Reviews

The Man Who Loved Children by Randall Jarrell, Christina Stead

mendelbot's review against another edition

2.0

Buried somewhere beneath the muddled prose, the off-kilter dialogue, and the repetitious plot is a good book. But the above three aspects overwhelm an otherwise decent novel of a dysfunctional family. Pages upon pages of the title character speaking a kind of pidgin English/baby talk. Scenes that run into and out of each other. A book that is probably about 200 pages too long. I get what the author was going for, I just don't like it. When it works, it works wonderfully, but it works only about thirty percent of the time. The rest of the time I was waiting for one of these annoyingly miserable characters to kill the rest.

helenajcassels's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

bettyvd's review against another edition

1.0

Na twee hoofdstukken gestopt... 1940 is toch lang geleden. Iets voor academici?

rhaines46's review against another edition

it makes an impression, alright

an unpleasant aspect of this book which I don't see mentioned much in the reviews here is that the parents make racist and anti-Semitic comments at various points throughout the story. The characters in question are also objectionable in all sorts of other ways, of course, it's kind of the main driving force of the whole novel

The Man Who Loved Children accomplishes some very impressive feats which are described far, far better in the introduction by Randall Jarrell than I could achieve in my own words. The gist of it, though, is that the characters in this story have failings of both morals and manners that are both continually mortifying and utterly believable, and that these characters make up a family which is more believable still, with their in-jokes and their special language and their laughing cruelty. Louie, the oldest daughter, sees the grotesque side of her family more clearly than anyone else (except perhaps the mother, Henny) and she is the pinnacle of misunderstood adolescence... this kid would have made the absolute nastiest zines if she had just lived 80 years later

mellifiable's review against another edition

3.0

Lately, I have been browsing Amazon and considering buying a copy of The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. The first sentence grabs me. "This is the saddest story I have ever heard." I have not read Ford's story yet but as of today, the saddest story I have ever heard just might be The Man Who Loved Children. I feel torn as to how to rate it. As for the writing, I'd say it's a good strong five. As for how much I enjoyed it, it's a bottom of the barrel one. Reading it felt like a burden. The moment I finished, I put it in the library donation pile and then stepped outside for a breath of fresh air and some sunshine. I felt an incredible urge to watch The Smurfs. It was really that depressing.

Reading The Man Who Loved Children reminded me of how I felt reading The Bell Jar . It was so successfully distubing that I was impressed enough to keep trucking through...and yet I so strongly destested the main character that I wanted to abandon the book and forget about it entirely.

The story revolves around the family of Sam and Henny Pollit. They have a large family and a terrible marriage. The book shows their bitter confrontations ever escalating to greater intensity and despair while Henny's stepdaughter Louisa approaches young womanhood and longs for a way out. Sam is destestably obtuse in his incessant baby talk and life philosophies. Henny is trapped and going out of her mind. Louisa (in my opinion, the book's only loveable character) is caught in the middle. To put it simply, their lives suck.

I have never been so enangered by a character as I was by Sam Pollit and in that, Christina Stead did her job well. This is an impressively written book but will not be one of my favorites. It's memorable but never enjoyable.

booksinbedinthornhill's review against another edition

5.0

Not for everyone, but I don't think I'll ever forget Louie and her world.

pharmdad2007's review against another edition

1.0

The first real disappointment of my book challenge this year. I chose this book based on an essay written about it by Jonathan Franzen, and it just wasn't my cup of tea. I felt like something about the setting was off the whole time, which made a lot of sense when I read after the fact that the book had been originally set in Australia and then the author changed the setting to Washington DC at the last moment. I can definitely see the influence this book may have had on Franzen as an author, I guess I just have to say that his style of writing about a totally dysfunctional family works for me while Christina Stead's does not.

katdid's review against another edition

3.0

I feel like I need someone to explain this book to me, basically. It was not a particularly enjoyable read, although there's a lot to admire in terms of style and form and characterisation and observations - particularly in light of when it was written. Stead is savage! and Sam Pollit is relentlessly unsufferable; jesus, he is the worst, maybe second only to Ignatius J. Reilly. Do really appreciate the term "Pollitry" to describe the antics of that side of the family.

encyclopediablonde's review against another edition

4.0

Digestible Faulkner transplanted to the Mid-Atlantic. I'm all for it. / Slowly sinking hooks make for great reward. Special recommendation to actors.

ellenn9's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0