★ 09/25/2017
The fantastic fourth novel (after Curtain Call) from former Independent film critic Quinn is a testament to women who fought for what they wanted in a time of little personal and professional autonomy. Fresh out of military service, Freya Wyley meets affable Nancy Holdaway during VE Day celebrations on the streets of London. Freya and Nancy, both aspiring writers, form an immediate bond and later attend Oxford, where their friendship is tested by professional and romantic entanglements. The women reunite during the social revolution of 1960s London. Their bohemian lifestyle of parties, sexual exploration, and drug experimentation is juxtaposed with their fight to be taken seriously in a world dominated by men. While Nancy struggles to get a novel published, Freya breaks news and gender barriers as an outspoken journalist who exposes discrimination against homosexuals (as she grapples with her own sexuality). Clever dialogue (Freya, speaking of the wife of an overweight man she disliked: “Let us call her the lesser of two ovals”) wonderfully captures the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of major and minor characters alike. Fans of Tom Wolfe and Patricia Highsmith will embrace Quinn’s swashbuckling Freya. Agent: Anna Webber, United Agents. (Nov.)
Praise for Anthony Quinn's Freya
"Freya is the very best type of heroine: smart, spirited and determined."
—Christine Mangan, author of Tangerine
"Fantastic [...] [A] testament to women who fought for what they wanted in a time of little personal and professional autonomy. Clever dialogue [...] wonderfully captures the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of major and minor characters alike."
— Publishers Weekly
"[A] fascinating, luminous story of a decades-long friendship between two women, interrogating gender roles and expectations with a masterly human touch."
— Entertainment Weekly
"This fall’s great historical epic may be an import."
— New York
“[A] double bildungsroman set against a background of political and cultural upheavals.”
— The New Yorker
“With this three-dimensional portrait of his headstrong heroine, whose hard-gloss shell conceals a hard-fought vulnerability, Quinn achieves a distinct and unusual creation: a leading lady who is likable because of her unlikability.”
— The New York Times
“Quinn’s devotion to his central character and his gift for bringing myriad scenes and situations to life make these pages a pleasure.”
— The Boston Globe
" Freya is a nuanced work, combining exciting social history, and acute characterization."
—The Spectator
"Freya and Nancy could use another volume; here's hoping."
—The Guardian
"With its busy plot, its drinking and smoking, its crisp wit and contemporary soundtrack [...], Quinn's novel delivers evocative, high-quality entertainment that may well leave readers hoping for a sequel.”
— Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"Here is a modern woman to be celebrated in all her contradictions and complexity."
—The Evening Standard
Praise for Anthony Quinn
"Quinn is the literary equivalent of Houdini, a novelist who has a particular talent for absenting himself and letting his characters come to life."
— The Independent
"Quinn brings the period in question vividly to life: his research is exemplary, and his subject absorbing."
—Observer
"[Quinn] has a thrilling knack for turning familiar periods of history into something surprising and often shocking, and for making the fortunes and misfortunes of his characters matter."
—Evening Standard
11/01/2017
Quinn's fourth novel (after Curtain Call) begins with a VE Day celebration in London, where Freya and Nancy become fast friends. Freya is returning to civilian life after serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service. She is a "right good chap," a girl who sleeps around for fun with no strings attached, a sexually liberated woman. Freya is also an angry feminist raging against sexism at work and emotionally withholding at home. The novel focuses on three phases of her life; the Oxford year when she meets Robert, the flatmate years with Nancy, and the reunion in London following Freya's flight to Italy. Freya gets sent down from Oxford after one year for going celebrity chasing in Nuremberg and missing her exams. In London, Freya and Nancy have a circle of friends—artists, writers, and performers—who serve as a backdrop as they reenact the personal and professional dramas of their university year. Things end badly, and Freya moves to Italy, while Nancy takes up with Robert. Robert's romantic triangle with Freya and Nancy plays a defining role in their friendship. VERDICT An obvious choice for readers of women's and historical fiction, this novel is earnest, sincere, and genuine in its love for the difficult Freya, but its depiction of her is also tedious, predictable, and clichéd. A sharper character study would have appealed to a larger audience.—Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD
