Skios by Michael Frayn
Although my intention to read all of the novels on the 2012 Man Booker Prize longlist may well be commuted to "most" or "some" depending upon various factors, the award has captured my attention in a big way. This year's dozen are an interesting cross-section of the work emerging from the Commonwealth, with an impressive variety of styles and genres represented.
Take Skios, for example, in which Michael Frayn offers classic farce of the sort that has fallen out of favour in the 21st century. On a fictional Greek island, the lives of a varied cast of characters are thrown into complete disarray following a series of mishaps at the local airport. Charming conman Oliver Fox picks up the wrong bag, and feeling a profound dissatisfaction with the way his life is panning out he decides to assume the identity of Dr Norman Wilfred. Meanwhile, the real Dr Wilfred finds himself without his suitcase and without his ride to the Fred Toppler Foundation, where he is supposed to be giving a speech the next day. From here, everything falls apart, with the sense of confusion escalating at every turn and only the reader being fully aware of the full picture.
In this sense, the novel acts as a mediation on order and chaos, and how quickly and thoroughly the latter can destroy the former. Indeed, it fully embraces the chaos theory concept known as the butterfly effect, whereby a small change can result in massive differences at a later point. It also questions the nature of identity throughout, asking what it is that make us who we are: is it our actions or simply our names? Characters lose sight of who they are or opt to play the role of someone else, and sometimes even find themselves happier in their new identities.
As with most farce, Skios is plot-driven rather than character-driven, and the players of the piece are archetypes deployed for maximum comic effect. Frayn isn't concerned with developing them, or with watching them change and grow in keeping with their varied experiences; he simply wants to see how they react when they're placed outside of their element. Fox is an infamous gadabout who plunges himself into disastrous situations with such gusto it's difficult not to like him, even if his actions are usually both self-destructive and harmful to others; Dr Norman Wilfred is a typical buttoned-down academic, who veers between delusions as to his own importance and crippling self-doubt; Nikki Hook is a dynamic personal assistant with an obsession for order and her eyes on a promotion; and Georgie is simply looking for a bit of illicit fun with Fox, even though she knows he's bad news. The cast is rounded out by a sprinkling of gangsters, oligarchs, taxi drivers, and disgruntled ex-lovers, all of whom make for very easy company. Frayn certainly succeeds in creating a world you'll enjoy spending your time in.
However, Skios is not without its faults. All of the material focused on comical misunderstandings due to language barriers falls flat, partly because the trope has been beaten into the ground and partly because it has certain xenophobic connotations that do not lend themselves well to comedy. At points it becomes a little difficult to juggle the extensive cast, particularly once identical twin taxi drivers are introduced to the narrative and more characters are given a starring role. And for such a light story to end in such a violent fashion feels unnecessary, meaning the ending reads as though it were taken from a different novel altogether. Whilst such a twist puts an exclamation mark on the novel's points about the often random nature of life, it also undermines the lightness of the events that precede it, damages several of the protagonists (either by letting them get away with murder or punishing them unfairly), and ultimately feels needlessly cruel, which is jarring after all the silliness.
With all this in mind, is Skios the sort of novel that should be winning literary awards? The simple answer is "no." Although Frayn takes the reader on one hell of a ride, he doesn't push the boundaries of the form or the genre, delivering instead a farcical tale that is rather traditional in its leanings. But what it lacks in innovation it makes up for in entertainment value, and the pace the story moves along at means you're never likely to be bored reading it.
Worth reading? If you're looking for a holiday read that's a cut above the usual offerings, Skios may well be the perfect choice. A lighter-than-air farce that ramps up the ridiculousness (occasionally at the expense of plausibility), it is never less than entertaining, even if you're likely to forget it almost as soon as you put it down.
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