Bit of a let-down (Fault Lines - Nancy Huston)

Member Name: alk144

Product:	Fault Lines - Nancy Huston
Date:	12/08/09 (14 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Written fairly well

Disadvantages: Predicable, patronising, unrealistic and unauthentic at times

I was hugely disappointed by this book. It was well written and suspense is created really well, but the ending is such a let-down.

Fault Lines follows four generations children from the same family backwards in time. Each quarter of the novel is narrated by a different six-year-old. The idea is the unexplained behaviour of the last child to tell their story- so the first one on a time line.

The book begins in California, with a boy named Sol who is so very disturbing and it's at a level that strains credibility, it's just too far-fetched. I mean, he's six and he masturbates to Internet footage from images of tortured Iraqi soldiers.

Sol is the result of the contemporary American culture of megalo­maniac self-esteem. His Mother enthusises about everything e does and he matter-of-factly calls himself the "Eternal Omnipotent Son of the World Wide Web".

The story then works backwards through Sol's father Randall, then his mother Sadie and lastly her mother, the infamous singer Erra.

The story is captivating as you read, you really want to find out exactly what the secret was. However, the 'secret' was actually something the reader is told about throughout the book. Anyone who's heard of the 'Fountains of Life' needn't get excited about the ending, as it is assumed the reader will not know what it is. She definately spoilt the book by naming the secret as early as Randall's section.

Another problem is that the book seems to be very cold. Even when inhabiting the psyche of a suffering child such as Sadie or Erra, Huston doesn't seem to feel their pain an remains distanced from them.

Summary: Okay as long as you don't expect too much.