A Fool's Alphabet

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.

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 show more 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. show less

Clever story. A life told through the alphabet, with stories told from the places Pietro linked with. As such a bit episodic and found that I checked the contents page to find out where it fitted. Enjoyed it.

I enjoyed this eventually, and found the disjointed chronological order made perfect sense in the end. A beautiful book to evoke the reader's own memories, especially enhanced if some of the descriptions of places resonate with your own memories of them. Y was the better ending for me than Z though!

Each letter of the alphabet, each capter, represents the name of a place in Pietro's history. The places do not pop up in normal life sequence but flashback to pivotal scenarios. Early and fairy experimental in Faulk's career. At first, hard to decipher a narrative, but worth sticking with as when the stoy clicks it has the more power for the format.

The cover of my copy, bought on a spree at a used bookstore, implied it to be YA - which would have made it an entirely different, and more meaningful, book. This just didn't engage me, sorry.