Faithless

by John L. Williams

Tough and tender, Faithless reflects the cool edginess of London today. Like the London novelists that have preceded him -- Patrick Hamilton, Iain Sinclair, Nick Hornby -- John Williams captures the London of his time: a London where keeping the faith takes you nowhere fast.

168 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a great job of capturing London in the post-punk days of 1983. The lead character, Jeff, is an ex-saxophonist now working at a used record store (a la High Fidelity). He's drifting aimlessly, trying to figure out what happened to punk, and what's coming next. Some shit goes down, a co-worker is killed, he's besotted by a woman who keeps coming and going from his life, and his life drifts in and out of contact with an old bandmate, turned semi-big time star. Chock full of bars, junkies, and music industry types, the plot is interesting enough, but the main attraction is the sense of time and place Williams imparts.

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short novel with loads of good pop culture references. A quick and entertaining read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1997, this is mainly set in 1983 with a framing story in 1994. Jeff is a listless young man, working in a record shop and knocking around in a post-punk London that is on the cusp of a major change that will either take him with it or leave him high and dry. He fancies Frank (Francesca) but she loves Ross, Jeff’s ex-bandmate and now on the verge of the big time and when his friend Neville from the record shop is murdered, Jeff decides to try and blackmail who he thinks is responsible, with his smack-addicted friend Mac. There are more friends and personalities who pop up now and again too and, of course, London is a major character herself, especially Camden.
The story is very loosely structured - I suppose you could say it’s a thriller, but even this literary novel kind of forgets the plot from time-to-time - and Williams chronicles the changes of our capital though, on occasion, it does feel a bit like “well this was here once and that was there…” I enjoyed it and found it readable though I’m not entirely sure why (I was 14 in ’83 and hadn’t been to London on my own by then, so missed most of what he’s writing about), because Jeff is not an engaging character though his relationship with Frank is well put together.
Had I discovered this when it was first published - and remembering my reading habits from the time - I’d have probably loved this then but it didn’t quite fully connect me now, which is a shame. Recommended, all the same.

[Andrew Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never given such a high rating to a book with such a terrible ending. It completely loses its way as a story.

But. But. It evokes a feeling of a time. It takes about real places and the way they were. If you were around those places and those sort of people at that sort of time you will recognise so much of this. And for much of the book it does a great job of evoking those things for people who might recognise them.

Read the first half. It’s great. Read the second half if you like, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!