8 replies to this topic

[Trident]

I've just finished Faulks' 'Charlotte Gray' and want to recommend this fantastic read here.

While set in WW II and telling the story of a young SOE courier in France, it's truly not a thriller in the traditional sense. Instead this is a story that has several themes it touches on different levels. For one thing, on the surface it's about Charlotte's search for her lover who's missing in France. During this search, she encompasses a country that is not just occupied by the Germans, but whose people are also at the brink of a civil war, torn between fascism and the struggle for freedom and democracy. While the Vichy-regime busily nurses antisemitism as well as the fear of communism and aides the Nazi forces by deportations and slave-labour, the Resistance movement is in a state of discord with some cells hating each other even more then their common enemy.

In this atmosphere of oppression and constant danger Charlotte meets with a painter whose work and attitude to his art and its power deeply touches her. Continuing her work as an SOE-agent and at the same time on the lookout for her lover, Charlotte becomes entangled in the destinies of several people whose fate is changed, in some cases fatally, by the war.

On another level, the war's scheming and plotting, the manipulation and the politics have their effect on Charlotte's own convictions and opinions, her belief in the cause and trust in her organization's motives are not exactly shattered but altered. When she returns to London, her mission a success, it's evident that she's no longer the same person that has once been approached by SOE. Her experiences on one hand have deeply troubled her. On the other hand, surviving her mission has given her the strength to face a conflict rooted in her own past and the relationship to her father, finally settling an experience that has left her troubled since the early days of her childhood. So this novel, while only covering about a year and a half, is in effect also an 'entwicklungsroman', showing the development of the heroine's character and her coming to terms with her own life.

While all of this doesn't actually sound too Fleming-like, it's still very close to the events of WW II that arguably have had the most effect on Fleming's own life. When reading Chancellor's or Macintyre's books it's evident that in his function as assistant to DNI Godfrey he has had many contacts to SOE and its by now famous F-Section (for some reason dubbed 'G-Section' in Faulks' book), meeting people like Vera Atkins who was originally recruited as a secretary but quickly became one of F-Section's top agents.

Needless to mention Faulks' fantastic way with words, keeping the reader captured during harrowing scenes, descibing the atmosphere of his tale quite vividly while also making the inner world of his heroine understandable and, yes, real.

Edited by Trident, 23 May 2008 - 08:03 AM.

[Loomis]

Sounds good.

CHARLOTTE GRAY is on my bookshelf and in my reading queue, along with BIRDSONG and ON GREEN DOLPHIN STREET.

I've just finished re-reading ENGLEBY. Terrific, thought-provoking, troubling and blackly hilarious, packed with exquisite observations, wonderful prose and laugh-out-loud gallows humour, it's a book that has nothing to do with James Bond but is a must-read for its own sake, as well as a good place to start for anyone wondering what all the fuss about Faulks as a literary giant is about.

However, the other Faulks novel I've read, A FOOL'S ALPHABET, does contain some strikingly Flemingian passages and rich Bondian travelogue - published in 1993, it's hardly as though Faulks wrote it the way he did because he was angling for the job of Bond continuation novelist, but its echoes of Fleming are very interesting, making it a very good taster for DEVIL MAY CARE. It's also one of the most unique, brilliant and moving books I know of.

I'm currently reading HUMAN TRACES, which so far strikes me as something new and different. Here's another thing about Faulks: he's a very versatile novelist. He's not One Of Those People Whose Books Are All The Same™. He's not John Grisham. He tackles different subjects and genres, so I guess Writing As Ian Fleming™ would have just been another day at the office as far as he was concerned.

However, from what little I've read, it seems to me that the question of identity tends to crop up in his work. His books ultimately revolve around a person's sense of self, and how people explore and come to terms with who they are. Won't be surprised to find that this is a theme in DMC.

[Trident]

There's lots to be said about Faulks and his (as far as I can judge from 'Charlotte Gray' and the pretty great excerpt you've posted recently here; that one sounded almost exatcly like 'travelogue-with-Fleming-flair') truly fine work and I'll be glad to go deeper into detail. It's just that I have to walk the dog just now. But expect to hear more about it as soon as I'm back.

Edited by Trident, 23 May 2008 - 11:16 AM.

[MkB]

A Fool's Alphabet is indeed a great read (thanks Loomis for incitating me to read it with your excerpt on this board!). Such a book made me confident about the "my Bond has no inner life" line by Faulks: the man knows how to infuse "inner life" in a novel without cheesy introspective texts; I guess that's what he meant.
I'll certainly consider his other works. Thanks for your post about charlotte Gray, Trident, this might be helpful to choose the next book!

