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A review by sloatsj
Chocky by John Wyndham
3.0
I ordered this after some list or other pimped it as a book you could read in a breeze. I got an old hardback whose 182 pages were dappled with ancient coffee or blood and smelled strongly of a mildewed cellar. Like a visitor from another world! But the story was charming and I liked the style, and indeed I finished it off swiftly.
The story revolves around Matthew, a prepubescent boy visited by an alien presence, Chocky. His parents mistake the being for an imaginary friend, although Matthew is old for such a thing. Chocky is intelligent and also benevolent. S/he teaches Matthew binary numbers, gives him a breakthrough lesson in swimming, and helps him to see things as s/he does so well that he becomes a minor celebrity painter.
The story manages to remain upbeat despite the situation, which I feared at any moment could devolve into something messy and disastrous. No, you can count on the British middle class to keep on coping, if with occasional frustration. Even a kidnapping doesn’t seem terribly serious, just another thing to wait through until it blows over!
I enjoyed the story and writing very much and would consider reading Wyndham again if it weren’t that the portrayal of women was so patronizing and awful. The 10-year old sister might as well be mentally incapacitated (by her sex, apparently). The mother, who comes from a family of busybody sisters, is not entirely negative, but is dull and doltish. All she wants is that Matthew be normal. The male characters, on the other hand, are pretty much universally even-tempered and reasonable. Quite astounding that.
By way of putting such concerns aside, the world resorts to the word “dated,” whether an era can be an excuse or not. Of course, none of the characters in this short book was drawn particularly deeply. Still, I’m sorry about the sexism because I understand Wyndham has written even better books than this.
The story revolves around Matthew, a prepubescent boy visited by an alien presence, Chocky. His parents mistake the being for an imaginary friend, although Matthew is old for such a thing. Chocky is intelligent and also benevolent. S/he teaches Matthew binary numbers, gives him a breakthrough lesson in swimming, and helps him to see things as s/he does so well that he becomes a minor celebrity painter.
The story manages to remain upbeat despite the situation, which I feared at any moment could devolve into something messy and disastrous. No, you can count on the British middle class to keep on coping, if with occasional frustration. Even a kidnapping doesn’t seem terribly serious, just another thing to wait through until it blows over!
I enjoyed the story and writing very much and would consider reading Wyndham again if it weren’t that the portrayal of women was so patronizing and awful. The 10-year old sister might as well be mentally incapacitated (by her sex, apparently). The mother, who comes from a family of busybody sisters, is not entirely negative, but is dull and doltish. All she wants is that Matthew be normal. The male characters, on the other hand, are pretty much universally even-tempered and reasonable. Quite astounding that.
By way of putting such concerns aside, the world resorts to the word “dated,” whether an era can be an excuse or not. Of course, none of the characters in this short book was drawn particularly deeply. Still, I’m sorry about the sexism because I understand Wyndham has written even better books than this.