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A review by dreamawakebooks
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
3.0
Stephen Lewis, a successful author of children's books, takes his 3-year-old daughter on a routine Saturday morning trip to the supermarket. While waiting in line, his attention is briefly distracted. What ensues causes Lewis to spiral into a bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche and possibly time itself.
Winner of the 1987 Whitbread Prize for Fiction.
The Child in Time promises the reader a gritty crime novel involving the search for a missing child. What it delivers is political mush. The story does not focus at all on the disappearance of the child, and only somewhat on the effects of her disappearance on the lives of her family.
What it does focus on is the corruption of small time politicians and one man's descent into depression (which McEwan handles sensitively). The purpose of the book, or so it seems, is to call into question modern (for the time) perceptions of family and childhood, and what it means to be a child (is it 2.4 children, a single parent, or a couple that defines family, and should children indeed be treated as children, or merely as small adults?) McEwan perhaps entices us to face some of our own fears and expectations through the eyes of the characters contained in his novel.
The Child in Time is the second of McEwan's books I have read, and the last. Unfortunately his penchant for ridiculously long chapters, and unnecessarily descriptive sentences make his novels incredibly tedious to read (for me).
Winner of the 1987 Whitbread Prize for Fiction.
The Child in Time promises the reader a gritty crime novel involving the search for a missing child. What it delivers is political mush. The story does not focus at all on the disappearance of the child, and only somewhat on the effects of her disappearance on the lives of her family.
What it does focus on is the corruption of small time politicians and one man's descent into depression (which McEwan handles sensitively). The purpose of the book, or so it seems, is to call into question modern (for the time) perceptions of family and childhood, and what it means to be a child (is it 2.4 children, a single parent, or a couple that defines family, and should children indeed be treated as children, or merely as small adults?) McEwan perhaps entices us to face some of our own fears and expectations through the eyes of the characters contained in his novel.
The Child in Time is the second of McEwan's books I have read, and the last. Unfortunately his penchant for ridiculously long chapters, and unnecessarily descriptive sentences make his novels incredibly tedious to read (for me).