A mismatch made in heaven

The problem with book critics — and at a minor-league level I guess I am one — is that they tend to think they know better than authors how they should have written their books. You can imagine the possibilities, both comedic and dramatic, when a literary scholar marries his favorite author. Michael Frayn does exactly this in his 1989 novel The Trick of It.

Frayn tells his story in a series of letters from Richard, a professor in England, to his friend in Australia. Richard has made himself an authority, even the authority, on the author he refers to as JL, and sometimes as MajWOOT (major writer of our time). She accepts his invitation to speak at his college, they wind up in bed together and sometime later are married. Then the real problems begin.

Richard has no interest in teaching any other writers, yet lecturing about and writing about his own wife's novels has become awkward, eventually causing him to accept a teaching position in Abu Dhabi, of all places. JL follows him, though unhappily, on the assumption that she can write anywhere.

The bigger problem is that JL, who has never even read anything Richard has written about her, won't take his advice. He is convinced he knows how she can improve her writing, but she refuses to listen. Her popularity increases when one of her books is adapted for a television miniseries, while his own small place in the literary universe evaporates — except perhaps for those letters.

Frayn's novel makes amusing, and sometimes confusing, reading. Many readers will be put off by its showy narrative style, but I am not going to suggest how he might have made it better. I found it a delight.