charlychars

In a word - Disappointing. I liked the idea of this book - covering the overlapping lives of seven people in london over seven days. But the execution of it was poor, particularly when compared to Faulks' previous works. There was very little chance to feel anything for any of the main characters, they were all just a little too vague. It amuses me that a quote from this very text, a character's assesment of a book she is reading, actually sums up one of my biggest complaints about it - "The words didn't seem to make any sort of music, they just told you the facts, like a manual; but she didn't like to give up on books once she'd started...". Most of the book felt like a brain dump of the character's past choices and actions. As for the blurb's assertion that each caracter will be "forced ... to confront the true nature of the world they inhabit", I felt this was only succesfully achieved for one of the seven - a student 'led astray' by Islamic theory. I would have happily read a book with him as the central character and gotten a deeper sense of his life and development, rather than the snap-shot view this book gives. The rest of the characters I'll forget very quickly. Sebastian Faulks has written some great novels. This is not one of them.

2020-12-23 07:35