier, of another Civil Servant, Stephen Summerchild. Jessel knew Summerchild vaguely, as he was once in an orchestra with his daughter, Millie, whom he once had a mild flirtation with. Now a proposed documentary has necessitated he discover what happened all those years ago.

Jessel is a man for whom this investigation throws up all kinds of memories and regrets. His life is now less than happy which is ironic, because he discovers that Summerchild was asked to join a strategic unit to look at the 'quality of life.' The details of this task were unclear, but philosopher Elizabeth Seraphin is invited to lead this unit and she begins to ask her colleague to discuss happiness.

This is a difficult novel to review. If you like your novels fast paced, this is not for you. It is only slowly that these characters discover each other and their feelings. This is a gradual process, which somehow becomes surreal as Summerchild and Seraphin begin to retreat into themselves. Jessel, whose own life is floundering, obsessively listens to the tapes they made in 1974 and tries to make sense of both what happened to them while wondering how he has ended up where he is.

I want to read everything that Frayn has written. He is a truly remarkable author.