At first, I was indulged with the book. I was wondering about the future of Jacques and Thomas. What was wrong with Jacques' brother? How was their friendship going to be like? Somehow, in the beginning, I thought, "Hey this should be a good story. I like Medicine, I might like this."
I was not even halfway when I realize, "This is going to be another story that will be in my shelf for the next few months stuck two hundred pages till the end." Indeed, that was true. I read it when I could, stopped, and then move on to another novel. It was dragging, very dragging.
When Jacques would talk about his neurological ideas, I just thought, is this necessary information? Most of what I read was something that I shouldn't have read at all. It had no relevance to the story. In the end, I just wondered about who would live and who would die? And, I think I didn't find any happiness in buying the book.

I had mixed feelings about this book, I have to admit. Sebastian Faulks always writes well and this book is no exception. In a sense, his exquisite prose is what I could most rescue from the book because the basic plot was formulaic and the theme of the early history and development of psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was not something that captivated me, particularly; this dragged the book down for me because there are at least three long scholarly discourses in the book and while they in a sense marked the progression and development of psychology’s early history, particularly the French period with Charcot and Janet, this didn’t need to be so drawn out, in my opinion.

The plot starts with two young boys, one French and living a hardscrabble peasant life, cold father, indifferent stepmother and a grandmother who’s more and indentured servant than family member – but there is also a schizophrenic older brother in a time when the illness was completely misunderstood and mistreated – and there is an English boy living in a family of diminishing wealth. This part is told by his older sister, about to married off in something more of a business deal than love match in which she, as a woman, has little say but is obliged to consent to as a good daughter. This is the first feminist theme and well-developed as the story of the marriage and subsequent divorce, also handled as a business deal in which she has no say, unfold.

Meanwhile, the boys, now adolescents, meet, click and vow a lifelong partnership in psychology, and there is the book with its predictable plotline – intellectual development, different paths in psychology, falling out, reconciliation (to a point), marriage, children, infidelity and World War I. (Well, it is Sebastian Faulks.) In the middle of this were two more “feminist” points which I liked. One was the development (and later dismissal) of the diagnosis of “hysteria” in women; the idea of the uterus shaking loose and causing emotional problems is rapidly discarded but not the idea of women’s problems being largely in their heads, solvable through hypnosis to retrieve repressed memories; this leads to a near-tragic misdiagnosis of one of the female characters and a lasting point of contention between the men. Another “feminist” point is marriage and motherhood for women that society considered discarded for age, for whom “the train had already left.” Both of these were subtle representatives of the changing image of women at the time, something notable in the book.

Basically, I think it’s not a bad book at all but could have been shorter and more punctual instead of dragging out parts and draping them over a standard plot. I learned quite a lot – my image of the early development of psychology was based on Siggy and Carl in Vienna, not knowing about the “French school” – and my typically American association of Pasadena was with the Rose Bowl, not knowing about early and failed tram up the slopes of oxymoronic Mount Lowe. I liked the book but not as much as I could have.

So I loved the heck out of Human Traces but I can recognize that the book won't be for all. The book is long, to reflect the biographical nature of it, but without a real of literary payoff, the subject matter is rather specific, and generally the story meanders (like life) again a reflection of the life story aspect.

The tale follows two men, Thomas and Jacques, who spend their professional lives focused on insanity, Thomas' approach is ever-medical and neurological and Jacques is a consummate psycho-analyst. The story covers many aspects of their journey, at times hyper focused on the nature of their work, at other times only briefly explaining their work to focus the microscope on their family. The tensions of the story are subtle rather than overt. It's not a story for those wanting dramatic conflicts and epic tension.

I confess my bias towards this book is probably obvious once explained, not only does an MC have the same name as me, the area of work is related to, and a scene where Thomas breaks down questioning the point of his work mirrors my own feelings to the point I almost felt like the book was 'for me.'

So if you're looking for a longer commitment to a story that won't necessarily take you on a Roller Coaster but a more intriguing and thoughtful journey this is definitely the book for you!

On the whole I enjoyed this; it was a wide scope, from the 1860s to the 1920s and ranges across Europe the US and Africa. It tells the story of two men, Thomas Midwinter and Jacques Rebiere and their dreams of working out how the human mind functions and solving the problem of madness. There are lengthy descriptions of nineteenth century psychiatry and the development of some modern ideas with the theory of evolution and the human condition thrown in.
The book is at its strongest when dealing with human relationships; friendship, love, loss, betrayal and family. The beginning and end of the novel are particularly strong. The middle plodded a little and there are some overlong passages about anatomy and psychiatry which are superfluous. There are also a couple of plot lines which are not followed through which were intriguing, but left open. Not as good as Birdsong, in my opinion, but an epic novel dealing with life's mysteries with great sadness at the heart. The last paragraph is heart rending.

A very clever novel, thoroughly researched although at times - perhaps necessarily - a challenging read.

This took Faulks some four to five years to write - I'm not sure whether that included his research, but it is a book similarly requiring due patience and not to be read quickly.

