The Faithful Couple

by A.D. Miller

California, 1993: Neil Collins and Adam Tayler, two young British men on the cusp of adulthood, meet at a hostel in San Diego. They strike up a friendship that, while platonic, feels as intoxicating as a romance; they travel up the coast together, harmlessly competitive, innocently collusive, wrapped up in each other. On a camping trip to Yosemite they lead each other to behave in ways that, years later, they will desperately regret.

The story of a friendship built on a shared guilt and a secret betrayal, THE FAITHFUL COUPLE follows Neil and Adam across two decades, through girlfriends and wives, success and failure, children and bereavements, as power and remorse ebb between them. Their bifurcating fates offer an oblique portrait of London in the boom-to-bust era of the nineties and noughties, with its instant fortunes and thwarted idealism. California binds them together, until - when the full truth of what happened emerges, bringing recriminations and revenge - it threatens to drive them apart.

THE FAITHFUL COUPLE confirms Miller as one of the most exciting and sophisticated novelists in the UK - someone who can tell a great story, with a sense of serious moral complexity. This is that rare bird: a literary novel with mass appeal as well as the potential to win prizes.

Genres: Fiction, Friendship, Literary Fiction, London, Audiobook

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2014

About the author

A. D. Miller studied literature at Cambridge and Princeton. His first novel, Snowdrops – a study in moral degradation set in modern Russia – was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Awards, the CWA Gold Dagger and the Galaxy National Book Awards, and was longlisted for the IMPAC award. It has been translated into twenty-five languages. His second novel, The Faithful Couple, a story of friendship and remorse, was published in 2015. He is also the author of The Earl of Petticoat Lane, an acclaimed memoir of immigration, class, the Blitz and the underwear industry that was shortlisted for the Wingate prize.

A.D. Miller has been The Economist's Moscow correspondent, political columnist, writer-at-large and correspondent in the American South; in 2018 he became the magazine's culture editor. In 2014 he won Travel Story of the Year at the FPA Media Awards, for a piece about 24 hours at a motorway service station. He has been shortlisted three times for the David Watt Prize, for another FPA Award and for Political Commentator of the Year and Magazine Commentator of the Year at the Comment Awards. He has also written for the Financial Times, Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Spectator, Literary Review, Evening Standard, Intelligent Life and 1843. He uses his initials because another novelist already had his name.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bland, lifeless, comatose - all words that are far too high energy to describe AD Miller’s novel The Faithful Couple. If you think making yourself a cup of tea and then staring at a plank of wood while the tea cools before sipping it slowly is exciting, get ready for the most pulse-racing read of your life!

Reading this novel is like queuing at the post office for nine hours while the two most boring men in the world expressionlessly tell you their impossibly dull lives. Adam works in the civil service. He’s married with two kids, he’s got a mortgage, and he wants to be a Band 7 in his office. Neil works in sales. He eventually gets married with a kid but in the meantime he just focuses on wealth management, schmoozing with douchebags for money he does nothing with. He has a nephew he likes to spend time with. They talk about nothing.

I shit you not, that is the whole novel. EXCEPT - I’m sorry, caps probably caused several heart attacks for any AD Miller fans (is “fan” too strong a word for them?) reading this review - except for that time when they were both in their early 20s and Neil slept with an underage girl. She was 15, he was 23, it’s wrong and I don’t mean to be insensitive but it was consensual and, let’s not kid ourselves, this shit happens every single day. It’s barely noteworthy and in the history of the world much worse things have happened. But this is a novel that, by gum (that’s more on the level of AD Miller’s readership), knows it’s a novel.

What do I mean? I mean that this comparatively small incident that took place one night has gone on to have humongous relevance in Neil and Adam’s friendship for years and years afterwards. Why? Well, it was wrong, legally and morally so they feel a lil guilty. They weren’t punished for it - the girl’s dad yelled at them but the cops weren’t involved and the girl didn’t seem scarred - but, even though most people would brush it off as a stupid youthful indiscretion that they regretted, this novel needs something and it’s got nothing else so let’s overstate the importance of this and tie it into whatever the book is supposedly about. Only in fiction does crap like this stand out with characters unconvincingly returning to a very specific and small incident over and over because novelistic conceit.

