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stephxsu's review against another edition
4.0
For a creative writing class in college, I was asked to write a short story for the prompt of a character's entire life story. This turned out to be harder than it seemed. Fiction takes, for the most part, a close look at one significant portion or strand of a person's life. With the exception of obituaries and biographies/memoirs, it is difficult to make meaning out of telling a person's entire life story (and even obituaries struggle to do so).
Gosh I am in love with Jo Walton, authoress. She bends genres. Her books are labeled sci-fi, but they don't have the bang-flash of intergalactic wars and hyperspeed-capable spaceships. Instead, Walton takes the mundane life and puts a twist on it so that we are forced to think about how we define "meaning" and "significance." If you didn't know the premise before you began reading--a confused old lady in a nursing home remembers living two extremely different lives--you might've found it difficult to press on. The disadvantage of writing about an entire life (let alone two) is that there's so much to cover that you inevitably feel like you're missing out on some deeper understanding of the character(s). Walton is skilled enough to mostly prevent this: there's a lot to cover about both Pat and Tricia's lives, yes, but all in all they are both lives that are fulfilling, lives worth living.
That's one of two things that impresses me most about MY REAL CHILDREN. I thought that one of the women's lives would be automatically more appealing than the other's, but that's not the case. Both Pat and Tricia's lives have their ups and their downs, their triumphs and their tragedies, their pros and their cons. Just when you think Pat's definitely got the better deal, Tricia's life surges forward in terms of fulfillment. And when heartbreak befalls Tricia, Pat's life seems better. Just like any good work of fiction should do, reading about Pat and Tricia's lives got me to thinking about our lives in general. I used to think there was one way I wanted to live my life, and to choose the other path would make it lose meaning. But MY REAL CHILDREN made me realize that meaning can be found in any lifestyle--and, conversely, just because you're living the dream doesn't mean you've got it all.
And even after all that thinking and philosophizing, Walton still manages to throw us for a loop at the very end of the book. Here's the second thing that I find so impressive about MY REAL CHILDREN: it gets us to think about the bigger picture. Like, what if the "butterfly effect" was a real thing? What if, when it came down to it, our greatest contribution to society was not our deliberate choices, but rather the actions that we forgot we even performed the moment we did them? Would Albert Einstein's mother have reared him differently if she knew she was raising the boy who'd grow up to change the entire field of physics? What if the difference between an okay society and a better one hinged upon your throwaway action of giving a homeless guy your spare change on a cold night?
With MY REAL CHILDREN, Jo Walton took a challenging story concept--the entire life story of two characters--and spun it into a bittersweet montage of living that left me thinking about how to live my life more deliberately.
Gosh I am in love with Jo Walton, authoress. She bends genres. Her books are labeled sci-fi, but they don't have the bang-flash of intergalactic wars and hyperspeed-capable spaceships. Instead, Walton takes the mundane life and puts a twist on it so that we are forced to think about how we define "meaning" and "significance." If you didn't know the premise before you began reading--a confused old lady in a nursing home remembers living two extremely different lives--you might've found it difficult to press on. The disadvantage of writing about an entire life (let alone two) is that there's so much to cover that you inevitably feel like you're missing out on some deeper understanding of the character(s). Walton is skilled enough to mostly prevent this: there's a lot to cover about both Pat and Tricia's lives, yes, but all in all they are both lives that are fulfilling, lives worth living.
That's one of two things that impresses me most about MY REAL CHILDREN. I thought that one of the women's lives would be automatically more appealing than the other's, but that's not the case. Both Pat and Tricia's lives have their ups and their downs, their triumphs and their tragedies, their pros and their cons. Just when you think Pat's definitely got the better deal, Tricia's life surges forward in terms of fulfillment. And when heartbreak befalls Tricia, Pat's life seems better. Just like any good work of fiction should do, reading about Pat and Tricia's lives got me to thinking about our lives in general. I used to think there was one way I wanted to live my life, and to choose the other path would make it lose meaning. But MY REAL CHILDREN made me realize that meaning can be found in any lifestyle--and, conversely, just because you're living the dream doesn't mean you've got it all.
And even after all that thinking and philosophizing, Walton still manages to throw us for a loop at the very end of the book. Here's the second thing that I find so impressive about MY REAL CHILDREN: it gets us to think about the bigger picture. Like, what if the "butterfly effect" was a real thing? What if, when it came down to it, our greatest contribution to society was not our deliberate choices, but rather the actions that we forgot we even performed the moment we did them? Would Albert Einstein's mother have reared him differently if she knew she was raising the boy who'd grow up to change the entire field of physics? What if the difference between an okay society and a better one hinged upon your throwaway action of giving a homeless guy your spare change on a cold night?
With MY REAL CHILDREN, Jo Walton took a challenging story concept--the entire life story of two characters--and spun it into a bittersweet montage of living that left me thinking about how to live my life more deliberately.
abbeyhar103's review against another edition
2.0
This was much different than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a sci-fi double world exploration, but it was essentially just a telling of one person's life going two different ways. And also not very well written (I LOVED another book by her). Tried to do too much - tackling concepts like the butterfly effect in the last two pages of the book. Also, the whole thing read like an epilogue to a different book - skimming through years and highlighting only the big occasions.
casimiera's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
lsparrow's review against another edition
4.0
I love when I get to the end of a book and find that one of my favourite authors (in this case Ursula Le Guin). I am relatively new to this alternate history genre and it is a genre I am into reading more.
