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A Very Private Life

Michael Frayn

3.48 · Rating details · 181 ratings · 24 reviews

A dystopian distant future novel. An inquisitive heroine, smitten by love & fuelled by angst, seeks to break free of her enclosed community to make meaningful contact with another.
The protagonist, Uncumber, begins life in privileged home. She's estranged from her family by their reliance on drugs to regulate emotions & social interactions. She leaves them in order to purs ...more

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Paperback, 144 pages

Published May 19th 2005 by Faber & Faber (first published September 3rd 1968)

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Sep 24, 2017 Wiebke (1book1review) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was a great quick read. Makes you think and look at solitarity and families differently.

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Jan 16, 2014 Mirabella rated it it was amazing

I read this once as a teen and then forgot the title and author. As an adult I went through hoops trying to find this book again. I kept describing it to everyone and it seems noone else has read it. It's a very telling post-apocalyptic book that is ahead of its time. ...more

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Jan 09, 2017 Valancourt Books added it · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, 2015-science-fiction-releases, science-fiction

Now available in the US:

Paperback
Website | Amazon US
eBook
Website | Amazon US ...more

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Dec 24, 2009 Emily rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: fans of pessimistic dystopian tales.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. "A Very Private Life" is a dystopian novel--not that you'd deduce that from the beige cover, a horrible wrapper aesthetically akin to the design of most Misery Memoir jackets.

The premise of the novel shares some similarities with Brave New World: the sullen protagonist, Uncumber, lives in the ultra-comfortable "inside world" in her own private room in a windowless house. People who live inside never leave their houses, and encounter others (even the people they share the house with) primarily vi "A Very Private Life" is a dystopian novel--not that you'd deduce that from the beige cover, a horrible wrapper aesthetically akin to the design of most Misery Memoir jackets.

The premise of the novel shares some similarities with Brave New World: the sullen protagonist, Uncumber, lives in the ultra-comfortable "inside world" in her own private room in a windowless house. People who live inside never leave their houses, and encounter others (even the people they share the house with) primarily via their holovision machines. Everyone's medicated to the gills, drugs meted out for the full range of experiences: hilarity, sexual ecstasy, even intellectual euphoria (not to mention happiness, sadness, even judiciousness[?!:]).

Although comforted by the romantic fantasies and pleasurable delusions provided by her holoscreen, Uncumber feels intensely disconnected from the inside world. She rebels against the inside's conventions by refusing to take her medication, becomes infatuated with a man named Noli who is part of the outside (and lower) classes, and runs away (read: leaves the house) to find him.

However, the outside world is not half so romantic as Uncumber imagined: it's dirty and full of unhappiness and bugs and nasty food. Noli lives on a desert island where he works to exhaustion each day, lives with several wives. He is bluntly cruel and as escapist and pill-happy as Uncumber's family.

When at last Uncumber leaves Noli's house (well, his shared room), she gets lost in the jungle, almost starves to death, is found by a consortium of pirates who kill and rob people who live in the inside world. The pirates feed Uncumber and keep her safe for night; when she sees them rob a house, she feels ambivalent, both hateful toward and sympathetic to the people on the inside. Uncumber is found at the scene of the crime and, after a bizarre non-trial, sentenced to reintegration into the inside world in her own little house. There she lives, immortal and fully integrated, blaming her old rebellious tendencies on incompatibility with her family.

The End.

What did I make of this? It's worth mentioning foremost how many absorbing and beautiful passages there are in this book. Uncumber's discovery of the sheer volume of life outside of her carefully sanitized world is both shocking and delightful, playing to the reader's sense of wonder. The dystopia described is well-realized, as effecting to me now as a well-remembered nightmare.

Uncumber's attempts to discover a meaningful life beyond the one proscribed to her by her family and the inside society ultimately seems to reflect on ineffectual attempts at rebellion against contemporary society: although Uncumber senses that something is wrong and tries to act on it, she's so unaware of social and psychological reality (and so unable to cope with reality when she finally gets a dose of it!) that she is only ever able to express her feeling of unease and displacement through ineffectual and self-damaging rebellion. If one extrapolates from this story some sort of parable for contemporary society, things look bleak: people are miserable but deluded, ineffectual and perpetually trapped. While I don't agree with that bit of Hobbesian pessimism, I certainly think "A Very Private Life" is engaging both as a novel and as a piece of social commentary. ...more

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May 11, 2012 Simon Mcleish rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in August 1999.