So this is the structure of The Faithful Couple: two boring men live their boring lives, occasionally thinking of that time when one of them slept with an underage girl. Repeat, repeat, repeat as the story jumps a couple years ahead with each chapter. Later on Adam becomes a father and thinks to himself, gasp, what if an older man sleeps with his one day teenage daughter?? Sorry, am I meant to give a shit?

Does it say anything profound about the act itself - human nature, sexuality, male friendships? Adam has a wealthy background, Neil has a middle-class one - is there any commentary on class? Nope. I suppose social mobility is proven to be possible and we discover the private sector pays more than the public (who knew? Oh right, everyone) but is that worth writing an entire fucking novel about? At one point Neil almost does something that could have led to an affair with Adam’s wife - and look at the steps in that statement! - but doesn’t, and that’s about the only other notable thing that happens.

The dull as fuck title references a pair of ancient trees in Yosemite National Park which need each other to survive… just like Neil and Adam… crap on a crudstick, look how arty AD Miller is being… drop dead, AD Miller, those trees have more personality than your characters.

The Faithful Couple is a novel about nothing with even less to say. This book is the physical manifestation of monotony. Give a copy to someone you truly hate but bear in mind AD Miller probably has a few editions of his own already.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barely a 2.5 star read this one. I found it quite disappointing as it did not deliver on it's promise in the blurb. I kept reading to the end in the hope that it would redeem itself but no such luck.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having enjoyed the writing as much as the story in Snowdrops, I was keen to read A.D. Miller's latest novel as soon as possible.
This is a wonderful account of a changing friendship over a number of years. Recounting how they came to meet and why a holiday encounter led to a lasting friendship. The two young men find a role between themselves based on education, life experience and family values which sets the tone for their relationship. They still feel combatative especially around a young woman they meet as they go head to head to win her attention. This experience is almost a forging of their affinity and as symbolically captured in a photo standing in front of co-joined trees - The Faithful Couple.
Miller creates a host of characters who populate this book at ground it along with the historically changing background of London over 18 years from boom to bust. His writing is individual to this world but universal in the realities he presents. A brave tale of two blokes who have their ups and downs especially as their roles change and responsibilities alter. With parenthood memories of their time in America make one feel that despite their friendship their lives may be cursed.
You can identify with their situations and family commitments and you have great empathy for their dilemas and revised priorities.
This is a work of lasting literatry value and worth, wonderfully crafted in rich language and establishing believable historical context. It is a real pleasure to read like a fine dining experience in a top class restaurant rather than your usual all you can eat buffet.
A joy to read and review.

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perigosas Sensações


Dois jovens ingleses conhecem-se acidentalmente e sentem uma dose de empatia q.b. para estabelecer uma Amizade que se inicia com uma onda de pequenas loucuras partilhadas:

Assumem falsas identidades para 'flirtar' o sexo oposto, pisgam-se de restaurantes sem pagar a conta, etc, etc...

Até que esta linha de comportamento lúdico mas irreflectido, assume dimensões mais desastrosas...

Os Passos na Vida que são gerados pelo puro prazer das sensações imediatas, podem deixar marcas indeléveis na Consciência , que são muitas vezes traduziveis em Perigosos Venenos Existenciais!


Nota: Considero que esta capa é inapropriada a este livro. Isto porque, o título "casal fiel" corroborado pela representação de duas faces masculinas, transmite uma impressão de homossexualidade. No entanto, o relacionamento destes dois homens, embora íntimo, é exclusivamente platónico.

[Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF around 50% read!

Could not get into the story. So I decided that rather than finish the book and write a bad review I just throw in the towel. I guess this book just wasn't for me.

