Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by gardnerhere
A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
3.0
Like most allegory, this is fun to think about and discuss--to isolate the parallels and discern the patterns. Compound that with the frequent biblical allusions, and I suspect this novel is a dream for teachers who treat novels like puzzles.
But like most allegory, it isn't all that much fun to read. Despite the myriad details that ground the novel in this exact moment (Amazon Prime, Nicki Minaj, etc.), not much here feels real. The characters are thin, and the action not a string of cause and effect so much as what happens between the big, allegorical necessities.
But the messages are clear. Who will suffer in the coming climate crisis? Not the yacht people. Why are we headed toward calamity? Well, start with the parents: escapist, self-blinding hedonists so driven by present pleasures that their response to the literal storm is an Ecstasy fueled orgy. Who has the heart to rebuild and save us? Wisdom comes from the bottom up, the youngest characters being the only ones to see things rightly.
The result is a novel that is perhaps more important than it is good, if such a distinction can be drawn. I'm unlikely to ever reread this one, but I'm also eager to untangle it with other readers.
But like most allegory, it isn't all that much fun to read. Despite the myriad details that ground the novel in this exact moment (Amazon Prime, Nicki Minaj, etc.), not much here feels real. The characters are thin, and the action not a string of cause and effect so much as what happens between the big, allegorical necessities.
But the messages are clear. Who will suffer in the coming climate crisis? Not the yacht people. Why are we headed toward calamity? Well, start with the parents: escapist, self-blinding hedonists so driven by present pleasures that their response to the literal storm is an Ecstasy fueled orgy. Who has the heart to rebuild and save us? Wisdom comes from the bottom up, the youngest characters being the only ones to see things rightly.
The result is a novel that is perhaps more important than it is good, if such a distinction can be drawn. I'm unlikely to ever reread this one, but I'm also eager to untangle it with other readers.