Human Traces

Maybe 3.5 stars? It could have been a whopping 5 stars if only it didn't have so much detail and stuff about medicine and mental health etc etc. It becomes very laborious reading after a while. Had high hopes for this after adoring Charlotte Gray. But alas. what to do. I feel annoyed and let down because Faulks made me fall in love with the characters and feel for them. Then he takes it away by stuff that does not need to be there. I wanted more about Olivier. I loved the bits relating to him, his voices and what he felt. I think if he focused more on the characters and less on the 'research' bits, it would have been an awesome read. Hats off to the amount of research that went into this book though. would I recommend it? hmm. not so sure.

o carte la care m-a tras descrierea subiectului. Din pacate, mi s-a parut super plictisitoare. am citit cam jumatate din ea si am trecut rapid la ultimele pagini. n-am mai cascat asa de mult timp:))

This novel has a tension between whether it is a novel or a historical textbook. Two young men, one English (Thomas) and the other French (Jacques), meet and discover a mutual passion for learning "how the brain works." The third main character is Thomas' sister Sonia who marries Jacques and, as she claims at the end of the book, "carries him" throughout (including the affair he thought he had kept hidden.

Faulks' includes "Notes and Acknowledgements" which, as he states, would fit better with a non-fiction book but it is definitely needed in this book. I gave the book 4 stars but I have to admit that I almost stopped reading it mid-way through when Jacques delivers his long speech in the care home that they (miraculously, it seems to me) set up in Austria-Hungary mountains (just on a hill, not in a valley, nor up on a mountain as they discuss what to call the place. After rejecting the name Mountain View Private Madhouse, they settle on the original name of the huge complex: "Schloss Seeblink" with the subtitle "Sanitorium and Clinic for Nervous Disorders."

I reacted to how realistic Faulks tried to make this book as the story of early medical treatment and studies of mental illness and how unrealistic the organization is made in the novel. We are told that Sonia's bookkeeping and tax returns show that the place makes a small profit even in the first year which is pretty unbelievable given all the people they have as patients, workers, and "drop in guests."

The book is so long because Faulks tries to bring all the characters to life (or at least to great detail) and there are many of them. Also he takes the three main characters to the end of their lives. What I think is intended to be the main drama of the book is the conflict between the two doctors in which Jacque mis-diagnoses a wealthy young female patient and Thomas rescues her, taking her to a medical facility for an operation for benign fibroids and rheumatic fever. How Thomas reaches his own diagnosis is also pretty unbelievable. After this conflict, there is a period in which the two men do not speak to each other but it did not stand out in the book as much as it should have and when their conflict is over it was hardly noticeable.

I did not stop the book but I began to read more rapidly after that. I have a background in psychology so the details should not have been such a drudgery to read but they were. I think this could have been 3 or 4 books but I think the author immersed himself so much in the historical scholarship that he just did not think about the structure of the plot sufficiently. (Even dreams are told after the characters discuss how boring it is for a person to tell his/her dreams to another!)

Charlotte Gray and Birdsong are the other book by Faulks that I have read and I just ordered On Green Dolphin Street.

Started off so well, with the two young doctors friendship dominating the first half. They and their family’s relationship dominated the start and I did get very involved and was desperate to see how the characters and novel would develop. I only wish SB had kept it that way as it was intermingled with such a lot of long medical talk and unknown medical descriptions. It almost became two novels in one. Disappointed.

I read this book maybe twent years ago. I still have it and it sticks in my mind as one of the best, emotive books I've ever read.

It is poignant and beautifully written and is always a recommendation when speaking with fellow readers.

perhaps this is a 4.5* but I am rounding up because it is a phenomenal book in scope and human feeling.

pros:
- Faulks' writing is beautiful. he mixes lyrical with simple language, captures rhythms of speech as well as lecturing and medical language, and is deeply poignant at times
- the details of psychiatry was fascinating and clearly intricately researched
- the characters are all wonderfully human, and both frustrating and lovable for it, even the many side-characters like Luca, Abbé henry and Billy
- the ending was both realistic but not depressing and excellently touching
- considering how little we saw of Daniel and the twins, they remained very real characters

cons:
- there are a lot of characters and I forgot some (tho i had several months between reading the first half and the second)
- its long and felt like it was *too* long a little bit at the end. partly this seemed to be because....
- as fascinating as the psychiatry was, there was a *lot* of detail
- Jacque and his...dalliance frustrated me immensely and i lost all respect for him. Sonia was a wonderful character and she deserved better than him being tugged around by his "animal natures" or whatever bullshit he said. Although this was a flaw in character rather the book, it does frustrate me how many male characters particularly seem to have affairs, as if it is something inevitable. Perhaps since Thomas was a bad friend, Jacques infidelity is supposed to level them but it made me disgusted by him :(((
- sex in general seemed a little unnecessary..? but perhaps it is considered needed in writing a whole sweeping novel of 2 lives