Michael Frayn is so well known today as a playwright that it is strange to realise that he was first a journalist and then a novelist. And his novels are very different from his plays, often being science fiction and written in a whimsical manner. Despite the tone in which it is written, A Very Private Life wants to say some fairly serious things about Western culture in the second half of the twentieth century.

The novel is set a fair way into Originally published on my blog here in August 1999.

Michael Frayn is so well known today as a playwright that it is strange to realise that he was first a journalist and then a novelist. And his novels are very different from his plays, often being science fiction and written in a whimsical manner. Despite the tone in which it is written, A Very Private Life wants to say some fairly serious things about Western culture in the second half of the twentieth century.

The novel is set a fair way into the future, when humanity has split into two classes, Insiders and Outsiders. Insiders live in sophisticated houses, in which every necessity for life is provided through holovision and drugs - instead of feeling emotions at the whim of nature, when they could distress or embarrass, they take drugs to produce or suppress feelings when their expression is socially desirable. Even their holidays are taken in this way; they never go out of their houses into the real world. Why should they, when the holograms they experience can have the real world's imperfections removed?

The Outsiders, by contrast, live among the ruins of less up to date houses, and take on the manual labour of the world. They continue to wear clothes, abandoned by the Insiders, and are thought of as animals by the other class. (In a neat inversion, they wear dark glasses to be considered decent - so that others cannot know what they are thinking.)

Uncumber is brought up as a privileged Insider, but never really fits in. She craves real experience, refusing to take the drugs with her family, switching off the holographic representations of visitors. Eventually, she manages to go Outside, but then finds she cannot fit into Outsider society either.

The clear targets of A Very Private Life are the ways in which modern Western society cuts each one of us off from true human companionship. I once met some people who had worked in West Africa. When talking to a group of Ugandans about life in England, they described shopping in a supermarket. The idea of a building in which you could find all your shopping did not surprise them, for they believed England a land of marvels. They could not believe, however, that it was possible to do all your shopping there without speaking to anyone - and not only was this a fantastic idea, but it was almost immoral in their eyes.

The Insiders do not even experience anything directly; part of their withdrawal from human contact is through the use of holovision and drugs as a substitute for interaction with the potentially unpredictable real world. It is hard not to see this as a comment on the modern TV culture, not to mention the escapist side of drug taking.

How little Frayn approves of these aspects of modern life is shown by one particular incident. After some time outside, Uncumber unwittingly gets involved with a group of criminals; she is put into what is a prison for Outsiders, yet it turns out to be almost identical to the home in which she was brought up. ...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Pete Young rated it liked it

Though it depicts a future dystopia, A Very Private Life is actually less a science fiction novel and more a futurist fairy tale. The young female protagonist Uncumber lives in a sterile underground world in which personal privacy is paramount, being a cultural reaction against the invasions of privacy that began in the 20th century. Emotions must be drug-induced to be acceptable, babies are made at the factory when you provide the ingredients, and dark glasses are the only item of clothing beca ...more

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Feb 08, 2018 Iskren Zayryanov rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

„Имало едно време…” – така започват всички приказки, дори сагата на Лукас започва с „Преди много време, в една далечна галактика…”. Но защо пък всички приказки трябва да са в миналото? Не е задължително, нали? Та ето една, която започва така:

„Ще има едно време…”

Някога в бъдещето технологиите ще се развият толкова, че няма да е нужно да напускаш дома си, за да посетиш което и да е кътче по света. Няма да е нужно да пътуваш, за да идеш на почивка на плаж от златен пясък, под кристално синьо небе, „Имало едно време…” – така започват всички приказки, дори сагата на Лукас започва с „Преди много време, в една далечна галактика…”. Но защо пък всички приказки трябва да са в миналото? Не е задължително, нали? Та ето една, която започва така:

„Ще има едно време…”

Някога в бъдещето технологиите ще се развият толкова, че няма да е нужно да напускаш дома си, за да посетиш което и да е кътче по света. Няма да е нужно да пътуваш, за да идеш на почивка на плаж от златен пясък, под кристално синьо небе, къпан от изумрудено море. Технологията ще ти носи всичко в къщи – храна, напитки, обзавеждане – всичко, от което се нуждаеш, дори и деца. Приятели и роднини ще ти идват на гости с помощта на холокамери и ще са все едно са физически при теб. Ще работиш от дома си, всичко, от което имаш нужда, ще е около теб, на една ръка, или на една стая разстояние. Тогава защо да напускаш дома си? В бъдещето хората са се разделили на две групи – хора, които никога не напускат къщите си и посещават света през електронния филтър на технологията и хора, които обслужват тези, които живеят само на закрито, и също се грижат машините да работят, храната да се произвежда и доставя.

Историята започва в една такава къща, където живее и Анкамбър, която има всичко, но разбира за света навън и постепенно в нея се заражда изгарящо желание да го посети, да разбере с какво той е по-различен от този, който посещава с помощта на технологиите. Започва да я гложди въпросът кой свят е истински? След време един грешно набран номер и един разговор с непознат човек, който живее отвън ще я тласнат към нейното пътешествие във външният свят.

Това е вечната история за бунта на младите, за мечтата да напуснеш своя свят, за да попаднеш в истинския, или по-скоро в различния, както ще разбере и героинята, история за различните светове и за това как се привличат, как всеки си мисли, че другият е по-добър, че чуждият живот е по-интересен, по-жив, че различен непременно е синоним на интригуващ. „Строго личен живот” описва два свята, които се привличат един друг, жителите на всеки от тях искат да се докоснат до другия, да се потопят в него, но въпреки че това се случва те остават неизменно разделени.

Майкъл е ловък разказвач, който умее да прикове вниманието. Два негови похвата много ми допаднаха в книгата:

В момента, в който Анкамбър попада на място, където не говорят нейният език става нещо интересно с книгата. Майкъл Фрейн не решава проблема с някой фантастичен трик, като универсален преводач, универсален език или някое друго магично решение, не минава и на бележки под линията, за да разберем какво казват на Анкамбър, а просто оставя ситуацията така. Отначало това ми се стори малко странно, но много бързо нещата си дойдоха на мястото. Ние виждаме външният свят през погледа на Анкамбър и го интерпретираме през нейния мироглед, а този свят е точно толкова неразбираем и чужд, колкото и езика, на който говорят обитателите му. Двата свята си остават разделени не само от културата, но и от езика. Няма значение какво ѝ казват от другата страна, важното е какво тя иска да чуе и разбере. Така че в контекста на идеята, че двата свята едновременно се привличат, но са осъдени да си останат и неразбираеми един за друг и разделени, това е брилянтно авторово решение. По-късно, когото тя се среща с терористите, те говорят на френски и там мога да си направя превод на техните думи, но отново няма смисъл какво са казали, важното е какво е разбрала героинята и какво читателя е вложил като смисъл в неразбираемите думи.

Фрейн използва един дребен елемент, незначителен на пръв поглед детайл, с който да илюстрира различията между двете общества, но с него успява да покаже каква бездна ги дели. В света на Анкамбър е неприлично хората да виждат очите ти и затова те носят тъмни очила, когато общуват с други. Голотата не е табу, никой няма проблем с нея и затова тя тръгва на своето пътешествие във външният свят, както си ходи обикновено в къщи.

Книгата излиза през 1968 г. и описва до какво може да доведат съобщителните технологии, но както се случва винаги реалността отвява фантастиката – и като технология, и като социални ефекти. Но за това какво е очаквал Майкъл, като е писал книгата и какво всъщност е станало, има повече в предговора, който е адски интересен, първо, защото е писан май 2016 и отразява огромната промяна от 60-те години досега и второ, защото автора откровено говори за мотивите си за написване, за това какво се е и не се е сбъднало и къде е сгрешил в прогнозите, и най-вече за това с какво го е изненадала информационната революция.

