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Human Traces | 
 enlarge | Author: Sebastian Faulks
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
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Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 8682
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 618
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0099458268
EAN: 9780099458265
ASIN: 0099458268
Publication Date: July 6, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Accept/Good. Always sent within 24hrs
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| Customer Reviews: Read 58 more reviews...
 Long-winded and patchy July 8, 2008
Dr. F. W. Wright
I have been an admirer of the writing of Sebastian Faulks and am interested in the history of management of mental illness but this book stretched one's loyalty to the limits. There are long passages where I can hardly believe Faulks is the author; passages of 'he said to her and she replied to him' sort of dialogue, which are totally lacking in any literary merit. It would have benefitted from the wielding of a ruthless editorial scalpel.
 So disappointed after Birdsong June 30, 2008
J. Ewing (UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Like many people I was enthralled by Birdsong, and hurried out to buy more work by Faulks. Human Traces however, proved to be a huge disappointment to me. The prose is still wonderful, and the book does give some fascinating insights into advances in psychology in the late 1800's/early 1900's- but please, half way through the book I was still looking for a plot and hoping for the single piece of drama that might keep my interest. It never materialised and I have to say I never finished the book- it is very rare that I will not read a book to completion, but I really felt I was wasting my time.
 An epic tale June 22, 2008
Pandora Blue (Edinburgh, UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sebastian Faulks' other novels already told us that he can write about human motives and feelings with depth and clarity. Human traces adds in extra layers - much like the old classics. This is a tightly interwoven piece about the lives of several people with several strong themes running through it i.e. what is madness and how should it be treated, what does it mean to be human? Personally, I found this book an amazingly ambitious project which Faulks has pulled off brilliantly. Then again, I am interested in many of topics covered by the book: the human mind, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, fossil study etc. It's not an easy read if you want your novels to be purely character or plot-driven but I found it to be one of the most outstanding novels I have ever read.
 Fascinating but overly-done June 16, 2008
Jane Watson (Edinburgh, Scotland)
This was a very complex book about a very complex subject. Neurology can fill whole volumes and still never be properly explored - I work for a medical publisher and we publish whole series of books on neurology and still the subject is not exhausted! The history of the subject is indeed fascinating and I liked the characters in the book, but to me they were still not quite fleshed out enough - they seemed rather two-dimensional. The long lectures that are delivered verbatim were pretty boring and not really necessary to the plot; they merely served to show the author's exhaustive research - which was very impressive certainly. Somehow the whole book just did not gel for me - I find Faulks' works difficult to get into at the best of times. The most action came towards the end where he did rather rush to finish things off neatly which was a shame as he could have cut the book by at least a third and upped the pace a lot more. The most interesting bit for me was the bit in the desert about the footprints and Daniel's thoughts on the speech patterns and voices - that was really interesting and thought-provoking.
However, on the whole this book did not work for me and was really just too long and drawn out to be satisfactory.
A rare, intelligent novel June 16, 2008
Hayles (England)
This is a very rare find - a novel that is engrossing as a story and makes you think and consider some real questions about the human mind and existence. At times the pace was a bit slow and then towards the end the events came too thick and fast but overall this is a gem of a book. At time humourous, at others shocking this is a truly grown-up novel that challenges and entertains in equal measure.
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