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storytold 's review for:
The Child in Time
by Ian McEwan
I somehow really enjoyed, really disliked, and feel extremely neutral about this book all at once. Bear with me on this.
My primary feeling is bafflement. There was a point in the middle of this book when I thought I understood what this book was about, but despite the the 10-page physics tangent in a book about time, this was somehow NOT about actual time travel. I think it was there to draw attention to the analogy of time travel throughout the book, but it seemed a bit on the nose to serve that purpose.
At least 40% of this book seemed unnecessary. What was this book about? I'd love to say "I don't know," but at some point in the last 30 pages, as my bewilderment compounded, I also *did* come to understand what it was about. I think it is about childhood and time and age and the insolence of men. The political line seemed like a complete non-sequitur and seemed not to belong in the book, serving as a plot device to keep Stephen preoccupied; but it also provided a line of meta-analysis as a foil to the central plot that WORKED on a meta-analytical basis, so I think I'm impressed anyway.
I think what has me returning to McEwan's books is twofold: one is the immense emotion in the prose & the way experience is so holistically portrayed; the other is the thematic value of each of his works. McEwan's works are also precautionary: you might be an excellent prosaist and superior conceptually, but that does not mean the actual threads of your actual story will come together with cohesion. You often can't successfully backward engineer a book's plot, which I feel he may have attempted to do. But you can often backward engineer a theme, which I sense he may have successfully done.
Stephen is obsessed with time and age and childhood, as is his friend Charles, albeit on much different terms. Thelma is obsessed with time. Stephen's parents represent time and age, as well as Stephen's childhood in a sense. The Prime Minister, Lord help him, relays himself on the subject of age and time. The Prime Minister and Charles also have this element of obsession perhaps common to men who aren't leading the life they feel they are owed—an unattractive entitlement that betrays the intolerable nature of their characters. The theme of time, at the very least, does undeniably recur in the book.
But it is at cost to the story, to an ability to tie together the threads meaningfully in terms of creating a cohesive tale. Instead, events happen around the theme. But God, was it gorgeous in places. Certain passages so resonated with me. I had so many competing emotions. Don't read this book for a normal reading experience, but do read it for a varied one.
My primary feeling is bafflement. There was a point in the middle of this book when I thought I understood what this book was about, but despite the the 10-page physics tangent in a book about time, this was somehow NOT about actual time travel. I think it was there to draw attention to the analogy of time travel throughout the book, but it seemed a bit on the nose to serve that purpose.
At least 40% of this book seemed unnecessary. What was this book about? I'd love to say "I don't know," but at some point in the last 30 pages, as my bewilderment compounded, I also *did* come to understand what it was about. I think it is about childhood and time and age and the insolence of men. The political line seemed like a complete non-sequitur and seemed not to belong in the book, serving as a plot device to keep Stephen preoccupied; but it also provided a line of meta-analysis as a foil to the central plot that WORKED on a meta-analytical basis, so I think I'm impressed anyway.
I think what has me returning to McEwan's books is twofold: one is the immense emotion in the prose & the way experience is so holistically portrayed; the other is the thematic value of each of his works. McEwan's works are also precautionary: you might be an excellent prosaist and superior conceptually, but that does not mean the actual threads of your actual story will come together with cohesion. You often can't successfully backward engineer a book's plot, which I feel he may have attempted to do. But you can often backward engineer a theme, which I sense he may have successfully done.
Stephen is obsessed with time and age and childhood, as is his friend Charles, albeit on much different terms. Thelma is obsessed with time. Stephen's parents represent time and age, as well as Stephen's childhood in a sense. The Prime Minister, Lord help him, relays himself on the subject of age and time. The Prime Minister and Charles also have this element of obsession perhaps common to men who aren't leading the life they feel they are owed—an unattractive entitlement that betrays the intolerable nature of their characters. The theme of time, at the very least, does undeniably recur in the book.
But it is at cost to the story, to an ability to tie together the threads meaningfully in terms of creating a cohesive tale. Instead, events happen around the theme. But God, was it gorgeous in places. Certain passages so resonated with me. I had so many competing emotions. Don't read this book for a normal reading experience, but do read it for a varied one.