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A Week in December Hardcover – 3 Sep 2009

by Sebastian Faulks (Author)

4 ratings

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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 skunk and reality TV; and a Tube train driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop.

With daring skill, the novel pieces together the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life. Greed, the dehumanising effects of the electronic age and the fragmentation of society are some of the themes dealt with in this savagely humorous book. The writing on the wall appears in letters ten feet high, but the characters refuse to see it - and party on as though tomorrow is a dream.

Sebastian Faulks probes not only the self-deceptions of this intensely realised group of people, but their hopes and loves as well. As the novel moves to its gripping climax, they are forced, one by one, to confront the true nature of the world they inhabit.

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Product details

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Hutchinson (3 September 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0091794455
ISBN-13: 978-0091794453
Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 3.2 x 24.1 cm
Boxed-product Weight: 721 g
Average Customer Review: 4 customer reviews

Product description

Review

Faulks's most vivid character is the odious John Veals, a hedge-fund manager, who relishes all the money that he makes and the power that he quietly exerts... Veals is brilliantly insidious... A thoughtful page-turner ... The handsome sunset is heavily, and rightly, weighed down by dark clouds. (The Times)

During times of momentous change, men of letters are driven to produce works that fictionalise the state of the nation, linking individuals with historic events. The 19th century gave us Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Dickens's Our Mutual Friend and Trollope's The Way We Live Now; the 21st has given us Sebastian Faulks's A Week in December (Sunday Times)

This vast novel, well-plotted and gripping throughout, is the first that Sebastian Faulks has set in our time... the ambition and scope of the book are to be applauded. The conclusion is suitably nail-biting and, pleasingly, love triumphs. Sebastian Faulks has probably got another best-seller on his hands. (Spectator)

A portrayal of modern London that is both richly entertaining and highly rewarding. Faulks has come as close as anyone to completing the jigsaw that is this crazy, fascinating city of ours. (Evening Standard)

Faulk's latest novel has been hyped as the defining novel of the noughties - and it doesn't disappoint... The book makes for uncomfortable reading at times, as Faulks explores many of our daily habits - but it is also brilliantly funny. (News of the World)

Book Description

Powerful contemporary novel set in London from a master of literary fiction

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Owen Hanson

Trite shallow and boring

14 October 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Frankly, I can not understand why this was a bestseller nor why it gets good reviews on here. The author brings in far too many characters, of whom he only really develops two or three so he resorts to shallow stereotypes for the rest. And for the "evil rich banker" type there is page after page after page of detail about how he is going to rort the financial system. Who cares? I was VERY disappointed by this novel.

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Hewy

'A week in December'

11 June 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

So, so wonderful. The writing is sublime. Have now embarked on reading many of Sebastian Faulks other books. This book shows just how easy it is for 'our neighbours', 'our friends' to be radicalised. Scary, yes! Read it - you will not be disappointed.

One person found this helpful

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Marianne Hamilton

I couldn't put this one down...interesting characters and good pace

30 November 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Great read!

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Amazon Customer

Living on the (h)edge

6 September 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Compelling read well written. Insight into how the global financial crisis came to be.

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Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com

Amazon.com: 85 reviews

Kindle Customer

A Masterpiece

29 March 2016 - Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Brilliant novel. Beautifully written and with a compelling narrative, Faulks' book also stands as an astute commentary on the nature of 21st-century life. From the manipulation of financial markets to the isolation caused by 'communication' technologies, from Islamic fundamentalism to the alienated experience of a newly arrived Polish football player to a top London team, Faulks has brought so much together in an extremely credible, detailed and multi-layered story. He's managed to capture the mechanics of capitalism in its current form through a wide spectrum of concisely drawn characters who are all products of this system while possessing an intensely vivid reality of their own. This is a spectacular piece of writing at every single level. An incredible book.

3 people found this helpful

Amelia Gremelspacher

"bankers had detached their activities from the real world".

20 December 2012 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

All seven of the main characters in this novel go about this detachment. Vanessa, the banker's wife, makes this observation on her husband and his world. Of course, she herself has two "real drinks" and sticks to a bottle of wine nightly, in her solitude that she finds overwhelming. Upstairs her son is stoned on skunk, a powerful marijuana. And her daughter shops obsessively. Jenni, a rail driver, spends her evenings in a virtual world until she meets a barrister who is forced tosee his past obsession with his girlfriend served a similar purpose. A young Pakistani man has given up on being part of the central world in London and turns to extreme Islam. A smarmy book critic had never been accepted in the top tier of his world of writing, so he toils to destroy them in criticism.

But the people surrounding these characters are also engaged extensively in detachment. The world of schizophrenia is just the extreme of leaving the real world. The orbiting characters are in many cases as interesting as the main characters. I am especially intrigued with the Czech soccer player and his girlfriend. I find the character development to be the main strength of this novel. Layers of meaning and history are explored as the seven days transpire.

THe characters have limited interaction as the novel unfolds. The final day is a spoiler so I will not discuss it. The author spends a lot of time explaining hedge funds and other marginal deals that have led to market crashes recently. I found these to be distracting and at times confusing. Certainly the key note of the book is the alienation from reality that the banking scandal typifies, but I think the book would stand on its character development to make the point.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I can see its flaws. However what I have enjoyed about this writer is the depth of background he supplies to his plot. Certainly the literary back play contributed to my enjoyment. I would recommend this book warts and all.

One person found this helpful

Bookie

The whole is less than the sum of the parts

12 November 2012 - Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I liked the storyline - following several characters leading up to a dinner party they are all invited to, and the climax of both the financial & terrorist threat. However I liked the book less than I expected to. Too many characters introduced early on made their stories hard to follow; the detail of the financial shenanigans had me flicking through the pages - yes they were speculating on the basis of money that didn't exist, I couldn't keep the detail in my head. The novel does show the amorality of the modern banking world, and the impersonal relationships between people - the lack of connection between the banker about to cause financial chaos & his own family - that was all well done. There were still some personal stories that gave hope as well for the human race - but the different threads just didn't quite gel. I really wanted the banker dude to get his come-uppance too!!!!

byron j

Confused master wordsmith

6 June 2012 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

Faulks is a wonderful writer. His use of language is always quite amazing. Unlike Birdsong, which is both a great story and a fun read for its descriptions of character, place, emotion, and the like, the story here is muddled and, in the end, rather pointless. His central characters represent particular themes within contemporary English/Western society including militant Islam, amoral financiers, self-possessed literary critics, frivolous law suits, lonely trophy wives, teenage drug abuse. . . Taken individually, they are interesting. But the weaving together of themes doesn't work very well, and, in the end, one is left simply hanging in mid-air. Almost nothing is resolved. Life goes on, I guess.

4 people found this helpful

Richda D. McNutt

And What a Week It Was

9 September 2012 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

This is very different from either "Charlotte Gray," or "Birdsong," but Faulks deftly ties together multiple characters and story lines into a coherent and satisfying reading experience. He skewers various segments of our modern society: the out-of-control financial market, including investment bankers, hedge fund managers, the rating agencies, the mortgage industry; the manipulation of disaffected and searching-for-meaning youths by religious extremists; self-absorbed, distant parents; creepy reality shows; and much more. At times he is subtle, at times blatant, and he wields a rapier wit. For those uncomfortable in our current social environment, this is a must-read.

One person found this helpful