[Mr. Blofeld]

Charlotte Gray is on my school's summer reading list, so I might have a look...

[Mr Twilight]

Haven't read the book but I saw the film recently and I thought it was pretty decent. A nice atmosphere. Maybe i pick up the book in the future.

[Trident]

However, the other Faulks novel I've read, A FOOL'S ALPHABET, does contain some strikingly Flemingian passages and rich Bondian travelogue - published in 1993, it's hardly as though Faulks wrote it the way he did because he was angling for the job of Bond continuation novelist, but its echoes of Fleming are very interesting, making it a very good taster for DEVIL MAY CARE. It's also one of the most unique, brilliant and moving books I know of.

I remember you shared a paragraph with us here that, had you not given the source, would have hooked me into the belief it was an excerpt from 'Devil May Care'. Really, really remarkable how Faulks, without actually aiming, hit the Fleming-mark with his tone. Splendid.

I'm currently reading HUMAN TRACES, which so far strikes me as something new and different. Here's another thing about Faulks: he's a very versatile novelist. He's not One Of Those People Whose Books Are All The Same™. He's not John Grisham. He tackles different subjects and genres, so I guess Writing As Ian Fleming™ would have just been another day at the office as far as he was concerned.

On a smaller scale this holds true for 'Charlotte Gray' as well. There is easily stuff for three books (at least) in this volume. There is the first love of a young woman, discovered and explored in a war of truly historic scale and drama. There is a secret buried in her own past that's in different ways loomed and overshadowed almost her entire life. There is the naiv

Edited by Trident, 23 May 2008 - 02:09 PM.

[Loomis]

However, the other Faulks novel I've read, A FOOL'S ALPHABET, does contain some strikingly Flemingian passages and rich Bondian travelogue - published in 1993, it's hardly as though Faulks wrote it the way he did because he was angling for the job of Bond continuation novelist, but its echoes of Fleming are very interesting, making it a very good taster for DEVIL MAY CARE. It's also one of the most unique, brilliant and moving books I know of.

I remember you shared a paragraph with us here that, had you not given the source, would have hooked me into the belief it was an excerpt from 'Devil May Care'. Really, really remarkable how Faulks, without actually aiming, hit the Fleming-mark with his tone. Splendid.

Yes. Here's that excerpt from A FOOL'S ALPHABET again (obviously, I've changed the character's name to "James Bond", but otherwise I've made no changes):

JAMES BOND WAS the only passenger to leave the plane when it stopped at Colombo on its way from Hong Kong to the Middle East. Hong Kong to Colombo is a strange trip to make. A few Chinese businessmen might reluctantly leave the Crown colony and inspect some business project in up-country Sri Lanka to see if it is worth the investment of a few million dollars. Or some unusually adventurous Sinhalese businessman might be returning after an attempt to raise capital in Hong Kong for a scheme in his native island. But these things are rare, and when Bond came down the steps of the Boeing 747, there was only him to feel the heavy night air that blew in from the palm trees round the airport.

It was a luxurious sensation. He was the only man to offer a passport to the smiling immigration clerk, the only man to see his suitcases carried in by the equally smiling porter. There was none of the usual feeling of displacement. There was hardly anyone there at all.

Bond wondered how the thin porter could carry his heavy cases outside to the taxi and tipped him an inordinate amount which in Hong Kong might have passed for normal but which in Colombo seemed to render the porter speechless. Soon the taxi driver was telling him how the Sri Lankan cricket team was as good as any in the world. He drove a Morris Oxford in high gear in the middle of the road, turning round frequently to emphasise his claims for the skill of Gehan Mendis or Ravi Ratnayake. He used the horn to move the night-time bicyclists and bullock carts, but never touched the brakes. His style of driving, one-geared, one-paced, was like that of a New York cab driver on Fifth Avenue when he gets a good run of lights late at night, though his conversation, not being a paranoid creole from behind bulletproof glass, was more enjoyable.

The night was exotically warm. The air was soft, though occasionally there would come a blast like that from an air extractor in the kitchen of an Indian restaurant. Bond lay back against the seat, unable to help out further on the problem of the island's shortage of quick bowlers. He watched the palm trees and wooden roadside shacks trail out behind them.

[K1Bond007]

Charlotte Gray wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as The Girl at the Lion d'Or IMO, and definitely not as good as Birdsong. If you read any Faulks novel (besides DMC of course) it should be Birdsong. That one is just a classic and it's surprising that nobody made a film of it yet. Actually, in fact, because of Faulks writing a Bond novel it's given the movie a push to get made. Suppose to start filming this year.