Reviews

A Fool's Alphabet by Sebastian Faulks

gigimaxt's review

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

ruthlemon08's review against another edition

3.0

Didn’t grip me as Faulks’ stories usually do but I liked the alphabetical, geographical flow

damopedro's review against another edition

3.0

One of those books where I felt like it took ages to get a feel for what he was trying to do. Bouncing all around a man's life at different stages. Some bits much more interesting than others. I liked it though. His descriptions of travel and that feeling of possibility at the start of a holiday somewhere new - I'm looking forward to that again.

agnestyley's review

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

was alright enjoyable but nothing happened until the end scene where he imagines his parents conceiving of him that was v disturbing

sljbook's review

No real plot and I felt disengaged from the characters.

anne_hillebrand's review against another edition

3.0

I really liked the idea, but I thought at times the book was a bit chaotic, especially because even though the chapters are supposed to take place in a certain place, the flashbacks would take place somewhere else all together. I also had a hard time keeping track of the age of the protagonist. I feel this book could greatly benefit from a basic timeline with places and major events, like birth, school years etcetera. If carefully constructed, it could benefit the reader, without giving away the plot.

sophie_paterson's review against another edition

1.0

I loved Birdsong and Charlotte Grey so I was really disappointed by this book. It started wel,l but quickly became dull. The concept was good but the tortured central character was selfish, unsympathetic and boring. It really dropped off before the end, instead of answers or character development we got a chapter on how much he liked David Copperfield. The final chapter was comically bad /self indulgent.

notrix's review

1.0

Awful.

This novel reads like a commentary to a scrap book of sorts, with long descriptions of random 'pictures' presented to us alphabetically as fragments of his life's memories.

This budle of excerpts is uninteresting and badly researched. It often felt like amateur writing. Anyone who knows anything about post-war Italy would know that in Sorrento in 1958 the last thing you'd expect to find in a local resturant is typical northern dishes such as risotto, chicken and chips and tiramisù!!

Sadly, the book does not even work as a biography, since Pietro's character is not developed. You never get the feeling that you are getting to know him better as his memoirs unfold.

I read this book to the end hoping that it would somehow suddenly surprise me, redeem itself and live up to Birdsong, but to my disappointment it did not.

georgiewhoissarahdrew's review

3.0

Competent, well-written, and held me for a day. But if I hadn't been on holiday, would I have finished this? Probably not. The central conceit - Pietro discovers himself over time, though the reader is introduced to him in discontinuous episodes set in 26 locations (one for each letter of the alphabet) - seems to dictate the structure and tone of the novel at the expense of sympathy for Pietro himself. Each chapter is fairly self-contained, and reads more as a short story than a piece in a continuous whole. It's like one of those jigsaws where each piece is a famous painting in its own right, but, assembled, the whole is something other - except, here, even at the end, I haven't had that "Ah - so that's what it is!" moment that would make sense of what came before.