- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (30 Sep 1971)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140033203
- ISBN-13: 978-0140033205
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,807,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Very Private Life
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The story of Uncumber is one of teenage rebellion set in the far-flung future of humanity. As an Insider, she enjoys a life of cosseted privilege with her every need at the touch of a button. Humanity as withdrawn so much from human contact that even one's close relations are kept at distance and contact is maintained by hologram. Yet this life sits uneasy with Uncumber - her brother excels in his studies, takes the pills and follows the path expected of him whilst she yearns for romance, adventure and other old-fashioned and dangerous concepts. So when a chance encounter connects her with a kind faced stranger, she leaves the safety of her home and sets out find him amongst the outside world... and the outsiders.
Frayn's short novel (a mere 132 pages) is a well-imagined and realised world. I was sucked in immediately to the absorbing story of this girl, who seems to have been born out of time as she has the desires and yearnings of the 21st century in a time when such things are not the norm. The tale takes us on a ride into the underbelly of this society, looking at how the underclass that support this privileged existence live and hints as to how the two groups share an uneasy worlds. Original and thought provoking, it suggests how a reliance on technology and the continuing destruction of the environment may dictate a future for our species where we will cast off earthly pleasures and pains for a 'safer' life behind self-imposed walls.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This novella (132pp) is set many years into the future. Humans are divided into two classes - the outside people and the inside people. The inside people never go out into the world, which is a deadened, crumbling wasteland, giving way to occasional thick jungle. Everything they need is delivered via the tubes, and if they want to see someone, they send a hologram of themselves and receive their own visitors in the same way. Uncumber is a young girl barely out of adolescence, and she's always been different, often refusing the calmant tablets the insiders use to regulate their moods. Uncumber wants to feel her moods, and though she is afraid, she is also very curious about the outsiders.
One day Uncumber gets a chance to see how outside people live. She lives among them for a while, courtesy of a bewildered outsider and his family, who accept charge of Uncumber rather ungraciously (and entertaining use is made of their different languages), but when she wants to go back to her privileged inside existence things don't quite fall into place and Uncumber falls into the hands of a group of what appear to be French brigands.
I found the plot rather predictable, though there is plenty of playful humour in the writing and it is not a boring read. Rather better than Frayn's other venture into the future, Sweet Dreams, this has a point to make, if a rather laboured one. Be careful what you wish for.
One day Uncumber gets a chance to see how outside people live. She lives among them for a while, courtesy of a bewildered outsider and his family, who accept charge of Uncumber rather ungraciously (and entertaining use is made of their different languages), but when she wants to go back to her privileged inside existence things don't quite fall into place and Uncumber falls into the hands of a group of what appear to be French brigands.
I found the plot rather predictable, though there is plenty of playful humour in the writing and it is not a boring read. Rather better than Frayn's other venture into the future, Sweet Dreams, this has a point to make, if a rather laboured one. Be careful what you wish for.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Really a novella rather than a full-blown novel, Frayn's study of a dystopian state where families are completely isolated from one another, only contact others via hologram, and take pills to keep calm, has clearly been influenced by the likes of Huxley's 'Brave New World', '1984', and Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale'. The intriguingly named 'Uncumber' breaks free and finds love; however, unused to the world outside she soon becomes disturbed, and begins to wonder whether she wasn't better-off as she was...
Powerful, original (despite its aforementioned influences), and unsettling; Frayn has produced a prophetic and challenging read, that takes the reader out of their comfort zone and gives plenty of food for thought.
Powerful, original (despite its aforementioned influences), and unsettling; Frayn has produced a prophetic and challenging read, that takes the reader out of their comfort zone and gives plenty of food for thought.
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