Also, this book gets the dubious honour to be the book that made be once and for all swear off blog tour, with the exception of the ones I've already been booked for and of course if the book in question seems really good.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really resonated on my frequency. I am interested, and am currently writing about, platonic male relationships and can't think of a better, more focused example than the one in this book.

I think there is an element of being led up the garden path; the book is called 'The Faithful Couple' after all and forces our first impression to be of romantic love. Miller undoes this assumption and annihilates the stigma associated with the closeness of two young men. It surprises me how little examples there are of this in modern work (if you know any others, suggestions welcome.)

I really loved this one.

[Kate Vane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two British men in their early twenties meet in a backpacker’s hostel in California. They are both alone and despite – or perhaps because of – their different backgrounds, they form a friendship and travel on together. Then something happens – no spoilers so I won’t say what – which both tests and deepens their friendship.

They return to London where Adam – child of privilege – is beginning a career in television while Neil – son of a shopkeeper – is going nowhere, working in his dad’s stationer’s and living at home. The novel follows their friendship over the years as their lives change in ways you might not expect, against a backdrop of Blairite politicking and the dotcom bubble.

It’s a moderately interesting look at London over two decades, the nature of money, power, class and male relationships. We see how the two men negotiate love (familial and romantic) and responsibility. But the event that is supposed to shape the narrative and their lives, the thing-that-happened-that-I-can’t-mention, does not, for me, carry that weight. I wasn’t convinced that they would care about the thing that much, even if they should. And even if they do care about it, it’s questionable how far it actually influences their behaviour.

As the book progresses, it becomes quite repetitive. One of the two men experiences some change in their life. This leads them to consider the thing-that-happened afresh. They may or may not discuss the thing. At a certain point there is another thing-I-can’t-mention which feels contrived and thrown in only to give the plot some impetus. There are some more relationship dramas, then an ending which I’d also better not mention but which for me was abrupt and unsatisfactory.

There was some atmosphere in this book and a sense of time and place. The interplay between the two main characters, and the shifting power dynamics, were interesting at the beginning. But for me the story drifted and the characters needed a stronger theme to sustain them.

[David Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a sensitive and sometimes touching exploration of the friendship between Adam and Neil over a twenty year period of their lives. They meet in 1993 while in their early twenties, two adolescent British men holidaying in California enjoying a time before ‘real’ life, work and responsibilities begin.

While traveling together in California, as newly made friends, they visit the Yosemite Valley where a picture of them together by two entangled monster sequoias trees labelled the ‘Faithful Couple’ provide us with the title of the book. It is during that visit that they encounter a young woman and her father. Rose becomes a challenge for the two boys and there is a rivalry to win her affection. It is also a huge mistake which will both bind and threaten their friendship for years to come.

Back home they remain friends as the author takes us through the lives of Adam and Neil as they take on new roles and responsibility. Family, marriage, girlfriends, acquaintances and children enter their lives, all against the backdrop of the Blair years and a time of boom and bust in London. Always in the background of this friendship is guilt and regret after the incident with Rose. It haunts Adam and Neil tries to bury it in his memory. It’s something each finds difficult to talk about, or express. But it is always there, a shared secret that plays on both their consciences. When they do eventually talk of it there are feelings of betrayal and remorse which threatens to split them.

Overall it was a good read with an unusual insight into male friendship, rivalry and love. It was an interesting exploration of two men’s lives. Both had different backgrounds, but ultimately both were decent men who shared a secret of an incident that never left them and for which they both felt guilt and shame. Can they remain friends to the end or will it all unravel. I thought it was a well written piece which uncovered shades of light and dark in both men.

[Talor Pickering · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was touched and surprised by this novel, a gentle embrace of a book that literally wraps you up in the relationship of Adam and Neil, spanning over twenty years, from two British blokes exploring California before they have to enter the new world! Their friendship is bound and threatened and when the two start to share they find themselves riddled with emotion and none of it is easily explained or easily overcome!

