My Father's Fortune

It is a strange book that a reader finds detestable at page 70 and endearing at the finish, but that is Michael Frayn's memoir. The negative reaction is caused by Frayn's habit at the outset of describing perfectly ordinary people (and events) as if they were superhuman (or supernatural). One relative is "exotic" because she is a typist. But when the Second World War rolls around, the book offers a detailed and sensitive picture of life under threat of instant death. And after Frayn's mother's death at the close of the war, the family portrait is splashed with brighter colors.