A Very Private Life

Frayn's unpredictable except as regards quality. Readers of his hypnotic book will be in no doubt from the 6th word on that they're in the hands of a master-sorcerer: "Once upon a time there will be a little girl called Uncumber. "

His heroine lives in a distant future when humans are divided. "Some people are on the inside, some are on the outside. That's just the way the world is, Cumby," explains her father, Aelfric. Of course the insiders who are privileged, their needs catered to by somatic drugs, 3D holovision, piped sustenance--everything, even increasingly prolonged lifespans. Outsiders grub along as best they can, except when needed to help sustain inhabitants of the windowless houses.

This isn't enough for Uncumber. She's haunted by a restlessly inquisitive spirit, driven by Angst that refuses to be satisfied by such devices as a love introduced & supplied by holovision. Dialing a wrong number, she espies a crude fellow speaking an unknown tongue. Smitten by love, she sets out to find him.

Here's the classic Quest, replete with peril, suffering & elusive rapture. Even tho millennia removed, we're involved. We pay homage to her courage in grappling with the Outside. Relentlessly entertaining as Frayn may be--this book is shot thru with mordant hilarity--it's the real measure of worth that in the end we know a bit more about human spirit & folly than before.