Book Report: A Very Private Life by Michael Frayn

A Very Private Life 

                                                           Michael Frayn

                                                           (Faber and Faber Fiction,

                                                           2009)

"Though it depicts a future dystopia, A Very Private Life is actually less a science fiction novel and more a futurist fairy tale. The young female protagonist Uncumber lives in a sterile underground world in which personal privacy is paramount, being a cultural reaction against the invasions of privacy that began in the 20th century. Emotions must be drug-induced to be acceptable, babies are made at the factory when you provide the ingredients, and dark glasses are the only item of clothing because they help keep your feelings to yourself. But, being a bit of a rebel, Uncumber looks for something more tactile and goes on her way to the outside world in search of Noli, a surface-living man she accidentally encountered on her holovision TV. He turns out to be a selfish low class polygamist among other things, and her situation get worse from there." Pete Young

"The protagonist (Uncumber) begins life in a privileged home where she is estranged from her family by their reliance on drugs to regulate their emotions and social interactions. She leaves them in order to pursue a man (Noli) that she falls in love with on first sight despite a language barrier existing between them, which stops her from forming any relationships with him or his family. Noli unlike Uncumber is from the working class and she finally abandons him when he insists on using the drugs which she abhors in their love making. She finally makes it full circle when she is picked up shortly afterwards by the police and imprisoned in a room remarkably similar to the one in which she began and is eventually reconciled to the medicated life where every emotion exists on tap and the most intimate experience is sex which has been replaced by lying next to your lover experiencing entirely private and separate hallucinations." Wikipedia

WHAT IS UP? | a sitespecific virtual theatre | trailer from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

A Very Private Life was a short and beautiful novel that reminded me a lot of three artists that I have blogged before. All of these artists capture a sense of desolation and loneliness without resolution that I felt in this novel.

Chantal Michel

Alex Stoddard

Elene Usdin

I really enjoyed this novel. It was simple and beautiful, and although it was frustrating that there was no resolution, the ending felt true to life. Another book it reminded me of was Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. 

What I'm listening to as I work today-

What I'm studying today-

Tony Bennett: The Politics of Display- Museums, Science, Culture