„Строго личен живот” е повече приказка, отколкото антиутопия, тя не е роман предупреждение а роман разсъждение, не е за свят, който на всяка цена трябва да избегнем, а за възможен такъв, който не е непременно лош, а просто различен. Много ми допадна, че в нея липсва оная нотка на обреченост, на безизходица, на неизбежен крах, толкова характерна за повечето произведения от жанра антиутопия и въпреки няколкото сцени на графично насилие „Строго личен живот” си е оптимистична книга. Тук липсва черната краска, без нишка на надежда на победилия тоталитаризъм от „1984”, липсва и острата социална сатира към автоцензурата от „451 по Фаренхайт”, няма я и присъдата, че това общество се е провалило като в „Прекрасния нов свят”. Фрейн не влиза в ролята на съдник и нито за миг не дава превес за някое от обществата описани в книгата. Той просто разказва една приказка и оставя изводите и размислите на читателя, а края просто казва, че светът продължава напред. ...more

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Sep 01, 2015 Tera rated it liked it · review of another edition

Couldn't put it down, yet it disturbed me greatly, to be honest I won't read it again and I'm not interested in what happens next. But that could just be me, so a definite recommend to read it for yourself and see what you think. ...more

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Dec 30, 2017 Rachel Adiyah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: dystopian sci-fi readers, ecological sci-fi readers, those interested in 1960's literature

Shelves: adolescence, bio-tech, distant-future, dystopian-fiction, economic-exploitation, extra-marital-affairs, future-technology, popular-culture-critique, poverty, retrofuturism

(To me, this book could represent our future with Generation Z. I could absolutely see those kids turning into the Inside people; they'd have different technology and mannerisms, but it would essentially be the same thing.)

At some unspecified point in the future, humanity has divided itself into two classes. The upper class consists of the Inside people. They barricade themselves in houses which they never leave. To meet someone means that you meet them on holovision. Everyone past the age of pu ...more

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Jan 23, 2020 Ralph Jones rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century

Cute story, but the real message is: Don’t Do Drugs. Remember this 3-D people!

Michael Frayn’s A Very Private Life doesn’t actually made the point about having private moments in life nor having a private life. Our main character, named Uncumber, had to live with a family that relies too much on drugs to be emotionally stable (or maybe, mentally stable?). She doesn’t like that and she is also very distant with her family because she doesn’t want to join the drug family. Smart.

So, she left her hom ...more

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Aug 17, 2019 Geoffrey Fox rated it liked it

Uncumber, a restless child, tires of the inside life where all is secure & all material and pharmacological needs are met, & escapes to join Noli, a man she has met by holovision after marking the wrong number. Thus she discovers a distant community of outside workers who speak a strange language (Finnish?). Tiring of him & this life, she tries to walk to the rocket port to fly home, but gets lost, is denied entry into any of the inside people's homes, then is captured by brigands ("sad men" — t ...more

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May 18, 2020 BookWorm Liv rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the perfect read in times of Covid19 .. amazingly prophetic

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Feb 21, 2017 Scott Morrison rated it it was amazing

Unbelievable that this was written in the 1960s. Brilliant.

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Jul 15, 2016 Nick rated it really liked it

Modern literature is rich with dystopian visions of the future – do you really need to read another one? The answer is no, not really, but this is a classy example of the genre and has the virtue of being a compact and very readable novel. The set-up is straightforward and not particularly original: human society has separated into wealthy, privileged Insiders who lead long, disease-free lives and rely on three-dimensional ‘holovision’ and an endless variety of recreational drugs for entertainme Modern literature is rich with dystopian visions of the future – do you really need to read another one? The answer is no, not really, but this is a classy example of the genre and has the virtue of being a compact and very readable novel. The set-up is straightforward and not particularly original: human society has separated into wealthy, privileged Insiders who lead long, disease-free lives and rely on three-dimensional ‘holovision’ and an endless variety of recreational drugs for entertainment; and the Outsiders who do the real work and are regarded by the Insiders as drones. You know the kind of thing.