I loved the themes of love, choices, feminism, gay rights, motherhood, aging and family.
I loved the themes of love, choices, feminism, gay rights, motherhood, aging and family.
ordinarypickle's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This was so unexpectedly beautiful
amlibera's review against another edition
4.0
Oh man, this book. Jo Walton always surprises me, does a little bit more than I ever expected and perhaps just a little bit less than I wanted. This book plays with the "Sliding Doors" trope but in so many more ways than anyone else does.
samstillreading's review against another edition
5.0
My Real Children looks like an innocent book, but boy does it pack a punch between its pages! If you enjoyed Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life or Claire North’s The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, you’re in for a treat. This book explores two different lives lived by Patricia – but which of them is real? It also becomes more interesting by having different versions of world events and their effects. I could not put this book down (and should not have, as I ended up at a party dressed completely inappropriately a la Bridget Jones. Perhaps in my alternate life, it didn’t happen and I pulled an all-nighter on My Real Children). It was refreshing and engaging, plus I’ve discovered a new favourite author who knows just when to pull the heartstrings.
The book begins at the end of Patricia’s life in 2015. She knows she’s in a nursing home and she knows she has dementia. She’s either confused or very confused according to her carers. Patricia remembers a lot of odd things, it’s almost like she lived two different lives. The book then splits into alternate chapters of Patricia’s two lives, which are the same until she has to make a decision whether to marry Mark after university. In one life, she says yes. In that life, she’s Trish and it’s very hard going. I lost track of how many miscarriages and stillborn babies she suffered. Mark is cruel. Yet, she has four wonderful children who go on to do some great things. In the other life, Patricia says no to Mark’s proposal. In that life, she spreads her wings and falls in love with Florence, Italy. She also falls in love with Bee and they go on to have three children. Their lives are not easy, but they’re happy. But this time, it’s the world that’s cruel…
Each chapter is left at just enough of a cliff-hanger to make you want to go on and read the next chapter, and the next. Patricia’s two lives are incredibly different and the changes in feelings and moods between them are palpable. The pain and sorrow she experiences brought a tear to my eye, as did her descent into dementia (try as she might, Pat cannot forget that her loved one is dying – her realisation of this is beautifully written). I also really enjoyed the twists to history that Jo Walton has made. They are subtle and will have you scratching your head thinking, ‘but I thought such and such a crisis ended this way…’ and double checking on Wikipedia. The ‘what might have been’ for the Cuban Missile Crisis amongst others was fascinating and I loved how those choices were carried through Pat’s life. Another big tick from me was that the medical problems were factually correct. (Not that there were many of them, but it’s clear that they were well researched).
I think one of the best things about My Real Children is the emotion is draws out from the reader. You can’t help but react to Tricia/Pat’s sorrow and rejoice with them during happier times. It’s a long time since a book sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions, but My Real Children did it. Don’t be put off though; it’s a rewarding read that will stay with you beyond the end pages.
Thank you to Allen & Unwin and Goodreads for the win. I'm definitely a winner with this book!
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
The book begins at the end of Patricia’s life in 2015. She knows she’s in a nursing home and she knows she has dementia. She’s either confused or very confused according to her carers. Patricia remembers a lot of odd things, it’s almost like she lived two different lives. The book then splits into alternate chapters of Patricia’s two lives, which are the same until she has to make a decision whether to marry Mark after university. In one life, she says yes. In that life, she’s Trish and it’s very hard going. I lost track of how many miscarriages and stillborn babies she suffered. Mark is cruel. Yet, she has four wonderful children who go on to do some great things. In the other life, Patricia says no to Mark’s proposal. In that life, she spreads her wings and falls in love with Florence, Italy. She also falls in love with Bee and they go on to have three children. Their lives are not easy, but they’re happy. But this time, it’s the world that’s cruel…
Each chapter is left at just enough of a cliff-hanger to make you want to go on and read the next chapter, and the next. Patricia’s two lives are incredibly different and the changes in feelings and moods between them are palpable. The pain and sorrow she experiences brought a tear to my eye, as did her descent into dementia (try as she might, Pat cannot forget that her loved one is dying – her realisation of this is beautifully written). I also really enjoyed the twists to history that Jo Walton has made. They are subtle and will have you scratching your head thinking, ‘but I thought such and such a crisis ended this way…’ and double checking on Wikipedia. The ‘what might have been’ for the Cuban Missile Crisis amongst others was fascinating and I loved how those choices were carried through Pat’s life. Another big tick from me was that the medical problems were factually correct. (Not that there were many of them, but it’s clear that they were well researched).
I think one of the best things about My Real Children is the emotion is draws out from the reader. You can’t help but react to Tricia/Pat’s sorrow and rejoice with them during happier times. It’s a long time since a book sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions, but My Real Children did it. Don’t be put off though; it’s a rewarding read that will stay with you beyond the end pages.
Thank you to Allen & Unwin and Goodreads for the win. I'm definitely a winner with this book!
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
neea_le_meur's review against another edition
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
knitsmith's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
rick_k's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5