A Fool's Alphabet

by Sebastian Faulks

The events of Pietro Russell’s life are told in 26 chapters. From A-Z, each chapter is set in a different place and reveals a fragment of his story. As his memories flicker back and forth through time in his search for a resolution to the conflicts of his life, his story gradually unfolds.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Novels, British Literature, Literature, Romance

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Sebastian Faulks is a British novelist, journalist, and broadcaster best known for his acclaimed historical novels set in France, including The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong, and Charlotte Gray. Alongside these, he has written contemporary fiction, a James Bond continuation novel (Devil May Care), and a Jeeves homage (Jeeves and the Wedding Bells). A former literary editor and journalist, Faulks gained widespread recognition with Birdsong, which solidified his literary reputation. He has also appeared regularly on British media, notably as a team captain on BBC Radio 4's The Write Stuff, and authored the TV tie-in Faulks on Fiction. Honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and appointed CBE for his services to literature, Faulks continues to publish widely, with The Seventh Son released in 2023.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fictional biography of travel photographer Pietro (Italian mother) Russell is broken down into 26 chapters, each named after a place, in alphabetical order from A to Z. This piece of literary fiction is quite interesting concept wise, and the writing as ever is top drawer. The chapters are completely out of order chronologically so learning about the cause and effects of Pietro's life is like a jigsaw and sometimes you read about the effect before the cause.

At a core level the book / story was captivating, until for me, I realise that Pietro's life is quite 'normal' and there are no real hidden surprises in it; although conversely it could be argued that that is another point of the story. A very high quality piece of literary fiction, with a great concept, however if felt to me, that the story was sacrificed to achieve these things. 7 out of 12.

2021 read

[Mike Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A return to one of my favourite authors. An unusual story of Pietro Russell born in 1950. An important year as it allows you to age him as his story is told through 26 chapters. Each with an Alphabet letter location - A to Z. Each in a different non consecutive year. So it rattles backwards and forwards.

Pietro becomes a photographer and this enables him to journey the world. A nice love story in which his life may have been different if he had stayed with an American girl. But hey ho. He has a wife and daughter and a rather uneventful life. The most laid back of the authors novels to date in my opinion. But a great writer for sure.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Sebastian Faulks. I loved the concept of this novel: 26 places in the world, alphabetically arranged in 26 chapters. I think this concept was based on something told early in the novel.

'Do you know the Fool's Alphbet?'

'What's that?'

'A for 'horses, B for mutton, C for yourself, D for dumb. [and it goes on thru Z]...

'It's just a phrase,' said his father. 'It's called that because it's funny, not because it's stupid.'

'When we were in North Africa during the war, a chap in my platoon called Padgett, who'd never been out of Yorkshire before, he noticed what funny names the places had. He said he wanted to spend a night in a place beginning with every letter of the alphabet before he died.'

Non-linear story-telling has never bothered me. I can attest that my own memory is not linear, that it jumps from childhood to yesterday and years between in no particular order. With all that, can you hear there is a 'but' coming? Yes, indeed. A very few pages before the end was He was finding it difficult to concentrate on the book. Exactly! For me, 26 chapters was a dozen or so too many. Yes, I know there are 26 letters in the alphabet, that following the concept there was no way to make it a dozen or fourteen. Still, it was too much moving around and the constantly changing time completely lost any continuity.

So I didn't enjoy the reading of this. Despite that statement, I think there is much of this that I will remember. One of the chapters has him with his grandfather, who was reminiscing about his war years. At age 12 or so, Pietro wasn't interested in history, he was interested in the future. [I'll try to remember this when I write to my great granddaughter!] Pietro's father was interested in the history of words. I learned that The Phoenicians, he said, had seen how signs could represent not just an idea, but a sound, and had developed Egyptian pictures so that an 's' was not only a snake but could indicate the noise made by one.

Still and all, this is a measly 3-stars. I'm sure for me, with Faulks, this is the bottom of the barrel and I'll not let it deter me from reading others by him.

[Catarina Abelha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit I went into this not sure if we're dealing with a fictionalised account of someone's life or a fictional character's life. It turns out it was the latter.
Of all the books by Faulks that I've read this one ranks last, but not because it's not an interesting concept, and the writing is still beautiful and profound! I think I just liked the others more 😅
The idea is to go through all of Pietro's big life chapters in alphabetical order. However, we jump in time back and forth learning about some events after they've already happened, and then learn how/when/where/why they happened. It was a bit hard to follow some events because of that.
I still really enjoyed the journey, Pietro is a very interesting character very introspective, and the writing was beautiful as always!
I'd still recommend it, but not as the first of Faulks' books.