The book was unusual, it was beautiful and i loved the insight, not your usual male perspective but that;s what gave it that little extra, that feeling that when you finally close the book you think, some books are sweet delights leave you with a smile, some books leave you feeling like you really have learnt and explored something, this book for me left me a little bewildered but in the best way possible

Gentle and enthralling the pace the narrative was just something a little bit special! I feel that this book will be a bit like Marmite, you will either love it or hate it, but me personally its was superb!

[Sergiu Pobereznic · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is better than good, and the author makes great use of his obviously broad lexicon. I don't believe authors should hold back in this respect if it is part of their language. Bravo.
The story is simple, but the issue at hand becomes complex:
Two very different, young Englishmen with an interesting dynamic, experience an incident while holidaying in Yosemite National Park with lasting consequences. I'll say no more, but it is a good premise.
There are some repetitions, but looking back, I felt that they were necessary. Most times I would say otherwise, but not so in this case.
Over all, I enjoyed it, even more so because of my many years of living in London.
Sergiu Pobereznic (author)
amazon.com/author/sergiupobereznic

[Winnifred · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this compelling book. It is a rich and, at times, challenging read which makes you reflect on your own attitudes to guilt and friendship. As a female reader, I was also fascinated by the insights into the male psyche, men's attitudes to women and to their best friends.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Life is too short to read crap like this.

[Debra K · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my written review, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe

Debs :-)

[Paula Suarez-llanos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hated it. All of it. The writing. The plot. The characters. Not my kind of book at all

[Melanie Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve read Snowdrops, then you already know A.D. Miller writes beautifully, and The Faithful Couple very much shines in this realm. However, while dazzling prose of this order is normally sufficient to please in itself, here it is the least interesting part of the book. Yes, it's beautifully written, but what’s far more enjoyable it how exquisitely the whole thing has been thought out. Every page shows traces of big thinking, verbal fingerprints as it were, evidence of a genuine fascination with the questions being tackled which, in turn, makes for compelling reading.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I am always sucker for when the mechanics of the text play into the core themes, and so I particularly loved the opening segment where we are alternating seamlessly between Adam and Neil’s POVs. This alone tells us everything we need to know about the assumptions we are meant to be making about their friendship. Within a very short period, they have become intertwined into one, (closer than Neil and Jess will later manage in more than a decade).

For the first half of the novel, we are faced with an uncomfortable moral dilemma which is very much from our times, as a precocious girl who is under the age of consent ends up alone in a tent with a fledgling adult who really ought to have known better. It makes for very uncomfortable reading, but at least it is over very quickly, and as is explicitly mentioned, these days who doesn’t have some sort of regrettable liaison somewhere at the back of the closet of their mind? Something one would prefer to never think about, or worse have anyone else ever thinking about. But in Adam’s case, he is not equipped with the sort of mental filing system that lets others cringe for a few days and then somehow move on.

So the engine driving this story is that Adam is racked with guilt for an act committed by Neil. Why? Because he knows if anyone is guilty here, it is him, as he could have saved Neil from himself, but instead chose to egg him on out of sheer idiotic rivalry. For years, although they never actually discuss it, Adam assumes Neil must also be tortured by these events, and so, in Adam’s mind, his guilt-by-omission has grown to include multiple victims: the girl on the receiving end of the untoward act, her (possible, and yet unconfirmed/imaginary child), and Neil and his (possible, and yet well hidden) tortured soul.

Following this catalyst event in 1993, we follow the protagonists through early adulthood and almost until the present. In other words, against the backdrop of the Blair years, the dotcom bubble, and as events progress, across the no-going-back threshold in time when we all became just a wee bit too Googleable for our own good. So while once you could accidentally have it off with a minor in a tent up the side of some mountain you were never going to scale again and be done with it, these days life is more complicated than that. Assuming, of course, one is, like Adam, of a mind to make it so.

