The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
The Children's Book by A.S Byatt
March 2018
I found this on a list online of books some author recommended. It may have been Novik, the author of the last book I read (I sometimes go look at their websites after I finish a book). It may have been someone else entirely, I really don't remember where I got the recommendation. I had been heavy on the fantasy recently and was looking for a change in scenery. This seemed to be a story about people, specifically an author and her relationship with her many children. I'm a sucker for books about big families so off I went.
Well, it was unexpectedly "artsy" in places...literally, there was a whole chapter that I barely skimmed because it was full of what I viewed as arcane and snotty references that even with my English major background and prolific reading experiences, I simply could not follow. But that chapter was an anomaly in an otherwise very readable book.
The lives of the characters were set in the world of the "Artist" which is a foreign place to me. I'm a tax accountant, I live in the suburbs, I don't drive a mini-van but a Honda Pilot is the next best thing, and I have never, ever been immersed in the "arts". The closest I ever came was being in marching band and even then, I was a flag, I did not even play an instrument. I floated around the outskirts at times but it always seemed so unrealistic and to be honest "fake" to me, that world that musicians and poets and novelists seemed to strive for. Well, these characters were right in the heart of it, but not the "starving artists" world...they lived in large houses, had servants and underlings and traveled to exotic locations and took in strangers and well, it was all foreign to me. But not in a bothersome way (other than that one chapter-what the heck was that about???).
There were some interesting twists in the story. The changing viewpoints were positives, though I wonder if the author wrote all in women's voices because she couldn't quite get there on the men-the men did seem a little one dimensional.
I did find several quotes that struck me in this book. Of course, I marked them somehow on my Nook and now can't get at them, but I did manage to find the following, one of the novel's main characters musings on her advancing unplanned though not unwelcome pregnancy:
page. 102 She tried very hard to feel neither hope nor fear for the unborn. If she thought of them, it was more in terms of the waxy stillborn, with their closed faces, than in terms of a potential Tom or Hedda. She feared for them, and their presence disturbed her peace. Also, she cared for them, she took care. She bit into the honey and butter and bread, nourishing herself and the blind life she had not exactly invited to settle in her.
Scale? Enjoyed it very much-3
March 2018
I found this on a list online of books some author recommended. It may have been Novik, the author of the last book I read (I sometimes go look at their websites after I finish a book). It may have been someone else entirely, I really don't remember where I got the recommendation. I had been heavy on the fantasy recently and was looking for a change in scenery. This seemed to be a story about people, specifically an author and her relationship with her many children. I'm a sucker for books about big families so off I went.
Well, it was unexpectedly "artsy" in places...literally, there was a whole chapter that I barely skimmed because it was full of what I viewed as arcane and snotty references that even with my English major background and prolific reading experiences, I simply could not follow. But that chapter was an anomaly in an otherwise very readable book.
The lives of the characters were set in the world of the "Artist" which is a foreign place to me. I'm a tax accountant, I live in the suburbs, I don't drive a mini-van but a Honda Pilot is the next best thing, and I have never, ever been immersed in the "arts". The closest I ever came was being in marching band and even then, I was a flag, I did not even play an instrument. I floated around the outskirts at times but it always seemed so unrealistic and to be honest "fake" to me, that world that musicians and poets and novelists seemed to strive for. Well, these characters were right in the heart of it, but not the "starving artists" world...they lived in large houses, had servants and underlings and traveled to exotic locations and took in strangers and well, it was all foreign to me. But not in a bothersome way (other than that one chapter-what the heck was that about???).
There were some interesting twists in the story. The changing viewpoints were positives, though I wonder if the author wrote all in women's voices because she couldn't quite get there on the men-the men did seem a little one dimensional.
I did find several quotes that struck me in this book. Of course, I marked them somehow on my Nook and now can't get at them, but I did manage to find the following, one of the novel's main characters musings on her advancing unplanned though not unwelcome pregnancy:
page. 102 She tried very hard to feel neither hope nor fear for the unborn. If she thought of them, it was more in terms of the waxy stillborn, with their closed faces, than in terms of a potential Tom or Hedda. She feared for them, and their presence disturbed her peace. Also, she cared for them, she took care. She bit into the honey and butter and bread, nourishing herself and the blind life she had not exactly invited to settle in her.
Scale? Enjoyed it very much-3
Comments
Post a Comment