Headlong

August 30, 1999
Frayn, a highly successful playwright (Noises Off) as well as a novelist of note (A Landing on the Sun; Now You Know), is an odd combination of skilled farceur and scholar, and these strands in his work seem somewhat at odds in this new novel, his first in six years. It is an intellectual comedy, veering occasionally into knockabout, revolving around a philosophical historian, Martin Clay, and his discovery, in the dilapidated manor house of a frightful country neighbor, of a painting he believes to be a missing Bruegel. The comedy arises from Martin's efforts to ascertain its provenance, raise some money for a token payment and somehow spirit the painting away from the churlish Tony Churt, calm the suspicions of his art historian wife, Kate, who is surprised by his sudden interest in her field, and fend off the advances of the highly flirtatious Laura Churt. Frayn is wonderfully funny about English country life, the mustier byways of art history, the art auction business and the deviousness that lurks within apparently mild-mannered art historians. But he has obviously read up extensively on Bruegel, his period and the possible political symbolism of the series of paintings of the seasons to which Churt's picture apparently belongs; and Frayn cannot resist giving the benefits of his scholarship back to the reader, at often exhaustive length, entirely halting his promisingly frolicsome narrative in the process. His attempts to give his lighthearted plot some intellectual weight almost sink the good parts--a pity, since Frayn proves himself again and again a highly civilized entertainer, and the good parts are both funny and true. 50,000 first printing; 7-city author tour.

June 1, 1999
At the heart of this new novel by noted English dramatist Frayn is a dusty painting that bumbling philosopher Martin Clay suspects might be a missing Bruegel.

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 1999
A more apt title for this novel could hardly have been found, for it best explains how the main character involves himself in an intriguing situation that opens before his very nose like a beguiling flower. Philosopher Martin Clay and his art-historian wife, Kate, have traveled to their country house where they intend to spend a couple of months while Martin finishes the book he has been working on. They meet their neighbor, the landowner Tony Churt, who invites them to his house to view and place a value on some paintings in his possession. Astonished at what he is shown, Martin believes that one of the paintings is a lost work by famous sixteenth-century Flemish artist Bruegel. But Martin wants to keep the possibility to himself, not even telling his wife until much later. What Martin also wants is to own the painting himself, to eventually bring it to the light of the art world--and if some money and a degree of fame should happen to fall his way, then so be it. He concocts an elaborate scheme to get hold of the painting, and eventually, Kate finds out. His conniving severely tests the strength of their marriage. Frayn occasionally lapses into Art 101, lecturing the reader on Bruegel and Renaissance art, but these asides only work to make this compelling story even richer. Readers will no doubt plunge right into this intelligent, entertaining novel, the latest by a British playwright, journalist, and novelist. ((Reviewed July 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)