Books we like ... and books we're not too fussed about
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Sebastian Faulks
Vintage 1993
This is an early novel by Sebastian Faulks I hadn’t heard of until I came across it in a charity shop in Sheringham a couple of weeks ago. Its structure is interesting – it is arranged into 26 chapters, each given the name of a place, and presented in alphabetical, not chronological, order. Altogether they give a picture of a man’s life, taken in snapshots and then jumbled up. Slotting the bits together, like a jigsaw (a simile too far?) is involving but surprisingly straightforward even for someone like me who gets confused by the simplest plots. It’s all very well written of course, and individual episodes are involving. The trouble was that the inevitably “bitty” presentation didn’t allow me to develop much sympathy for the main character. The overall story was also not for me terribly engrossing either (he is born, his mother dies, he falls in love, it goes wrong, he has a breakdown, he meets someone else and has some kids, he feels a bit happier). In the end it seemed to me more like an interesting literary experiment than a fully developed novel. Not bad though.
26th December 2009
http://www.sebastianfaulks.com/index.php
See also: Engleby A Week in December
Just click below.
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