As we are repeatedly told, only a friend can betray you, and there is no betrayal quite like discovering that the other pillar holding ‘us’ up is no longer where you left it. For as Miller’s characters demonstrate in various ways, even if these amorphous entities we think of as ‘us’ aren’t always greater than the sum of their parts, they are at least quite different to them. But, in narrative terms, what is more interesting is that they also all come with rules and valences that only those on the inside can ever fully understand. To Adam and Neil it would make perfect sense that their first calls on 7/7 didn’t go to their respective spouses, while to Claire and Jess this would surely have been nothing short of betrayal. But even more astute is that when ‘nothing happens’ between Neil and Claire, Adam is quickly prepared to believe and forgive Claire, but not Neil. Why? Because marital fidelity is not nearly as important to him as his all-consuming need to know that Neil would never cheat on him.

This dovetails with another of the novel’s underlying themes - the trivial secrets we all keep, the inconsequential furniture of our minds that no one ever gets to see - and possibly wouldn’t actually care about even if they did. In Adam’s case, these secrets amount to the fact that there is just far too much going on beneath the surface for his own good, while for all that he is outwardly the far more successful of the two, Neil has a surprisingly shallow inner life. A case then, of opposites attracting?

Mille is also very good on the role of recurring jokes, and one-liners in friendship, and more particularly, male friendships (what is it about Prog bands?). Much of the air time between Adam and Neil which seems taken up in the comfort to be had in knowing without a doubt that your friend will be your straight man on cue. On the one hand, the tall tales the pair weave from inside their ‘us’ bubble are a bit of harmless fun. On the other, they are also a means of continually re-building the walls around their ‘us’. Sometimes this doesn’t matter, as Claire shows us through her indulgent, outsiders ‘you boys’. A recurring line which Miller reprises to powerful effect when Jess suddenly realises not so much the scale of the secret Neil has been keeping, but rather its effect (i.e. ensuring that Adam and Neil are closer to each other than either can ever hope to be with anyone else), and ‘you boys' then becomes ‘you fucking boys’.

In some ways, The Faithful Couple feels like emotional dialetics. An exploration of the values ‘don’t sweat it’ and ‘angst is good’. The evidence does rather point to one side noticeably stockpiling more money and uncomplicated, (and varied) sex than the other. Moreover, once the more tortured Adam finally manages to let go of the fact that there are three people in this marriage, the losses on his side are soon mitigated.

The lesson, if such a sombre word can be applied here, seems to lie in the advice Adam received from his errant father, Jeremy. First, get yourself off. Then, with a bit of luck you’ll figure out a way to forgive yourself, and anyone else who matters, and – by implication – do better next time, my son.

Although, I could have happily kept reading more and more about Adam and Neil, and I have found my thoughts repeatedly turning to them since finishing The Faithful Couple, I felt it ended at precisely the right moment. A few seconds less and I’d have felt cheated, a few seconds more and I’d have wanted chapter and verse on 2015.

[Cath Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up as a road trip around America was just my cup of tea. I listened to it on audio book and from the beginning the reader sounded bored! We flew through the trip at break neck speed and were back in the UK before the end of CD 1. The “incident” which happened in America at first appeared something of nothing (I was expecting a story similar to “I know what you did last summer”!!)
However, as Adam and Neil grew up and the years went by, the “incident” became more relevant and thought provoking to the reader.
As I was born in the early 1970s, I loved reading about the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and the author made clever references to the “must have” items and “must do” things of each decade in London.
I also loved the sound bites from “the incident” which recurred throughout the book and these worked particularly well as an audio book.
As well as this the book told the story of two 23 year old boys becoming friends, and growing up. There was also a clear class divide between the two boys when they first meet, but this changes dramatically as they grow up.
I am very glad that I read this book. It contained some thought provoking one liners. Don’t let the middle bit bore you (or the reader’s voice).

[The Literary Shed · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE FAITHFUL COUPLE opens in San Diego, in 1993, where twenty-something Neil is trying, somewhat half-heartedly, to chat up a girl he’s met in the hostel in which he’s staying. He’s unsuccessful, as he’s more interested in Adam, the young man sitting nearby, obviously eavesdropping. The girl wanders off, but Neil and Adam’s friendship begins. They embark on a road trip together and the events of one single night, and the decisions they make, serve to shape their relationship over the next eighteen years, binding them in a conspiracy of silence, shared secrets, remorse and regret.

From the very beginning, Miller sets up Neil and Adam as rivals. While to their American peers, the two young men probably appear very similar – university educated Brits, in their twenties, bumming around California – in reality, Adam and Neil come from very different backgrounds. Adam is privileged and entitled, resembling a ‘low rent Romantic poet’, Neil, in contrast, is from a much more humble background, his expectations of what life will bring low. Despite this, Adam notes that they are ‘similar yet different’ and that Neil is a person that he could measure himself by.

In California, initially at least, their rivalry takes the form of horseplay and the telling of tall tales, in which they assume other roles and lives, from hairdressers to masseurs. However, this quickly develops into a more dangerous game when the two men compete and egg each other on for the attentions of the very young Rose at a campsite in the Yosemite Valley.

‘Up till then their rivalry had been playful and polite, like a tennis knock-up with no score, kept in check by joint enterprises, curiosity and affection. This evening it was overt and raw. Rose was the contest more than she was the prize. Somewhere else, on another night, the discipline would have been arm-wrestling or Trivial Pursuit.’

At the heart of The Faithful Couple lies the relationship between friendship and guilt, as seen through Neil and Adam’s changing perceptions of that one event, both over time and in retrospect. Whereas, in 1993, the two men do not really understand what they have done, as time passes and they become more successful and have relationships and families of their own, the way in which they view that night alters, possibly as their own moral codes change, leading them to seek to understand what happened, and why, from the distance of time.

The Faithful Couple is predominantly about male friendship, though, a subject surprisingly too often overlooked in contemporary modern fiction. More than that, it is a love story, a celebration of male friendship in all its guises, based on a love that is, in many ways, stronger and more abiding than any other that the protagonists experience in their everyday lives.

Without a doubt, The Faithful Couple is a very welcome follow-up to Miller’s extremely successful first novel Snowdrops. The striking and evocative language, littered with pithy summations of character and location, coupled with the author’s quiet and intelligent observations of the changing economic and social landscape of London, in particular, up to 2011, all help sustain our interest.

This is a beautifully written book and a thoughtful and thought-provoking examination of male friendship.


The Faithful Couple by A.D. Miller • Published by Abacus 4 February 2016 • paperback • £8.99 • ISBN: 978-0-349-14058-2

This review is published as part of The Faithful Couple's blog tour.
See http://www.theliteraryshed.co.uk/read...

[Michele Harrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting yet simple premise for a story - basically about the relationship between two male friends, who with a shared secret (albeit one that contains further secrets they keep from each other), that strangely shapes their lives and relationships, both with each other, and their significant others - parents, siblings, partners.... Beautiful writing - and such a sharp overview of the times from the early nineties to now. Oh how the rises and falls of ones fortune can influence the 'power position' one subconsiously holds within relationships as one climbs and slides on the ladder of life. What I found most intriguing - was that, for me, this book had the most insane underlying 'tension'. I can't say that I'm sure I even liked the characters much - at times, each were slightly endearing and others, appalling. But, I simply couldn't put it down once I got halfway. And the friendship was a direct reflection of that. This story just could have taken so many different turns, a slight twist of the pen, like fate - and some dark roads could have been explored. Which is, in itself, a lot like life - as this story so cleverly implies. Thought-provoking, to say the least.

Favourite paragraph :

"Or, if not her, could at least obliterate those few days of his life? If he were allowed to rewind and delete any thredd of the days he had lived, he would choose the three in Yosemite. His life could be three days shorter: that would be a fair exchange and settlement, surely. Or let him erase that one evening, just those few hours. To be able to go back and cancel a few hours in a whole life - was that really so unreasonable a request? Everybody should be entitled to that, he thought. At least to that."

I haven't been able to stop imagining, which hours I would choose to relinquish? How many people must be out there, who have, in a single moment, made a foolish mistake that has then defined them for life? How much would such a simple exchange mean for them too?

