We are meeting in Crawley tomorrow, and here are our questions for discussion:
1. Do you think Skios could have worked as a play?
2. Michael Frayn describes this book as an experiment to see whether farce can work in a novel. Do you think it does?
3. Have you ever been tempted to steal someone else’s identity or pretend to be someone else, as an escape from your own life?
4. How recognisable is the island of Skios as a believable holiday resort?
5. The Greek debt crisis and protests were occuring when the book was first
published. Do you think Michael Frayn could have addressed this in his
novel?
6. Have you ever seen any of Michael Frayn’s plays, such as Noises Off, or his films, such as Clockwise? How does this book compare?
7. There are questions of identity at the heart of the novel – do you think it’s
possible to tackle serious issues in comedy?
8. How sympathetic were you to Dr Norman Wilfred’s plight in Skios? Does the identity swap have an effect for the good on him?