[Cecily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Life story of an Anglo-Italian post-war baby who never quite belongs anywhere and is oddly unsympathetic for a main character. Each chapter refers to a different location, each starting with the next letter of the alphabet. Contrived, but cleverly unfolding tale - disjointed, though not confusing.

[Erin! · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit disorienting, since it’s told alphabetically and not chronologically, but I liked Pietro’s character too much to be too bothered. And the last chapter really drove the whole thing home, so perhaps that’s skewing my opinion, but I don’t care! I liked it. I’d love to read more by Sebastian Faulks, too; his writing is simply beautiful.

[El · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Sebastian Faulks and would count "Birdsong" as one of my favourite books but this book failed to hold my attention. Comprising 26 alphabetically-headed chapters, each one the name of a place significant to Pietro Russell, the protagonist, the novel time shifts throughout Pietro's life. I found this confusing at times and struggled to remember what age he now was. This might be because I was listening to the book and was thus unable to go back and check details but it meant that I never felt the steady flow of the work. Pietro also comes across as an unfinished character, neither good nor bad, strong nor weak, and I didn't engage with him at all. There was a fair bit of informative description (Paris Metro names and history; place names, etc) and I felt that these distracted from showing the depth that was needed to commit to the characters. If I had to summarise the feel of the book for me in one word I would offer "diluted". It needed more but failed to deliver. Disappointing.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I so wanted to finish this book as I thought the format was such an original and exciting idea.
The novel had 26 chapters, each chapter was a town and they were in alphabetical order. It told the story of Pietro's life, via all the places in the world he had spent time in. However the disjointedness didn't really work.
I am embarking on my own alphabetical place names story of my life. It will not be published, but I shall enjoy planning visits to my missing letters. Who knows, maybe I'll have to go to China for my X and Z place names....

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given up on this. Don't often do that and usually enjoy his stuff. Dull characters with no real sense of being invited to care about them.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I thought it’d be. It was rather stilted in its writing and the characters didn’t really flesh out enough that I learnt to care about them over the duration of the book.

[Ricky Bevins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is enjoyable but the concept of a fictional biography told alphabetically through place names never feels much more than an experiment and never a satisfying storytelling vehicle.

This conceit is often cheated anyway since a lot of storytelling is done through memories within chapters, so we never really only stay in one place in many of the chapters. Some chapters feature several places, with the titular place name feeling very arbitrary.

One of the least engaging books I've read - theres just so little to cling onto, narrarively speaking. I wanted to give it 2 stars but the craft here is impressive and there are some genuinely beautiful passages in the last 50 or so pages.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A for horses B for mutton C for yourself D for dumb E for brick F for vescence G for Police H for 'imself I for Novello J for Oranges K for restaurant L for Leather M for sis N for a penny
O for the wings of a dove P for comfort Q for a ticket R for mo S for Williams T for two U for me
V for la France W for money X for breakfast Y for mistress Z for breezes

A Fool's Alphabet is essentially a biography of a half-Italian half-English male, called Pietro. A biography with no real chronological order suggesting that we the reader are meant to be experiencing fragments of Pietro's memories.

There are 26 chapters each one representing a letter of the alphabet with each named after a different place scattered around the world, migrating in time as well as location. In many respects it could be argued that it is a bit like a travelogue or perhaps a collection of short stories with one central protagonist rather than a novel in the true sense.

This is the third of Faulk' s novels that I've read and always enjoy his writing style finding it elegant and descriptive without being overblown but whilst some chapters are particularly strong, others were less interesting. These I suspect will vary from reader to reader depending on their own experiences so I won't actually list my own preferences. Now, whilst I enjoyed the actual reading the words I fear that in the long run it will not be a book that will live long in the memory. Ultimately, I felt no real attachment to Pietro, it failed really transport me to these far flung places in my imagination and and found the overall message somewhat muddling . A little disappointing overall if truth be told.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faulks presumably expected me, the reader, to be interested in the main character, Pietro Russell, and therefore put together Pietro's life story which the novel disguises, as it is written in short chapters that have a year and geographical location attached to them. The locations' first letters form the alphabet as the contents page shows. The idea is novel; I at first liked it, although it grew increasingly difficult to work out whether Pietro was in the place or somebody told him a story about the place, or whether the place mattered at all. It seems to me that in his adherence to the idea of different locations the writer has confused himself, has lost sight of Pietro, and so did I.
Having said that, I still think that Faulks writes particularly well about war (two chapters in this novel).

