When I picked The Children’s Book, there was a brief sigh as the other to-be-read books on my shelf (ok, shelves) all spread a bit, enjoying the new space left by this 700-page hardcover. We were going on vacation, and I was ready for a multi-generation type epic. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really thinking about the reality of lugging it around the lake, but it was worth the effort.
I will say that this book is not for everyone. I think I was especially predisposed to like it having recently seen the movie “Fairy Tale, A True Story”. The movie covers pretty much the same time period (late 1800’s through the turn of the century and World War Two). The movie and the book also take place in England, where people thought the concept of fairies, the study of Theosophy, and various other political idealogies were serious business. In other words, there were many who believed. Olive Wellwood, the matriarch in The Children’s Book, writes stories of hidden worlds and magical creatures, and she enchants everyone around her.
There are just too many characters in this story for me to give an accurate summary; there are several families involved, and their lives cross and uncross as they grow and change. But the book has everything – large happy families (where tragedy always strikes), true love, adultery, class struggles, women’s rights, and politics. There were clever plot twists, and truly beautiful images of an almost wonderland. Ironically, despite its length, I felt the ending was rushed. It seemed that a decent amount of the large cast of characters were killed off in the last hundred or so pages, in a kind of rush to wrap it up. I still didn’t care, it was a pleasure to immerse myself in this strange and lovely tale, if only for a little while.
No comments:
Post a Comment