Sebastian Faulks – On Green Dolphin Street

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Book Review, On Green Dolphin Street, Sebastian Faulks

Still surprised by the negative reviews this got at the time

Sebastian Faulks very much changed his time-and-space territory with this 2002 published book, and certainly received quite a lot of thumbs down reviews for it, perhaps in abandoning the battle torn territory of France during the First and Second world war.

Personally, I found the cultural shift to America, at the time John F Kennedy was first elected as President, as fascinating and well handled by Faulks as his earlier forays.

In this book, his main characters inhabit the world of journalism/diplomacy and are very much caught up in political fears, doubts and approaches in a mainly Establishment political milieu.

Against this, or more properly entwined with this is a love story with 3 people. He very precisely shows how we all live through history, and are affected by history, whether we acknowledge it or not, and how the personal concerns which may absorb us more than ‘the world stage’ are nevertheless defined by that world stage.

His characters are all highly moral, ordinary, flawed and their attempts to honour their personal moral codes create impossible anguish and conflict for which there can be no ‘happy ending’. Someone, somewhere, must always suffer.

I very much liked the ending – again, I don’t want to give it away – but it seemed to be much more ‘that’s what life is like’ than the wrapped up conclusion we often want in literature, films etc.

I personally found each of the 3 characters incredibly likeable, and cared about all of them – and valued the fact Faulks wasn’t saying ‘okay, like this one more than that one’, and letting us off the hook by having someone be an obvious fall guy.

I think it is a cooler, more mature, less ‘romantic’ book than some of his others (which I’ve also enjoyed tremendously – he is a very crafted writer)

Am I alone in finding this book so satisfying and moving – in a very different way?

On Green Dolphin Street Amazon UK
On Green Dolphin Street Amazon USA

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Sebastian Faulks – Human Traces

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Book Review, Human traces, Sebastian Faulks

Twenty first century English writer, soul of a nineteenth century European

Faulks is a fine and brave writer, perhaps slightly out of time in an age wedded to instant, easy gratification.

This is not a ‘holiday’ read, its a book which asks the reader to work hard and to reflect – which is not particularly something we expect our writers to do to us these days.

This book has a strong focus on the history of mental health approaches in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the philosophical implications of a theory of mind that arose from these treatments. Faulks weaves this into a wider discourse on ‘what it means to be human’ with explorations into anthropology, and the implications of Darwinism and Mendelism.

The breadth and seriousness of his approach (NOT I think just an exposition of ideas or showing off his research) within the novel form reminded me so much of nineteenth century French writers like Zola and Flaubert – and also of the ‘epic Russians’ Tolstoy and Dostoievsky.

There was a time (no I’m not THAT old!) when i expected all writing to be like this – to educate, move, inspire me and cause me to reflect more deeply – but I’m just not used to being asked to work this hard any more!

I am really pleased I accepted the challenge this book sets – perhaps Faulks will drive me back into the arms of those challenging nineteenth century Europeans once more – its actually been great to have this sort of ‘history of high purpose’ in a novel.

And for a book which has a lot of ‘loss’ and heartache within its pages, it left me feeling strangely in awe of us, and our potential – for good, and for ill.

Human Traces Amazon UK
Human Traces Amazon USA

Sebastian Faulks – A Possible Life

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A Possible Life, Book Review, Sebastian Faulks

Small lives, linked by love and memories

Sebastian Faulks has always seemed a particularly 19th century European writer, creating big novels, which often grapple with ideas, mingling the stories of individuals with how they clash and react with wider history.

Here, he does something entirely different, taking 5 separate short stories, almost novellas, and examines different people’s lives. There are 5 different historical frameworks, one set in the near future, a couple in the fairly recent past, Second World War and the 70s, and the others in the previous century. Locations move from this country to Europe, with one set in Laurel Canyon.

Always beautifully written, and successfully managing the different voices of the times, places and individual narrators, most of the ‘possible lives’ are those of small people, the little unremembered legion who do not blaze like stars across any other firmaments other than those of their close family and friends. Nevertheless each life, however small, ripples outward..

One subtheme which recurs, is connectedness, how we touch and connect with others, and how at times the sense of “I” falls away and that of a greater ‘we’ seems more real. The final, Laurel Canyon story enlarges on this, exploring how music and song speak to millions.

Set against the sense of interconnection is another theme about the uniqueness and personal sense of memory defining the self as unique. Indeed, the story set in the near future involves a search for where memories are placed, in the brain.

This was a very well crafted read, even though ultimately it did not grab and shake me as intensely as Faulks’ writing at times does. Personally, it was the first, unfulfilled life of the schoolmaster, concealing deep, horrific tragedy and suffering, which moved me most, giving that sense of the elegeic which Faulks manages so well.

A Possible Life Amazon UK
A Possible Life Amazon USA