Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn is a Fantastic Novel (to quote Morris –‘Sure, sure’) from the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction - 10 out of 10

 Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn is a Fantastic Novel (to quote Morris –‘Sure, sure’) from the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction

10 out of 10

 

 

This reader has had the chance to read Spies by Michael Frayn http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/08/spies-by-michael-frayn-10-out-of-10.html and has been enthused by it, therefore the fact that Towards the End of the Morning is such a spectacular beano should not be a surprise, except while Spies is just about as ‘serious and grave’ as it could be, Towards the end is often hilarious.

 

As the author explains in the introduction, the novel is based on his own experiences as a journalist and he even indicates the real life man on whom John Dyson – probably the second most important character in the story – is based, given that the newspaperman had passed away at the time when this segment has been written…

This fabulous, but alas forgotten (it only has a few lines on Wikipedia) Magnum opus describes the shenanigans, procrastination, heavy drinking, leisurely pace of the life of journalists decades ago, in the glory (is that the appropriate term to use I wonder) days of Fleet Street, before the catastrophic years when many have been eliminated from the market, leaving tabloids and some extremist media outfits (Murdoch empire) to rule the arena…

 

John Dyson and Robert Bell aka Bob work in the same office, where John is the older, more experienced and the one in charge (until Erskine Morris arrives that is), a journalist who aspires to be on television, for he has been invited and thinks this would be a clear move up in his career, setting it on an upward trajectory (at the more enthusiastic moments he feels this will skyrocket), making considerably more money…

Indeed, the under signed has had a brief flirt with this profession, for he met Michael Meyers from Newsweek (and is proud to have been included in the article on the fall of Ceausescu, about three decades ago, when he was a hero of the revolution), then James Wilde from TIME, some others from Radio Sweden and various media channels and could see the big difference between the budgets and operations of those with television networks and the rest of the journalistic crowd, who had had lesser material, financial means

 

Dyson has tried to get an Early Victoria house, near the center, in an area which will see prices rise, once they will have bought it, but he eventually moves to Spadina Road, the residence they could afford was only 1883 and miles away, in a dubious neighborhood, where one of those living next to him throw garbage in his garden…which he throws back, although he is not sure who has been the perpetrator…

 

John Dyson Invites the surveyor that lives in the area for dinner, ‘but whatever it was the man surveyed, it was done mostly through the bottom of a glass’ and later on, there would be hopes that maybe Bob will move nearby, once he is engaged with Tessa – here there was a misunderstanding, for the two young people (he is twenty nine, and I am not sure if we know what her age is) had been invited for dinner, and during that, the two sons of the hosts had had an argument and in the confusion, generated by the noise and misapprehension, it seemed that the two of them intend to get married.

Albeit this a phenomenal chef d’oeuvre and outstanding comedy, there are very dramatic aspects to it, such as the relationship between Tessa and Bob, for if the former is deeply in love with the man (writing for him dozens of pages in the letters she sends), he is clearly only mildly attracted to her and whenever he sees an attractive alternative, he would be ready in a flash to follow that different road…

 

Mrs. Mounce is an added complication to the picture (she ‘holds a cigarette in her special, sophisticated way, with the whole flat of the hand upraised beside the face, as if for a one handed salaam’) and when Tessa arrives in London to visit the man she loves, there is a stranger in the apartment and she is very scared that this could be a mistress…which she had tried to be for quite some time (Mrs. Mounce).

John Dyson has the chance to be in a television studio, for a discussion on the ‘color problem’, on which he is supposed to be some kind of expert, he prepares for the appearance, informs everybody, drives with the family to see aunts and other relatives, calls all those he knows, prepares some notes, but when it comes to the evening of the big day, he drinks too much and if the effect is on the one hand salutary, for he is intoxicated and has lost all fear (while the other guests are febrile), on the other hand, he is clearly unable to contribute anything to the discussion, except ‘this is very interesting’

 

This being a satire, the professionalism of The BBC is questionable, when after this sorry and hilarious episode, another program invites the same ‘expert on the color issue’ for a new representation…when asked if they saw the previous program, the woman who is moderating now admits that nobody on the team is familiar with it, only this time there may be another formula for this show…

‘George God strikes again’ and John is to travel to the Middle East, on a trip organized by an agency called Magic Carpet and arrive just the day before the television program is to air live and thus he could manage both endeavors, or so he thinks, for the trip to the Orient is a marvelous disaster (for the readers, it is the occasion to laugh out loud) for the journalist that are expected to write flattering reports…

All that can go wrong turns out worse than expected…and again, personal experience supports that idea, for I have been working for AT&T, at a time when they were the fifth biggest company in the world, not that they are puny now, and all they cared for this reader was to get him to work as a slave for $ 250 per month and then forget him in the airport of Vienna, from which he could not exit for about 24 hours, since at that time he required a visa, and the friendly Austrians of course obliged and…refused it, while the connecting flight was only the next day