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A review by dawn_fox
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
4.0
My first Byatt novel and, on the whole, it was a satisfying and enjoyable experience.
The book follows several interconnected families from the late 1800s to the start of the First World War. The characters are an interesting mixture of artists, liberals, Fabians, bohemians, anarchists and suffragettes. There's a huge cast of characters, which I initially found to be hard work as it was difficult to keep track of who everyone was, but this later became something I loved. With such a long book there was plenty of time to get to know the characters and follow them over many years.
I was disappointed with the last few chapters as I felt that it really rushed through the war years. There were also a few weak chapters, which felt like pure history lessons. These were present, I guess, to give context to what the characters were doing and what was going on around them but I felt they were too long and detailed; they took me away from the main plot (which I was so absorbed in) for too long. There were also occasional chapters/sections that I found a bit boring (I admit I skipped most of them). These were short stories, long descriptions of plays/puppet shows and pages of poetry written by the characters. I probably missed some important imagery or metaphor or symbolism, but I was always keen to get back to the story and all this faff was just a distraction.
All in all, though, this was an enjoyable read and for a huge chunk in the middle, I couldn't put it down; I read several hundred pages on a miserable Sunday afternoon. Would recommend.
The book follows several interconnected families from the late 1800s to the start of the First World War. The characters are an interesting mixture of artists, liberals, Fabians, bohemians, anarchists and suffragettes. There's a huge cast of characters, which I initially found to be hard work as it was difficult to keep track of who everyone was, but this later became something I loved. With such a long book there was plenty of time to get to know the characters and follow them over many years.
I was disappointed with the last few chapters as I felt that it really rushed through the war years. There were also a few weak chapters, which felt like pure history lessons. These were present, I guess, to give context to what the characters were doing and what was going on around them but I felt they were too long and detailed; they took me away from the main plot (which I was so absorbed in) for too long. There were also occasional chapters/sections that I found a bit boring (I admit I skipped most of them). These were short stories, long descriptions of plays/puppet shows and pages of poetry written by the characters. I probably missed some important imagery or metaphor or symbolism, but I was always keen to get back to the story and all this faff was just a distraction.
All in all, though, this was an enjoyable read and for a huge chunk in the middle, I couldn't put it down; I read several hundred pages on a miserable Sunday afternoon. Would recommend.