"Well, I'd seen Noises Off, which is a terrific farce, and then I'd picked up The Copenhagen Papers, which is a very odd book that Frayn wrote. He had again a very breezy, conversational writing style.
It is about the human condition. It's about philosophy, it's about recent discoveries in physics that have a philosophical bearing - man's place in the universe. How we got where we are.
For the most part, Frayn does a good job of bringing the technical stuff down to a more conversational level. At times when he's confronting specific theories or specific theorists, he has to - he seems to feel obliged to meet them on their own court, and he delves into the technical jargon a bit; and that's where he loses me. The thing I especially like about him is that he does not - he doesn't pretend to know it all. He admits when he's confused, he admits when he doesn't understand something, he's unapologetic.
I myself am a musician, and I also dabble in writing, dabble in acting; and I admire people who are being successful in not getting locked into a single pigeonhole. I think that's part of the appeal of the book itself is he himself is going, "I'm not a philosopher. I'm a playwright, and yet I'm interested in this stuff, and I want to share with you what I've been researching, what I've been reading, what I've been thinking."
I would recommend this to anyone who's interested in philosophy and intimidated by more technical approaches to it. I would recommend this to anybody who's as fascinated as I am with Frayn's checkered career. So far, I'm only a quarter of the way through. I only give it a three, but I am very hopeful that it's gonna rise seriously __________."
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