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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
I was reluctant to read a book that starts with a child snatching. But I needn't have been. It's essential to the character and the novel, but it's not gut-wrenching, nor does McEwan lean in or manipulate the reader. To me, this is a book about time, the passage of time, and more important perceptions of time and of the passage of time. And about perceptions of time in childhood and at the precipice of adolescence. It's malleable. It goes slowly, it goes quickly, and who's to say it isn't, actually, variable? Indeed, surely this is why one character is a physicist who studies time and loses our protagonist when she wanders into a very personal monologue about relativity. I sympathized most, oddly enough, with his friend Charles, who retreats from London politics to the country; the jacket says "a descent into madness that is a result of a childhood never known," but that's to avoid spoiling, surely, as I don't think it was really a descent into madness. Here we are, retreating from the world a bit, cultivating our own garden, during the pandemic, and trying to keep the rest of the world and its politics and nonsense at bay. Who's to say Charles isn't onto something? (You'll have to read to see what you think.)
McEwan has an amazing ability to dig into a range of emotional and mental states and lay them bare -- utterly unvarnished and real. Stephen's mental state through the book -- it's several years after Kate's disappearance, this is not the period of immediate anguish -- is so very real and true and hard to read (not heartbreaking, just hard to read because it's so real and honest). How? Is McEwan a master empath? He was, what, 40 when he wrote this? I'm reminded of a recently published interview with the actress Emma Thompson, who says she never studied acting and is simply really good at empathy. She can feel the feelings. Perhaps that is McEwan's skill, but then how do you stay alive and sane through a career of not only writing it but feeling it all? And if that's not his skill, then how does he do this?
McEwan has an amazing ability to dig into a range of emotional and mental states and lay them bare -- utterly unvarnished and real. Stephen's mental state through the book -- it's several years after Kate's disappearance, this is not the period of immediate anguish -- is so very real and true and hard to read (not heartbreaking, just hard to read because it's so real and honest). How? Is McEwan a master empath? He was, what, 40 when he wrote this? I'm reminded of a recently published interview with the actress Emma Thompson, who says she never studied acting and is simply really good at empathy. She can feel the feelings. Perhaps that is McEwan's skill, but then how do you stay alive and sane through a career of not only writing it but feeling it all? And if that's not his skill, then how does he do this?
After having lost count of the number of times I have read raving reviews of McEwan's books and absolutely loving Atonement for its story and adaptation (I'm not sure how far it is from the book), I picked up my first ever Ian McEwan book: and oh I so very much loved it! For me, the fulfilling experience of reading 'The Child in Time was more due to the enjoyment of language than the story, plot, or development. McEwan is so terrific a writer that I often read and re-read only a couple of sentences to soak in the warmth of his words.
The Child in Time follows the life of a father, Stephen Lewis, who loses his three y/o daughter to abduction while he is at the billing counter of a supermarket. In a matter of seconds and his daughter, Kate, goes missing. With the striking incident transpiring within the first few pages, one might expect the story to be wound around grief, loss, and lament until it's not; it's so much more multi-dimensional. As a government committee member on child care, Stephen examines his wearied relationship with his parents and now-distant wife in a series of delusional episodes during the committee meetings and mundane activities. And he probes his relationships with different people as a 'child in time' in such illusory occurrences.
The narrative is interspersed with multiple timelines where Stephen digs through his dynamics with different people back and forth in time, so it gets a little demanding. The way McEwan explores such a multi-tiered complex theme is brilliant. He lays bare the heart of a grieving man who has almost lost every meaningful relationship. He peels it layer by layer, with detailings adorned heavily by beautiful prose and poetic writing. If you are okay with a well-written but heavy narrative that demands your time and attention, give this one a go. Also it’s Ian McEwan, so why not!
The Child in Time follows the life of a father, Stephen Lewis, who loses his three y/o daughter to abduction while he is at the billing counter of a supermarket. In a matter of seconds and his daughter, Kate, goes missing. With the striking incident transpiring within the first few pages, one might expect the story to be wound around grief, loss, and lament until it's not; it's so much more multi-dimensional. As a government committee member on child care, Stephen examines his wearied relationship with his parents and now-distant wife in a series of delusional episodes during the committee meetings and mundane activities. And he probes his relationships with different people as a 'child in time' in such illusory occurrences.
The narrative is interspersed with multiple timelines where Stephen digs through his dynamics with different people back and forth in time, so it gets a little demanding. The way McEwan explores such a multi-tiered complex theme is brilliant. He lays bare the heart of a grieving man who has almost lost every meaningful relationship. He peels it layer by layer, with detailings adorned heavily by beautiful prose and poetic writing. If you are okay with a well-written but heavy narrative that demands your time and attention, give this one a go. Also it’s Ian McEwan, so why not!
reflective
Made it over halfway and I'm giving myself permission to stop reading. It's terrible. Fairly disappointed since it was my first book from a supposedly personalized book subscription service I joined.
McEwan's novels all seem to resolve in the last few pages. This one was no exception, but, even with the resolution, the story itself remained disjointed. Perhaps that was intentional, as grief is often disjointed, but it still didn't quite work for me.
Niet zijn beste, maar steekt nog steeds boven de schrijfsels van vele anderen uit. Fantastisch einde --hoewel ge het een beetje ziet aankomen, blijft de manier waarop McEwan beschrijft bijna ongeëvenaard.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this story could have been much more interesting than it was. I feel like a lot of the plot got lost in all these unnecessary details, but I could also somewhat see underneath for what he was striving for. I'm not really sure what he was trying to say, but I didn't necessarily dislike this book, so for that purpose, I'm giving it a 3 stars - a neutral rating.
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes