Reviews

Fault Lines by Nancy Huston

piernicka's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

bitterindigo's review

4.0

I've always found Huston to be a really remarkable writer. Her style is striking and affecting while being completely devoid of sentimentality - she seems to see human motivations, flaws and frailties with merciless clarity. This story is told in four parts by four different six-year-olds, going backwards in time. The child's perspective is completely effective and convincing (terrifying, in some cases). I always find reading about children caught in bad circumstances beyond their control heartwrenching to read about, especially when it's done well. This one will be hard to forget.

emscji's review

4.0

7/30/2012: A novel written backwards--in sections that work in reverse chronological order--has to be pretty great to succeed; Fault Lines, telling a story that moves from 2004 to 1945, succeeds beautifully. Each narrator (there are 4) is a highly strung and highly observant 6 year old; each is the parent of the narrator of the preceding section. Hm, that sounds confusing, but it made sense once I got into it. It was still frustrating, at times, to know that I was missing details and meaning that I hoped would be explained later in the book; yet the characters themselves are so present and fascinating, and so clearly products of their eras, that it was enough to let the story wash over me.

And that story is a full one: FL is about the myriad meanings of family, of parenting, of religion, of love and loss; it's about patriotism, language, belonging, memory, and war; it's about what we take with us and what we leave behind. Whew! Sol, Randall, Sadie and Erra, being members of the same family, weave in and out of one another's stories, yet each has a clear story of his/her own. The balancing act and the interweaving of stories is extraordinary. This is the kind of novel I will need to read again; it will stay with me for a while.

kweitkamp's review

4.0

Distressing but very good. A wonderful approach to providing a chronology of generations.

leigha's review

1.0

I always try to finish books I start but with this one I couldn't get past the first chapter. The writing in first person was annoying and I didn't like the characters.

sstallryan's review

2.0

I almost put this book down after reading the first few pages. Sol seemed more like a 40-year-old pervert than a six-year-old boy. But, thanks to Goodreads, I kept reading as many of the reviews encouraged. The three other characters - Randall, Sadie, and Kristina - were much more believable as six-year-old children. I could see the connectedness between them and how (as you went back in time) their childhoods had been affected by their parent's childhood. A brilliant idea. My big problems with the book were that it was almost too neatly woven together. No family really is like this or has such wackos in their family generation after generation. Of course, then why would you read a book about a real family? It would be loooooooong and boring. Also, I really hated the first section. I felt Sol's characteristics were unnecessary and unbelievable. The author could have done something different with him, I think, and not sickened us with this character. It was disheartening to read about a six-year-old boy who was already so messed up.

cassiel's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

May need a bit of a content warning, there's some quite disturbing sections. 

lieslindi's review

Holy cow, what a great book. The only thing I knew about it going in is that one of my least favorite book club members recommended it along with the execrable Poet of Baghdad. It is family history, told by one generation in each part.

Huston unfolded the narrative, the pacing and gradual revelations, masterfully, and the reverse development of her characters was fascinating. In the first section, you meet the youngest member, his father, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and get an idea of their personalities, and then in the next section, you meet the older three when the third generation is only six and the older two that much younger. Etc.

It is hard enough to write one six-year-old's point of view for an adult novel. It staggers me that she wrote four.