[Jeannie Zelos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Faithful Couple,  A.D. Miller

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  General Fiction

 The description of this was really intriguing and I was keen to begin. Sadly though for me it was a let down, just didn’t work.

All the while I was reading I felt I was waiting for something to happen. Even The Event when it occurred kind of passed me by, and it wasn’t until much later I realised they viewed it so differently, and it held such significance for both of them. It just seemed so petty, such a small thing to have such a huge impact on their lives for so long. 
The time goes on, they grow up and there’s the usual births and deaths, relationships, careers, all the myriad of things that make up the average life, and yet through it all this event seems to have a huge impact and  I just couldn’t see why. All that angst about it, blame laying and remembering words and nuances, exactly what was said or not, what should or shouldn’t have happened....They were young, and rightly or wrongly things do happen, no one’s perfect and I just felt it was a story created around a storm in a teacup event, something that should never had had such an impact on their lives considering everything else that could and did happen. They were a couple of kids, larking about, playing and enjoying life, exactly as they should have been at their age. To have something like that overshadow their lives and actions for so long- well, its sad.  

Its a story lots of readers love and that’s great, I’m glad for them but for me it just doesn’t work. Feels sort of hard going, forced and a difficult to get into read for me.

Stars: Two and a half, I wanted to like it more but....
 
ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers for honest review 

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of weeks ago I received an email about 'The Faithful Couple'. Although I don't normally read much literary novels, this one sounded very interesting. The reviews I read about this book were all raving, so I decided to give this one a try.

The first chapters of 'The Faithful Couple' were fun to read and really made me curious about the rest of the book. The characters were fun to read about and I enjoyed reading about the friendship between Adam and Neil. It was especially fun to read about how their friendship continued over the years. What started out as only one summer became a lifelong friendship, but definitely a weird one. Another plus for this book was the fact that I haven’t read many books about male friendship. That sure was fun to read about.

For the most part I did enjoy this book. But I also had some issues. For one I found some of the chapters a little dull and I easily lost my thoughts. It wasn’t that the writing was bad. I just felt like their where some chapters where not much was happening.
My other issue was that I didn't really got why Adam was so afraid to tell his secret. The 'secret' didn't really sound all that terrible.. At least not if you think about it from Neil's point of view. It would be terrible in my world! But Adam felt this guilt about something that really was Neil’s own choice.

Because the main part of this book was about the friendship between Adam and Neil, I did like it. And I definitely enjoyed reading about their journey. Especially since Adam and Neil both came from two very different worlds. It was interesting enough but missed a little depth.

Overall I enjoyed the read but expected a little more.

[Charlotte (Escapades of a Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviews can also be found on my blog Escapades of a Bookworm

I loved that this is a story about how friendship can change over time, roles can differ and what was once important no longer matters, but there are still some things that will haunt us for years after. An event in California is one of them.

Unfortunately for this book, the plot line is impossible to describe and talk about without seeming impossibly dull and slow. Yet, somehow the pace of the narrative, the characterisation and plot kept me intrigued. There was something compelling about the story that drove me on to read more.

I didn’t really like Neil or Adam. Both are egotistical and attention seeking. Both have an inferiority complex. Despite this I was drawn to Neil. I want him to success and for everything to be well for him. I wanted to know how both reacted to events and wanted to know what they would do next.

The underlying, and perhaps most important, theme of this book is the secrets we keep, the trivial, unimportant things that dominant our lives and can take over our minds. It is the effect of one secret in particular that dominates the story and the effect it has on the two men is distinctly different despite both having differing roles.

This is a satisfying tale on the meaning of friendship that will leave you thinking long after reading.