[Renee Cuthbertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I come back to Sebastian Faulks after a while between books, I wonder why I bother reading anything else. His use of language is brilliant and the questions that he creates in the minds of his readers are genuinely mindblowing.

[Gerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having previously read and enjoyed Sebastian Faulks' novels, I was looking forward to this one but sadly it just didn't work for me.

The first chapter, Anzio Italy, 1944 is excellent and appears to set the book out on a good footing. It revolves around the struggles in Italy of Corporal Raymond Russell during WW2 and who, during his second serious injury, is placed with an Italian family to recuperate. While there he meets a young woman who will become his wife and they produce a son.

Subsequent chapters follow the progress of the son, Pietro through various stages of his live, his schooling, jobs of work and relationships.

Each chapter in the book is the name of a place and each chapter is ordered alphabetically from A-Z, all inclusive. But of course, it would be improbable at best that these would follow consecutively so the timeline moves around to fall into line with the next letter of the alphabet: e.g Dorking 1963, followed by Evanston 1985, followed by Fulham 1964 and so on.

Before I was half way through I began to find this all a bit tedious and stopped caring, or trying to fathom out the age of Pietro at any given point, or what we had been told of his life until that point or beyond (i.e. what was to come).

So in the end I gave up on it. I did quite enjoy the writing but that wasn't enough to keep me engaged. Perhaps if it had been a series of short stories I might have stuck with it but in the end, I decided to abort and move on to something more enjoyable.

[Anne Leeming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sebastian Faulkes writes well, but this isn’t one of his best books. The approach is unusual and interesting - telling 26 tales from Pietri’s life in a mixed order by time. Forcing the story into so many parts to meet the requirements of one tail for every letter of the alphabet has made the book overlong and somewhat contrived.

[Redfox5 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much to say about this one. Actually finished it, unlike that other Faulks book I tried. Its more like a collection of short stories and I'm not a massive fan of them. Its all told out of order. I thought the last chapter was sweet and liked the one where he falls in love with Laura but the rest are forgettable. Not one I would chose to read again.

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that you get a strong feeling started as a bit of an indulgent idea in the author's mind, a good concept without any real oomph to it. For me, it opened well, but quickly tailed off, and I must admit I skim read quite a bit of it. I didn't buy into the main character, and found the jumping about in time, and the way the alphabet was forced into the place names, quite irritating. I've read a few of Sebastian Faulks's books recently, and they haven't worked for me, yet I used to really love him. I have to conclude my tastes have changed quite a bit in recent years.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much work and not interesting enough to bother.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The library swooped and grabbed it back before I had finished it but I was finding it intriguing. No wonder lots of people have it on hold.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arranging a story via place names in alphabetical order is a bit of a gimmick and, although Pietro's story does emerge, the shifting time periods, presumably necessitated by the imposed requirement to follow an alphabetical order of place names, do cause some confusion. I found myself referring back to previous chapters to see what had come before and what after the one I was reading.

Towards the end of the book there is a reflection on the alphabet which casts some light on the genesis of Faulk's tale. I quote: "The alphabet was the means by which a place became articulate. Without a name, it was no more than a collection of buildings or a natural landmark. But although places were given this access to articulacy, their single utterance was void of meaning. Even names whose derivation was clear, like Newtown, did not reveal the character of the place. A given management of letters from the alphabet broke the silence, but meaning could be grasped only by some more patient human process."

But if the objective was to reveal the character of these 26 places, it has not been achieved as the glimpses in each chapter are too brief. More revealing is the development of the characters, especially Pietro himself, although his father, mother, grandfather and even Laura also emerge from the fragments. Yet, the fragments do not make a whole, it is rather like a jigsaw puzzle where some pieces are missing. What happened before Laura left Pietro at Watsonville in 1974? The parting was not acrimonious yet it was traumatic enough for Pietro to result in what seems to have been a nervous breakdown.

There is some high quality writing in this book, particularly on Faulk's familiar territory of France and Italy during war time, but the overall impact is of a story constrained by form. The contrived ending leaves one feeling more as if a trick has been played, the rabbit has been pulled out of the hat, rather than arousing further empathy with the main character.

[Huw Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is nothing wrong with this book - but it just doesn't soar to some of the places you expect a Sebastian Faulks novel to soar to.

