A Week in December

By: Sebastian Faulks

Narrated by: Simon Vance

From the author of the best-selling Birdsong comes a powerful novel that melds the moral heft of Dickens and the scrupulous realism of Trollope with the satirical spirit of Tom Wolfe.

London: The week before Christmas, 2007. Over seven days we follow the lives of seven major characters: A hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate; a student who has been led astray by Islamist theory; a hack book reviewer; a schoolboy hooked on reality TV and genetically altered pot; and a Tube train driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop.

With daring skill and savage humor, A Week in December explores the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life; as the novel moves to its gripping climax, its characters are forced, one by one, to confront the true nature of the world they - and we all - inhabit.

©2010 Sebastian Faulks (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

"Remarkably, Faulks retains control of his material as he shows us a world in which money rules, tunnel vision destroys and love remains the touchstone and redeemer. With its inexhaustible curiosity about the way the world works, this funny, exciting work is another milestone in a distinguished career." ( Kirkus Reviews)

not as good as others

A Possible Life and Human Traces are great books; this one is so-so. Contains more of his political ideas, with which I agree, but their inclusion is clunky -- too much in-your-face.

I tried...........

I tried to get into this book, but I couldnt.
I love Sebastion Faulks, but this didnt engaged me. I will try to come back to this novel at a later date. Listen to Birdsong instead - that really is Mr Faulks at his best,

Reminds me of Ian McEwan

This is a beautifully written book with, to me, a distinctly masculine feel. The style reminds me so much of Ian McEwan's Saturday, but more than the very short period of time in which the book takes place and that it's set in London. Both books left me with a bit of an industrial feel, due to the lack of warmth betwixt the characters that is normally present in female writing. Interesting and different, especially when you contrast the two charaters who are going to (w/o giving anything away) blow up the world both for perceived self glory.

Something Different from Faulks

I'm fascinated by books that move among multiple points of view, interweaving the characters' mini-plots into one well-crafted whole. Sebastian Faulks's latest novel successfully does just that. With tongue firmly in cheek, but also with a good amount of affection for all of his characters, he gives us a satirical view of contemporary London society: the good, the bad, the ugly, the charming, and the misguided.

If the novel has one fault, it may be that there are too many threads in the plot, and, as a result of the focus on hedge fund owner John Veals and would-be terrorist Hassan al Rashid, some characters get shorted. I wanted to know more about Jenni Fortune, the book-loving tube conductor who is addicted to an online role-playing game, and her blooming romance with barrister Gabriel Northwood; Gabriel's schizophrenic brother Adam; the senior al-Rashids; Spike, the Polish soccer player, and his girlfriend, Olya, who poses for online porn.

The novel runs the reader through the full emotional gamut. Perhaps the most satisfying moments for me were those that reflect on books, reading, academia, and the world of competitive literary prizes. Faulks is at his satirical best here. As an educator, I was particularly amused by a small incident, the book reviewer R. Tantor being hired (undercover, of course) by a school to write comments on students' papers, a way of appeasing the parents who complained that the teachers themselves couldn't even spell. And I was highly amused by Trantor's observation that technology has managed to make ignorance not only acceptable but an asset. He's a cranky old bird who gets his comeuppance in the end but his perceptions are often right on target.

A Week in December is sharp, entertaining, and complex. It's one of those rare books that I will likely read again one day because I have the feeling that I might have missed something

Not up to this author's standards

Seven stories going on in London over a seven-day period. Eight if you count the mysterious bicyclist. Clever descriptive writing on every page, as always in Faulks' work. But any connections between the seven stories are obscure and there's a general failure to demonstrate that they have anything much to do with one another or with any common theme (except that London is cold, dark, and wet in December). There is far too much techno-chatter about the inside workings of high finance, without apparent justification. The book kept me interested up to the end, but there was disappointingly little resolution to be found.

Disjointed

By using the technique of multiple disconnected story lines (at first) which gradually come together by the end, the author loses the opportunity of creating a sustained and compelling narrative and character development. It was an interesting listen but not one that I would recommend without reservations and certainly not one I would return to. I think if there was something unique about the setting or mis-en-scene, I would feel differently, but contemporary London has been explored before. However, the narration was excellent

Good novel

This is a good book, made fabulous by Simon Vance's reading style. (I immediately looked for Vance's other books, but unfortunately his performances are almost all devoted to titles I would never read... too bad.)
The novel is interesting, the writing is great.
The story follows several people's lives, whose paths at times intersect or never converge at all. The greatest flaw of this novel is that the writer packed it with way too many characters! It would have been a more engaging and "tighter" plot, if Faulks had simply focused on the main four or five characters--and followed them closely, going deeper into their stories--instead of constantly adding someone new whom, naturally, the author ends up neglecting and who doesn't add anything important to the overall narrative arc.
However, it was a very good book to listen to and, I repeat, the performance is wonderful and worth every minute!!
I would highly recommend this title.

Happy Ending

... a lot of fluff in the middle. The book drones on and on about nearly nothing, then everyone is happy about nothing happening?

Tedious

It just droned on and on until I just didn't care what was going to happen by the end of the week!

very slow week

Would you try another book from Sebastian Faulks and/or Simon Vance?

no

Has A Week in December turned you off from other books in this genre?

yes

How did the narrator detract from the book?

dull..no emotion..very British

Any additional comments?

too many characters... vaguely interesting how they all loosely connected... but intro to them all took way too long...disappointed in the ending... i was finally seeing where we were heading and it didn't happen... nothing happened.