Scan barcode
A review by kristinana
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
5.0
I wrote this while I was still reading the book: "I will write more when I finish the book, but so far I'm about 70 pages in and can't put it down. Love, love, love."
I can now officially confirm that I loved this sprawling, epic novel about an extended family and their acquaintances. I don't think I usually read things that are referred to as "epic," but I loved this one. It's not a book that everyone would like; for one thing, I didn't feel deeply attached to any particular character, perhaps because there really is no central figure. (Descriptions of the book tend to focus on Olive Wellwood, the female author in the novel, and her family, which does make sense, but the book shifts away from Olive at a certain point, though it does return.) But I felt this was a strength, that we see almost all the characters' perspectives. I felt entirely immersed in the world and came to love the characters, even though there was no strong sense of readerly "identification."
If the book is about any one theme, I would have to say it's about how childhood affects one's outlook on life. Though much of the story is about the children in the family, we even get glimpses into the childhoods of some of the adults; one of the best instances of this is the story of Olive, who hides her background as the daughter in a coal mining family but who explores that background through her stories about fantasical and terrifying underground worlds. (Also: another theme that arises in the novel is the destructive aspects of art; this mostly comes through with the possibly-bipolar character Benedict Fludd, but even comes through with Olive.)
The novel as a whole reminds me less of Byatt's glorious _Possession_ and more of Peter Carey's _Oscar and Lucinda_, in that both novels look at how circumstances beyond our control converge to affect our lives. In _The Children's Book_, this starts with a look at how family secrets or abuse affect one's development (and indeed, there are some very dark family secrets in the novel), but it also looks at how political forces and artistic movements and one's historical moment affect one's personal life -- a theme that is not explored often enough, in my opinion. I also delighted in learning more about the turn of the century; I tend to read more about the early and mid-Victorian era, and was interested to learn about how worried late Victorians were about anarchist movements, for instance. I learned more about the Fabians and other social movements, the relationships between England and Germany and Russia before WWI, the Arts and Crafts movement, debates about vegetarianism and turning away from industrialism (which sound strikingly contemporary); and it was good to be reminded of how violent the Suffragist movement was as well. I felt immersed in the debates of the time and could better understand why certain characters made the choices they made. And I really felt the *weight* of the time; almost a sense of impending doom. The Victorian parts could seem at first to be light in comparison to the heaviness of the WWI scenes, yet this would be something of an illusion, as the beauty of the earlier period covers over a lot of nightmares.
Ultimately, I felt this was a very rich and satisfying read. I was stunned by Byatt's ability to weave so much into one novel and her skill at orchestrating the way one story would come to the fore and another would fade, and later return. Her sentence-level style is the height of elegance. I loved reading this.
I can now officially confirm that I loved this sprawling, epic novel about an extended family and their acquaintances. I don't think I usually read things that are referred to as "epic," but I loved this one. It's not a book that everyone would like; for one thing, I didn't feel deeply attached to any particular character, perhaps because there really is no central figure. (Descriptions of the book tend to focus on Olive Wellwood, the female author in the novel, and her family, which does make sense, but the book shifts away from Olive at a certain point, though it does return.) But I felt this was a strength, that we see almost all the characters' perspectives. I felt entirely immersed in the world and came to love the characters, even though there was no strong sense of readerly "identification."
If the book is about any one theme, I would have to say it's about how childhood affects one's outlook on life. Though much of the story is about the children in the family, we even get glimpses into the childhoods of some of the adults; one of the best instances of this is the story of Olive, who hides her background as the daughter in a coal mining family but who explores that background through her stories about fantasical and terrifying underground worlds. (Also: another theme that arises in the novel is the destructive aspects of art; this mostly comes through with the possibly-bipolar character Benedict Fludd, but even comes through with Olive.)
The novel as a whole reminds me less of Byatt's glorious _Possession_ and more of Peter Carey's _Oscar and Lucinda_, in that both novels look at how circumstances beyond our control converge to affect our lives. In _The Children's Book_, this starts with a look at how family secrets or abuse affect one's development (and indeed, there are some very dark family secrets in the novel), but it also looks at how political forces and artistic movements and one's historical moment affect one's personal life -- a theme that is not explored often enough, in my opinion. I also delighted in learning more about the turn of the century; I tend to read more about the early and mid-Victorian era, and was interested to learn about how worried late Victorians were about anarchist movements, for instance. I learned more about the Fabians and other social movements, the relationships between England and Germany and Russia before WWI, the Arts and Crafts movement, debates about vegetarianism and turning away from industrialism (which sound strikingly contemporary); and it was good to be reminded of how violent the Suffragist movement was as well. I felt immersed in the debates of the time and could better understand why certain characters made the choices they made. And I really felt the *weight* of the time; almost a sense of impending doom. The Victorian parts could seem at first to be light in comparison to the heaviness of the WWI scenes, yet this would be something of an illusion, as the beauty of the earlier period covers over a lot of nightmares.
Ultimately, I felt this was a very rich and satisfying read. I was stunned by Byatt's ability to weave so much into one novel and her skill at orchestrating the way one story would come to the fore and another would fade, and later return. Her sentence-level style is the height of elegance. I loved reading this.