Pistache
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Review
Praise for "Human Traces":
"Faulks emerges as a writer with muscle, with affinities to the great Europeans: Thomas Mann, Balzac, Stendhal . . . what gives Human Traces its pathos and power is the sense of our abiding frailty before life's intransigent mysteries."
--"The Times"
"An erudite and lyrical exposition of early psychiatry which is as illuminating as a floodlight in the dark . . . Human Traces improves on all its predecessors in its scale, its complexity and its scholarship."
-"Independent on Sunday"
"Faulks emerges as a writer with muscle, with affinities to the great Europeans: Thomas Mann, Balzac, Stendhal . . . what gives Human Traces its pathos and power is the sense of our abiding frailty before life's intransigent mysteries."
--"The Times"
"An erudite and lyrical exposition of early psychiatry which is as illuminating as a floodlight in the dark . . . Human Traces improves on all its predecessors in its scale, its complexity and its scholarship."
-"Independent on Sunday"
The Times
'Faulks picks up the big names of the Western canon and plonks
them down mercilessly in the most unexpected places'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
them down mercilessly in the most unexpected places'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There is no doubt that Faulks is brilliant. This little collection of pastiche/piss-takes (hence the title) proves that more than ever. he takes average occurences and uses famous narrative styles/voices to match these. Ian Fleming doing James Bond in a supermarket is priceless... but the prize goes to his version of Dan Brown going to cahspoint. Hilarious and says in a more concise, witty and accurate way what thousands of newspaper critics have been trying to say about Brown for years.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's strange to think of the author of Birdsong turning his hand to this sort of thing. It's a very short book of literary parodies and indeed it's difficult not to smile at Dan Brown at the cashpoint, Martin Amis's first day at Hogwarts or Kipling's 'If...' rewritten for today's journalists. The trouble is that smiling is all you do - it's not really 'laugh out loud' funny.
There has been a certain amount of precedent for this kind of spoof, from Craig Brown's regular 'Diary' column in Private Eye to John Crace's 'Digested Read' in The Guardian. Both have led to books of collections and both are as funny, or frequently funnier, than this.
Clever, certainly, but somehow not quite funny enough.
There has been a certain amount of precedent for this kind of spoof, from Craig Brown's regular 'Diary' column in Private Eye to John Crace's 'Digested Read' in The Guardian. Both have led to books of collections and both are as funny, or frequently funnier, than this.
Clever, certainly, but somehow not quite funny enough.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this in a remaindered bookshop a few weeks ago and picked it up immediately, thinking of the amazing parodies that Faulks used to produce (seemingly with little or no preparation) on Radio 4's "The Write Stuff". This is a handy collection of the best of them, along with a few that have been specially written for this compilation. As others have pointed out, there's some degree of unevenness here, though it'd be churlish to ask for everything to be up at the standard of Dan Brown at the cashpoint, Noel Coward's lyric about Big Brother, or James Bond's visit to the supermarket. I relished the former so greatly that I've practically learnt it off by heart; having been so moved by Brown's uncanny ability to use the wrong word almost all the time that I tried my own hand at a parody (in my review of "Angels And Demons" on this site), I felt I wanted to reach through the pages to shake hands with Faulks as he struck exactly the right note in this hilarious piece. This little book doesn't take long to read at all, but you'll be smiling for some time after putting it down.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ideal for a busy holiday
I'd read and enjoyed a number of Sebastian Faulks' novels and bought Pistache as something to read on a city break in Portugal. Read more
Published 12 days ago by johnindinan
sebastian faulks
as I have read all the bookks listed and enjoyed every one it seems pointless to still have them on file. Read more
Published 8 months ago by greatgardenia
The Right Stuff
Sebastian Faulks is an engaging writer; my wife regularly comments that she enjoys his stories and learns something as well. Read more
Published 8 months ago by RR Waller
Quite sublime
Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery. It's sometimes also said to be the refuge of those who lack original talent. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jeremy Bevan
Let's be polite and call this book a pastiche
Lovely parodies of great literature and authors. What I recognised was brilliant, but I can't give 5/5 because my knowledge of literature isn't wide enough for me to know how... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Anne
Excellent Piss Take
This is a book for someone with a good knowledge of English Literature and a good sense of humour. It is clever,witty and sometimes extremely funny. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mrs. A. F. Fasken
Still giggling!
Saw Sebastian Faulks at Latituide Festival where he did an 'audience with...' show. Really good, so I bought Pistache (in case you haven't realised, it is pronounced 'piss take')... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr. A. J. Moore
Radio quiz show in a book
The book is a collection of stories on incongruous subjects "in the style of..." various authors, which show Sebastian Faulks' lighter side, as displayed on radio. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Robert Alexander
Pistach-Pi*takes
Came to me as a 'recommened read' by a friend.
I had to read it from cover to cover in one go. Absolutely a hoot. Read more
I had to read it from cover to cover in one go. Absolutely a hoot. Read more
Published 23 months ago by P. H. W. Cracknell
A masterclass in wit
OK, so this is top level showing off by Sebastian Faulks, but he can be forgiven since this little book contains some of the most perceptive and funny parodies of literature that... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2010 by Platts Green
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