''A Very Private Life'' by

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) 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 M ...

(1968) is a futuristic fairy tale that describes a young woman's futile quest to make meaningful contact with another human being.

Plot summary

The protagonist (Uncumber) begins life in a privileged home where she is estranged from her family by their reliance on drugs to regulate their emotions and social interactions. She leaves them in order to pursue a man (Noli) that she falls in love with on first sight despite a language barrier existing between them, which stops her from forming any relationships with him or his family. Noli unlike Uncumber is from the working class and she finally abandons him when he insists on using the drugs which she abhors in their love making. She finally makes it full circle when she is picked up shortly afterwards by the police and imprisoned in a room remarkably similar to the one in which she began and is eventually reconciled to the medicated life where every emotion exists on tap and the most intimate experience is sex which has been replaced by lying next to your lover experiencing entirely private and separate hallucinations.

Style

The novel is stylistically unusual in that it is written mainly in the

present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...

. For example, a typical passage reads: "He turns his head from side to side, and then nods at her. Uncumber realises that he wants her to do the same. She feels herself blushing at the ridiculousness of it." Occasionally, the narrative also uses

future tense In grammar, a future tense ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...

(for example, the book's opening line is "Once upon a time there will be a little girl called Uncumber"), however it eschews the

past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some ha ...

normally expected in novels.

References

1968 British novels Novels by Michael Frayn 1968 science fiction novels British science fiction novels Dystopian novels William Collins, Sons books {{1960s-sf-novel-stub