The next meeting of Bernardsville Public Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held on Tuesday, June 27 at 10:30 am. Manager Pat Kennedy-Grant will lead the discussion of "My Father's Fortune: A Life" (2010) by Michael Frayn. [The author will not be present.]
'An unknown place' is what Michael Frayn's children called the shadowy landscape of the past from which their family had emerged. In this book, Frayn sets out to rediscover that lost land before all trace of it finally disappears beyond recall. As he tries to see it through the eyes of his parents and the others who shaped his life, he comes to realize how little he ever knew or understood about them. This is above all the story of his father, the quick-witted boy from a poor and struggling family, who overcame so many disadvantages and shouldered so many burdens to make a go of his life; who found happiness, had it snatched away from him in a single instant, and in the end, after many difficulties, perhaps found it again. Father and son were in some odd ways ridiculously alike, in others ridiculously different; and the journey back down the corridors of time is sometimes comic, sometimes painful, as Frayn comes to see how much he has inherited from his father and makes some surprising discoveries.
Michael Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy. His novels, such as Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong and Spies, have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. His works often raise philosophical questions in a humorous context.
Find out what's happening in Bernardsville-Bedminsterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
No registration is needed to join this free library program. Please call Bernardsville Library at 766-0118 for more information.
