This is meant to be very much a work of, and for, our time, although I would hesitate to call it a novel. True, the author has meticulously delved into, and researched much of the political, social and religious issues which confront the early 21st century developed world. The seven chapters are each devoted to a day in the week between Sunday December 16th and Saturday December 22nd. The year is 2007. Faulks is revealingly erudite.
The book fails as a novel, which it ostensibly aims to be, when it really is a thinly disguised polemic dealing with disparate themes, such as politics, immigration, capitalism, Islam, football, mental illness, drug use, journalism, and modern art, personified by a cast of characters interacting with each other in a rather superficial manner. The majority of characters, except the socially inferior, the mentally disturbed, and the young, are fortuitously brought together at the dinner party given by the newly elected MP Lance Topping. The attendees are all listed (pp5-7) with brief character sketches as seen through the eyes of the hostess, Sophie Topping.
SEBASTIAN
Within the one-paragraph page 1, Sebastian deftly sets the scene of inner-city London while making bold-brush claims like '...migrant labour was paid by foreign capital to squeeze out layers of profit from any Londoner with credit.' This kind of throwaway comment is a foretaste of what is to come.
Indeed, one of the main themes of the book is the exploration of the barely regulated world of financial markets exploited by monomaniacal, almost robotic individuals. John Veals 'the hedge-fund man' (p.7) is the first character discussed in any detail by the author (pp.8-14). He may be regarded as the protagonist by default, as it were, since a great deal of space in the book is devoted to his machinations, manipulating the money markets of the Western world, for his personal profit. The book ends with the author insisting that John Veals thought he had 'mastered this world' where for him 'there is no mystery, no nuance and no complication;..' John Veals, for the first time in the book is allowed '.. A rare surge of feeling, of something like vindication, ...'(p.390). John Veals has undergone no change, no transformation, he is not worthy of being referred to as a protagonist in a novel, in a work of art - in literature. The author may claim a satirical intention, but Veals is the mouthpiece of Sebastian Faulks who has gone to immense trouble to accumulate arcane information relating to the recent 'credit crunch' and the near economic collapse of most nation-states in the West.
The back cover of the book leads us to believe that seven days (and seven chapters) are devoted to seven major characters starting with John Veal. The others are: Tadeusz 'Spike' Borowski, the footballer (Polish émigré), Gabriel Northwood, a barrister (struggling financially), Hassan, the would-be terrorist (the son of a pickle-magnate), R. Tranter, a book reviewer (failed novelist), Finbar, school-boy on the way to becoming a drug addict (John Veal's son), and Jenni Fortune, Tube-train driver.
The back cover continues with the claim that 'Sebastian Faulks probes not only the self-deceptions of this intensely realized group of people, but their hopes and loves as well.' There are just two couples falling into each others' arms in this book. The first love affair depicted here is between Jenni the Tube-train driver and the young lawyer, Gabriel, representing her in a case involving an accident. Faulks details their involvement with each other in the most superficial way, concocting a common interest in books, which does not take them anywhere meaningful. The other couple is Hassan and Shahla, an anodyne coupling, a deus ex machina. Instead of their lives being brought 'together in a daily loop', the characters in this book are isolated and not very well realized as human beings. They are brought together haphazardly as representatives of modern myths expounded by the author.
For example, the alienated children of John Veals and his wife Vanessa who seeks solace in drink are no more than cartoon characters. While Faulks has gone to a great deal of trouble to explore the mechanics of bomb-making, as well as Hassan's indoctrination, by reading the Koran, he barely touches on the motivation for his last minute apostasy. Dr Leftrook, the psychiatrist, could have come from a TV sit-com. She is correct to the letter, and mouths platitudes. Faulks takes on the role of information-giver in the book even through characters like Gabriel who explains what schizophrenia is, and is not, to Jenni. There is a great deal of exposition when Faulks discusses John Veals' activities in the financial world which at least leaves this reviewer cold. It is difficult to imagine the average reader being able to enjoy, let alone understand convoluted financial transactions in the domain of hedge funds.
Even such obscurities may be excusable in a literary work if it conforms to the established norms and tenets of good writing. Breaking the rules may be tolerated, indeed welcome in an experimental work, but it is difficult to find an acceptable niche for 'A Week in December', at least in the eyes of this reviewer (who in the eyes of Faulks could be another R. Tranter!).
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks SEBASTIAN
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