Faith, Hope and Carnage Book

Faith, Hope and Carnage is a book, culled from more than forty hours of interviews between the singer-songwriter and sometime actor Nick Cave and the journalist Sean O’Hagen.

As well as his music, with both the Bad Seeds his various collaborations with stars such as Kylie Minogue, Cave’s music is often dark, brooding, we also learn about his deep faith in both religion, and life and people and although elements of this come across in the book, Cave also comes across as warm, witty and deeply concerned with the state of the world, with music, and faith.

The conversation is wide-ranging, but it really focuses on Cave’s life, following the death of his son Arthur, and the deeply felt album, Ghosteen that followed it. We learn something about his songwriting process and what keeps him going as a creative force.

Although his career started in the 1970s, Cave has not had many big hits to his name (a bit like other acts such as Van Morrison) his songwriting process, and the fact that he and the Bad Seeds have been able to keep going, as both a unit of people and as a creative force are testament to how much his fans can appreciate his work.

The conversations are often interesting, landing on salient facts, and finding Cave in a reflective mood. As a recently bereft father at the time of the book’s creation the scars are still raw (as they will always be) he has been able to rely on his strong family bonds, the support of the Bad Seeds to deliver Ghosteen, perhaps the most critically adored of all of his albums, and his faith in something beyond means that the book never becomes tedious, or relies too heavily on cliché.

The book is not just one for fans of Nick Cave; some knowledge of his music would help illuminate some of the text. Still, it offers a deep insight into the creative process, and what it takes to keep going in the light of the personal tragedy, and to keep chipping away at their creative life, hoping that the next song will be one to provide some vital illumination.