The plot revolves around an Insider girl, Uncumber, who is compelled by curiosity to visit the outside world, for which she is of course absolutely unprepared. It's a spare sort of story, with no extraneous incidents or characters, but quite a lot of intriguing and amusing details about the world Frayn creates. One of them is that the Insiders wear no clothes, but are very prudish about revealing their eyes, almost constantly wearing dark glasses. The Outsiders, by contrast, seem to have developed into a polygamous society and speak a different language which is an amalgam of various real contemporary languages and seems to have been quite intricately worked out by the author. This means that the reader, together with Uncumber, remains largely in the dark about what is going on in the outside world, although we can piece together a few more scraps of knowledge than she can thanks to our greater familiarity with the sort of human lives she encounters. This puts us in an odd relationship to the characters – though the lives of the Outsiders are, on the face of it, more similar to our own, it is the Insiders whose language we can understand.

The strength and interest of this novel is in the care Frayn takes with the detail. It is more Brave New World than 1984, more concerned with the social elements of a potential future society than the structure of political control. Compared with these works, it’s a slight addition to the genre, but an entertaining and intelligent one. ...more

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May 19, 2020 Bronwen rated it liked it · review of another edition

A Very Private Life is a book based on a futuristic fairytale reality inhabited by a teenage girl named Uncumber, whose rebellious impulses lead her on a journey to a world she has never encountered from her shielded insider lifestyle.

I was intrigued by Michael Frayn’s approach to this original storyline. A Very Private life, of course, is set as a fairytale in the future, not the past. Interesting though, the chapters are separated into increments only a few pages long, making it effortlessly ...more

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Sep 25, 2016 sergevernaillen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Nog ééntje uit de pocket-collectie van mijn vader (nog een tachtigtal te gaan). Dit had ik ergens in de jaren '80 al eens gelezen. Typisch SF-verhaal uit de jaren '60, de hoogdagen van de SF.
In feite wel gedateerd omdat een aantal van de beschreven evoluties de dag van vandaag ondenkbaar zouden zijn. Bijvoorbeeld: holovisie is ten tijde van het verhaal de standaard maar men moet de verbindingen wel maken door lekker ouderwets een telefoonnummer in te toetsen.
Vermakelijk. Makkelijk op een dagje u ...more

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May 29, 2016 Ricardo rated it liked it · review of another edition

Sigue el clásico tema de la joven que se rebela contra el sistema, tratando de buscarse a si misma, pero dentro del contexto sci-fi de los 60 influenciados sobre todo por la obra de Robert Heinlein, es decir donde se habla abiertamente de drogas, sexualidad, se cuestiona las familias nucleares, etc. Es una lástima que los libros de Michal Frayn (al parece ninguno) hayan sido traducidos al castellano.

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Dec 06, 2007 Jennifer rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: fans of dystopic fiction

it's a small book so a nice short read, but i didn't care for the ending. here's a small synopsis: "Dystopian forecast and pure moral fable mingle brilliantly in Michael Frayn's chilling account of Uncumber's adventures as she rejects anaesthetized nirvana for the raw outside of none-too-noble savages." ...more

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Dec 02, 2009 Erik Graff rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Frayn fans

Recommended to Erik by: no one

Shelves: sf

I read this without knowing of Frayn's reputation as a playwright, novelist and essayist--but, then, this was rather early in his career. I read it as a dystopian science fiction novel and was somewhat put off by its humor, some of which was reminiscent of Terry Southern's Candy, but not as funny. ...more

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Jan 08, 2014 Scott Golden rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well-written, somewhat prescient (the main character basically hangs out in her room, communicating with friends by webcam); this is an interesting short book by a British author mainly known for his literary novels and stage plays.

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Aug 31, 2013 Peter Greenwell rated it really liked it

Well, isn't this just one short and sweet little tale? Cleverly written, smart and wholesomely engaging. Not to mention ironic.

All good fun. ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Dystopian science fiction where people are confined to homes wearing dark glasses to mask emotions and interact with the world through screen. [s]	6	27	Jun 25, 2020 10:13AM
Valancourt Books: A Very Private Life (1968) by Michael Frayn	2	13	Jul 22, 2015 01:23PM

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About Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn

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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 rais ...more