The mechanism for delivering the book is interesting - 26 places, introduced alphabetically, where a different piece of mosaic making up the life of Pietro Russell is introduced. But don't be thrown by the device - it doesn't add, but nor does it detract, from the book as a whole.

For a book which time shifts so easily, and which shifts narrative viewpoints fairly regularly, the plot is reasonably easy to follow. There is no great sophistry to it, despite the apparent sophistication of the mechanism.

Maybe what disappoints most is the main protagonist himself - usually in a Faulks novel, you find yourself totally engrossed in the main character, whether you like, loathe or are just fascinated by the development of that character. Pietro Russell is a little bit of a non event though - you don't really like him, you don't really dislike him, and you don't really care that much for how things turn out for him.

It's a pleasant enough read though, and where his characterization may not reach the heights it does in many of his other books, his sense of place is often very well developed, even though the focus jumps so radically with every chapter.

Glad I read it, doesn't stop me still thinking of Sebastian Faulks as one of our very best contemporary authors, but this one won't be added to the "re-read" list along with most of his others.

[Georgie-who-is-Sarah-Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent, well-written, and held me for a day. But if I hadn't been on holiday, would I have finished this? Probably not. The central conceit - Pietro discovers himself over time, though the reader is introduced to him in discontinuous episodes set in 26 locations (one for each letter of the alphabet) - seems to dictate the structure and tone of the novel at the expense of sympathy for Pietro himself. Each chapter is fairly self-contained, and reads more as a short story than a piece in a continuous whole. It's like one of those jigsaws where each piece is a famous painting in its own right, but, assembled, the whole is something other - except, here, even at the end, I haven't had that "Ah - so that's what it is!" moment that would make sense of what came before.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a harmless and mildly diverting experiment. I've read a few of Faulks's novels - Birdsong was extraordinary - and I think he is a good writer. But he likes luxuriating in immensely detailed descriptions of banal things, apparently just for the sake of it, such as this account of a metro ride: "the modern wagons rolled on their rubber wheels, chasing each other across the city with an eyeblink between them, their wire conductor brushes circling briskly against the charged rail." Isn't that how all metros work?! Sadly he provides less detail in fleshing out the emotions of the protagonist here, who appears a bit joyless throughout.

[Jakethackeray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't really into this - I think perhaps I expected something to happen and there really isn't an end or big reveal as such.
Faulks' writing is as good as ever, perhaps I just didn't read this at the right time. It does exactly what it says on back, chronicling Pietro's life by locations from A to Z. I didn't mind the jumping back and forth at all but I think it just added to my expectation of something to be revealed when actually it was Pietro's story, not unremarkable but a life chronicle nevertheless which wasn't unusually remarkable.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the idea, but I thought at times the book was a bit chaotic, especially because even though the chapters are supposed to take place in a certain place, the flashbacks would take place somewhere else all together. I also had a hard time keeping track of the age of the protagonist. I feel this book could greatly benefit from a basic timeline with places and major events, like birth, school years etcetera. If carefully constructed, it could benefit the reader, without giving away the plot.

[Graham Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a clever book, but somewhat bloodless. It's an exploration of the connection between place, character, memory and the impossibility of mapping human character. The life story of the protagonist is randomly chopped up and re-assembled. The writing is moving and striped back. Unfortunately the protagonist is pretty ordinary. That may be the point - documenting the extraordinary nature of the ordinary man - but its just not a very gripping read.

[Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy Faulks's writing; and Birdsong, in particular, was marvellous. However, I just couldn't get into this novel. It jumped around far too much, to no worthwhile benefit in my opinion, and I found each chapter being located in a different alphabetical place, contrived and unnecessary. I felt I knew little more about Pietro at the end of the novel than I did at the beginning; and I cared even less. Disappointing.

[Luke Burch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a story of a family, told over 26 locations between 1914-1991. It touches on a number of themes such as war, identity, relationships, loss etc.

Unfortunately I found this book tedious. I wasn’t able to invest in the characters at all. I nearly gave up halfway but struggled through to the end, which wasn’t really worth it. I’m a huge fan of Birdsong but this doesn’t even come close to that level. Instantly forgettable.

[Bachyboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to finish the year with. Beautifully crafted with 26 chapters, it traces through the alphabet in place names which concern the main character, Pietro Russell, half Italian. It's a lovely story and although it leaps through time periods, it really works and you don't lose sight of Pietro even though it travels through generations. I really liked it.