[Craig Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Hmmm...parts of this book I was into, especially early on. The friendship between Adam and Neil was interesting, and then the moment happened that propelled the rest of the book, which was fine. And then...it seemed to stall. And stall. And man oh man did it get long winded. And the book is only 288 pages? It felt like 500. But I did care enough to finish it, although the ending was frustrating, too. Also, I'm not sure if the book was just written on a level that was way above my A-D-D-ness, but I kept getting lost on what was happening. The British lingo might have added to it, but I felt like the author wrote a paragraph, then went through and used a thesaurus to change half of the words into these huge complex words that nobody uses. I am all for looking up and learning new words, but geez...I finally just gave up. When you're reading a page and the text is so vague that you're constantly wondering what's going on in the plot AND verbiage, that's...not good. At least, not fun, for me. It could be just my lack of world knowledge, but I struggled with this one.

[Emma Monfries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unputdownable! I loved this book and ignored everything and everyone to finish it. If you described the plot to someone, it would sound ever so dull, but the expert writing, pace, and characterisation makes the reader positively fall enthralled into the narrative. The two main characters are flawed egotists, desperate for attention and approval, but despite my dislike of them, I was drawn to them and just had to know what they would do next. Ultimately, the novel will speak to any reader about an intense friendship that may have been kept or lost, for better or for worse, and we all have one of those in our history. This author nails the essence of the foibles of masculinity, guilt, relationships, marriage, parenthood, lowered expectations and coming face to face with the self. It sure is one book that does a lot. Don't expect the ending that you want, but it is well worth the read. Highly recommended.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please don’t be deluded by the blurb or the one word reviews on the cover of this book. It is NOT a literary thriller, frenemy or otherwise. This is an examination of a male friendship tested by events over the course of two decades; rivalries, mistakes and regrets.
It was readable but mediocre; the original incident that defines Adam and Neil’s relationship isn’t serious enough to warrant the angst it causes, especially to Adam, who spends much of the story wringing his hands in existential dread. The plotting meanders, the characters irritate and nothing is resolved, apart from an all’s well that ends well final page which ignores the fate of Neil’s seriously ill nephew (lest it spoil the rekindled bromance).
If this had been a thriller, it would have potentially been a hundred times better. Maybe I’m not the target audience for a book about two blokes lamenting over each other.

[Jo_Scho_Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. A friendship formed on a terrible act that occurred when Adam and Neil were young. That was the premise which sounded quite intriguing and interesting. Wrong! I struggled through 54 pages, found ‘the act’ to not be such a massive event after all, and just couldn’t take any more of the bland and boring dialogue and plot, (the latter of which there wasn’t much). I read a couple of reviews which suggested that the plot doesn’t improve and confirmed all my current assumptions about the book.

My 2020 policy is to ditch the books I’m struggling with rather than ploughing through them, they usually never pick up. So here is book no 2 in the DNF pile. Disappointing.

[Eugene Novikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peters out a little, but goddammit, it is so rare that a novel (or any work of fiction) genuinely takes friendship as its subject -- never mind treating it so earnestly and thoughtfully -- that I couldn't get too upset with the underwhelming home stretch. A really lovely book about how people come to be important in our lives and what that really means, especially in the absence of societally-defined familial obligations. I'd also recommend Miller's "Snowdrops," which is terrific in a totally different way.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me of a David Nicholls - it had elements of both Us and One Day - but with slightly more edge. Readable and intelligent too, this tale of regret, ambition and male friendship is shot through with insights on class, money, society and, above all, what can make or break the bonds between friends. The two main characters are extremely well drawn (the supporting women characters less so) and the themes of regret and betrayal are explored with a light touch. Very enjoyable.

[Sian · Rating 3 out of 5]

While A.D Miller is a good writer, this story left me cold. At its heart is toxic masculinity embedded in the relationship of two male friends, Neil & Adam. Neither of these men are likeable characters and the decision to follow their relationship over a period of two decades following an incident which is central to the story resulted in the plot losing steam.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dithered about whether this is a four or five star read for me...actually should be four and-a-half. Fantastic read, unusual subject matter, just a couple of nonessential plotlines that remained unresolved at the rather sudden end!

[Clair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four because the writing is quite lovely in places. Not 5 because there's a definite lull in the middle of the book. Could it have been a bit shorter and tighter? Possibly.