HOWEVER i did enjoy this book, particularly its ability to cause awe in the reader. Faulks writes wonderfully and is truly masterful and it is a huge achievement

[Edit: i just remembered what i thought H.T. was similar to, in a bizarre way, which was Neil Stevenson's 'Snow storm', which also talks about logos; language and the beginnings of humans, although in a sci-fi rather than a historical one. both really fascinated me]

There can be no more than traces or tracks of knowledge left behind by mankind. A future observer only experiences echoes of what we pass on and can never fully comprehend who we really were at a previous time in history.
There are three main characters but I would say the main theme is explored by the character of Dr. Thomas Midwinter, a late 19th century Psychiatrist, known in those days as an ‘Alienist’ or ‘mad-doctor’. He is driven to understanding human consciousness and how and why homo sapiens, of all species, seems to be singled out to have in its ranks those who suffer mental derangement. In a time of huge limitations with the crudest facilities for the mentally disturbed, one can only marvel at the dedication of those through the ages who have tried to help the mentally ill.
But the story is not all doom and gloom – it is an absorbing read. It travels from within human consciousness out into the early 1900’s, in Europe.

In the 1870’s two boys from different backgrounds, Thomas Midwinter and Jacques Rebière find themselves united in their quest to discover how the mind works and what it means to be human. The journey they take coincides with the evolution of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in the late 19th and early 20th century.

I found this book, which is about insanity, schizophrenia and mental illness, a fascinating and entertaining read. It’s a story that takes you through the squalor of Victorian lunatic asylums to the lecture halls of renowned pioneers of the subject such as Professor Charcot, across the continents of Africa and America and on to to the battlefields of World War I.

In the notes at the end of the book Sebastian Faulks states ‘The main characters of this book are fictional, but readers might like to know that all the doctors whose work is either quoted or referred to were real people and did hold the views ascribed to them.’ This inclusion of real people and real events mixed with the fictional story of Thomas and Jacques works really well and adds credibility to the story.

A certain amount of criticism has been made at it for being too didactic. Although I can fully understand why people feel that way I think the expository aspects of the novel actually enhance it, such as the passages pertaining to the development of psychiatry, psychoanalysis, alienists, neurology and other aspects of the human condition. Heavy stuff I agree and balancing this with an entertaining work of fiction isn’t an easy task. But for me Faulks pulls it off. It’s ambitious but very well written, and there are the usual themes and sub-plots relating to love, relationships and friendship that are found in conversational works of fiction too.

The early part of the book stands up better than the latter as the descriptions of the lunatic asylum and the side story of Jacques brother Olivier show the harrowing conditions people with mental health problems were kept in and the appalling attitude Victorians had towards these people. The passages that most of the criticisms pertain too for me were for me interesting. I found for the most part they added authenticity to the story and also showed again the mindset of the so called medical experts of the time, the fact they thought hysteria was only found in women because it was a disease of the uterus for example is extraordinary. I do agree though at times, particularly in the second half of the book, these lectures, discussions and study notes do suffocate the story slightly and the characterisation suffers. There is a discussion on the origins of homo-sapiens during a journey to East Africa that is a bit dry. But for the most part, as I have said, they do add to the authenticity of the story. Despite this I feel the development of the main characters and their story holds interest through out the book , even in these latter stages. Of all the passages that try to explain the human mind and mental illness the piece that stands out the most is the ramblings of Olivier, about 3/4s into the book, which goes on for quite a few pages. Through this Faulk’s takes us inside the mind of someone who is mentally ill, it is a harrowing and upsetting episode.

Over all I felt Human Traces is a novel of complex ideas and arguments within an entertaining and interesting story even though it can be an uneasy mix of fiction and non-fiction at times. It is a well written, fascinating, enjoyable and in the end a rewarding read.