Book Reviews: Skios

Author: Michael Frayn

The island of Skios is a happenstance, an existential paradigm of farce and irony.  That said, Michael Frayn infuses his characters with a daft generosity of insane and paradoxical harmony – they are all lunatics; a.k.a. characters that raft along the tiny island with impunity and sheer hilarity of will.

Like Vonnegut, Frayn slips from reality to comedic philosophy with tart characters that become other people in their minds and actions, and are reminiscent of the Irish absurdist’s.  Frayn tipples a bit in the absurd, where his academicians, Greek mythologists, decadent youth, and a few rich philanthropists who come by their funds in spurious means. 

As we follow Dr. Norman Wilfred, a named author of Who Knows What, holds his text on the scientific organization of science, we meet a hilarious and bumbling cast of characters who have no idea who they are.  But neither does Dr. Wilfred.  Everyone is presented, exposed, realigned into the chaos and disorder they create, distilled from within.  Superb.  Utterly seductive.  And funny.

Mrs. Fred Toppler, an ex dancer of dubious intent, marries 81 year old Mr. Toppler, who drops dead and leaves her an abundance of funds.  Mrs. Toppler joins with Dieter Knopp to create the Fred Toppler Foundation, building a Greek style pantheon, a huge endeavor of Grecian beauty, on the tiny island of Skios.  Mrs. Toppler’s personal assistant, Nikki, is discreet, and more discreet as she bobbles along “providing thoughts for Mrs. Toppler to think, while in the end it was Mrs. Toppler who had to think them.”  Nikki has a friend, Georgie, who is anti-discreet.  Georgie sleeps around with anyone she fancies.  Georgie’s boyfriend Patrick does the same, and the two elude each other while pursuing anyone they meet.  Georgie has arranged to stay in a friend’s villa on Skios for the weekend with Oliver Fox, a superficial charmer whom she has known for 5 minutes.  Fox is a con man of characters.  He takes on the identity of anyone he can.  When he arrives at the airport, he sees Nikki holding a sign saying “Dr. Norman Wilfred,” and he smiles at her.  Nikki grabs him, for he is the now the famed Doctor of Science who is the Guest Speaker at the Fred Toppler Foundation annual Great European House Party.  The House Party is the annual extravaganza for the Foundation, and people all over the world attend to hear the speaker at the culminating event, the Fred Toppler Lecture.  This year, Nikki has chosen the guest speaker, as the Director is MIA.  And Nikki dearly wants the position of Director, which will be in the offing soon.

Meantime Norman takes the wrong taxi (an event that occurs throughout the novel) and ends up as Oliver Fox at the villa where he is supposed to meet Georgie.  But instead of Georgie, Annuka, another of Fox’s love interests, meets Norman at the villa.  Norman keeps trying to figure out where he is, but then becomes obsessed with his bachelorhood, and Annuka’s mole, as she sits by the villa swimming pool sunbathing in the nude.

Frayn’s back and forth characters either stand in for another character and steal their identity, losing their own faceless masks, or they become spokespeople for other characters who tell them what to think and say, providing a hilarious backdrop to Frayn’s comedic tragedy: either no one is who he or she thinks they are, or they want to be someone else, for no reason at all.

The amoral Oliver stands in for Dr. Wilfred at the Toppler gala, and keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop.  He has no idea what he is supposed to lecture on, but doesn’t give it any thought.  The characters around him step right into the Seinfeld episode and hang on his every (thoughtless) thought.

A round robin of society and its silliness, the explosive ending binds everything together.  A great “story about nothing” that rings with truth about the absurdity of a society who sanctions what they are told.  Truly engaging, brilliant in many spots, Frayn reminds us as does Flann O’Brien, that life on Skios is – absurd!

Skios is available in hardcover and kindle at Amazon.com and other retailers.