I'm not sure, now that I have finished the book, whether some parts of it could have been redacted but once finished Faulks' reasons for including much of the detail perhaps in many readers' minds becomes clear.

At times I wondered also whether I should have had a highlighter handy as some of the areas covered were very instructive if not educative and I have seen written in one review that perhaps the novel should be recommended reading for students in psychiatary.

In fact, if the discipline isn't of interest then the rest of the story possibly may not sufficiently hold the readers attention, but overall I found this novel compulsive reading leaving one thinking well after the final page, especially over how much we may have learnt and progressed since the time period in the novel.

Not for everyone - Faulks' novels often aren't and I would still rate Birdsong as his finest - but for those who may be interested at least in part in the "early days" of psychoanalysis and the disturbing conditions and challenges of circa late 19th Century Europe - this is recommended.

80% of this book was absolutely sublime. I was hooked from the first page, so good was the characterisation and the storyline. For about 20% of the book's 786 pages, though, the expositioning and grandstanding became something of a slog to get through. I understand that Sebastian Faulks needed his characters to do this, but it didn't make for easy (or indeed enjoyable) reading. That said, for the vast majority of this weighty book I was so invested in each and every character and I couldn't put it down. I just wish it had been about 100 pages shorter, and a bit less didactic.
So very nearly a masterpiece.
Highly recommended.

A difficult book to rate and review. Parts of it were sublime; the rest tedious and didactic. If it had been 250 pages shorter it would have been outstanding. As it stands, the beginning (full of hope) and the end (full of despair) were worth the read. I cried twice in this book: at the beauty of the opening pages and the pathos of the closing pages. It's a pity that the middle was such heavy going.

Obviously authors who've already made their name are allowed to ignore basic writing rules such as "show, don't tell". That's fine when it works but in this book, Faulks appears to take the easy way out and at times his "telling" ran into 22 consecutive pages with the occasional token "Thomas stood up" or "Thomas said" to break the monotony. (What was his editor thinking in letting these sections stand?!!?)

In addition, there were a few plot hooks that didn't lead anywhere. For example, the mysterious archivist in the lunatic asylum. The end hook of chapter VII was the dramatic announcement "My name, too, you see, is Midwinter". I was left wondering throughout the remaining 400 pages what the dramatic connection was to Dr Thomas Midwinter. But as this was neither concluded nor developed, I was frustrated. So why the emphasis?

Sometimes pretentious in language;at other times lecturing in tone, this book was still inhabited by marvellous characterisations throughout. Ultimately, it was a brave attempt at fictionalising a philosophy on what it is to be human that didn't quite work. The conclusion that the book brings one to is that to be human is to despair; hope is not an option because in the greater scheme of the universe to be human is to be insignificant. I prefer books that offer a less nihilistic view of our human experience.

I wanted to love this book, but by god it became hard going. From the first hundred pages it would get 4 stars.... The two main characters introduced as children at the beginning share a passion for striving to understand the human mind and mental illness. What follows is there life story. But by 300 pages in, the characters have become increasing dislikable. I had to give up by page 350 as it just seemed to stop progressing, after many pages of notes about a patient where Jacques (one of the main character) shows such a lack of understanding that it is infuriating and beyond belief. Luckily the other characters agreed that he had lost his way, but what follows, where he could have been confront, is so lack lustre that it leaves you wondering what the point is.
Faulks can be such a good story teller, but this become less of a story and more or a detailed exploration of the history of mental disease and treatments. The characters, and even any plot line, just seems to lack any substance.

This has got to be the worst book I have read for a long while. A very bad choice to finish off the year 2017. I don't think I will be reading Sebastian Faulks again. I stopped at page 644 as I had had enough. I then read the last 3/4 pages just to get a gist of the ending. There isn't enough of a storyline to draw your emotions, imagination, feeling and warmth to the book or its characters. Actually, 3 or 4 of the characters did have substance and interest however, Sebastian takes you on a very long and winding journey of medicine, pyschoanalysis, scientific lectures and discoveries and the evolution of mankind that there was hardly any breadth dedicated to his characters, in particular, Sonia and Kitty. I am interested in the human brain and mankind and indeed psycotherapy, however this novel was far too technical and scientifically or medically based for my liking. It's not a novel, it's a medical journal or publication.

superb

Interesting view.

The story of two pioneering 'alienists' struggling to find a cure for 'madness' in the 19th century was at most times enjoyable and enlightening, though sometimes a bit hard going.

I preferred the parts of the book that dealt with the personal lives of the two main characters, their personal relationships, families and other loved ones. The book covers quite a long span, from their childhood to old age, I do love a good saga!

Less enjoyable were the long parts detailing what might or might not be the causes of mental problems as understood by the two alienists (and what a difficult area that still is, I'm not sure we're that much advanced, drugs are the main 'cure', though counselling is important, something still not in place during the time the books is written about) though the details of an English asylum made grueling but fascinating reading.