- Hardcover: 576 pages
- Publisher: Random House (2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375502262
- ISBN-13: 978-0375502262
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 x 4.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 748 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Epic, Beautiful and Tragic,
By
This review is from: Human Traces (Paperback)
This book was a journey. It spans such a huge amount of time, a whole life-time, that like many other similarly ambitious novels it sometimes loses momentum. However, so do people's lives - in a way this is more realistic than having the entire book be a rollercoaster ride of adrenaline. The characters are beautifully drawn and fascinating... they reflect such different facets of the society and their adaptations and growth makes you feel like you really have known them for 80 years by the end.The imagery of the asylums will haunt you, the stories of individuals will break your heart, but the triumph of the search for knowledge will encourage and even bring joy. The arc of this tale is a long one, but completely worth the effort.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
don't bother,
By
This review is from: Human Traces (Paperback)
I'm a big fan of Sebastion Faulks. Loved Birdsong and even Engleby which was a departure from the time period of many of his books. Since I work in Psychiatry I thought I would like this and it started off well enough but became too wordy and I found myself scanning just to get through it. It's the age old argument of nurture vs. nature but I think less could have been more in this case.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews) 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well researched historical fiction,
By M. Burla - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Human Traces (Paperback)
Although this is not an "easy" read, it is quite fascinating. The integration of the history of psychology with the story line of two fictional pioneers in the field was extremely well done. I have a degree in psychology, yet found myself learning many new things about the bases of current psychological theory, and I completely enjoyed the trouncing of the Oedipal complex and other parameters of the "Viennese" school even though Freud was never mentioned by name. Faulks draws his characters with style and verve - he has a good handle on both conscious and subconscious motivations, so the people of his novel do come to life and earn a place in your heart.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mental health,
By Roger Brunyate "reader/writer/musician" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Human Traces: A Novel (Hardcover)
This huge novel spans the careers of two pioneering psychiatrists, one French, one English, who meet as boys and eventually co-found a sanatorium in the mountains of Austria, until driven apart by professional disagreements and the outbreak of the first War. For the first 250 pages of this 600-page book, the story holds the interest with warm characters, fascinating settings, and the stirrings of romance. However, the long lectures and scientific papers that Faulks uses to demonstrate the growing differences between the two (one is a Freudian, the other a Darwinian) come to clog the book around the half-way point, and although the two men continue to develop in interesting ways as people, he loses the sense of linear narrative. But Faulks pulls it all together in the last hundred pages; always a magnificent war novelist (see BIRDSONG, his masterpiece), his WW1 scenes appear almost as a lyrical interlude, with striking cathartic effect, and his final chapters have their own quiet beauty.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
What makes us human?,
By Susan Feathers - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Human Traces (Vintage International) (Paperback)
What does it mean to be human? Are we at the mercy of our inner, unconscious drives, a product of incomplete evolution - caught halfway between the new brain and the old brain, a work in progress?Are people who hear voices crazy? Or, do they retain an ancient ability to talk to the gods, throwback to a previous version of us? Faulk explores these questions in the context of early nineteenth century culture and science. Darwinism, archaeological discoveries in Africa, and war all play into this rich examination of what it means to be human. Two men, each from disparate childhood circumstances, come together as clinicians in the newly forming field of psychiatry in Europe. Their ongoing discussion provides the raison d'etre of the plot. Two women - one, a constant presence, all along the way showing us what may be the most human characteristic of all. Sebastian Faulk gives us no sketch but rather a masterwork with shadings, details, complex colors, and a grand canvas for it all. Susan Williams |
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