The Child in Time opens with a harrowing event. Stephen Lewis,a successful author of children's books, takes his three-year-old daughter on a routine Saturday morning trip to the supermarket. While waiting in line, his attention is distracted and his daughter is kidnapped. Just like that. From there, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche and time itself. (19961231)
The Child In Time
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The Child in Time opens with a harrowing event. 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 distracted and his daughter is kidnapped. Just like that. From there, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche and time itself: "It was a wonder there could be so much movement, so much purpose, all the time. He himself had none." This beautifully haunting book won a 1987 Whitbread Prize.
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Review
"The Child in Time is an extraordinary achievement in which form and content, theory and practice, are so expertly and inseparably interwoven that the novel becomes an advertisement for, or proof of, its own thesis." (Sheila Macleod Guardian 19870911)
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The finest book by Ian Mcewan I have ever read. The attention to detail on every page gives this novel an extra dimension, and Mcewan has dedicated so much thought to this book that it makes your mind spin. Parts of this are liable to change your life, you will find yourself drawn into Stephen's life and as a consequence you suffer as much as he does. Brilliant and utterly absorbing.
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like the previous reviewer I feel compelled to counter some of the criticism levelled at 'The Child In Time', a novel I believe to be one of Ian McEwan's finest.
The novel follows a narrative trajectory that is common to many of McEwan's works: one significant - and in this case highly tragic - event leads to a period of disintegration and an exploration of themes.
In 'The Child In Time' a virtuosity of interwoven storylines all centre on the protagonist Stephen Lewis, and offer a deep exploration of the nature of the personal and the private. These two worlds are juxtaposed brilliantly, and with great subtlety. Stephen is presented as father, children's author, member of a government committee on childcare and friend. As in 'Saturday' there are lengthy passages involved with the minutaie of professional life - in this case Whitehall - but perhaps some of the political machinations become more relevant to the reader when viewed as embodiments of the Government stance on childcare, and the more self-centred ideology of the time. It is wrong to criticise the book on account of these sections seeming 'dull' or 'irrelevant' as has been the case below, as they are all part of the common theme of the novel; whether political life is relevant to the reader or not should not matter when it is the nature of time and childhood that is in fact being discussed. This is relevant to us all.
Further weight is given to McEwan's premise in the contrast of the rural and the urban; the rural embodying the return to the private self, the public world of city life presented as a complacent treadmill of government reports, noise and people.
Whereas a novel like 'Enduring Love' cannot live up to its infamous opening passage, 'The Child In Time' has a sense of balance that is hard to find in many modern novels. Whilst certainly not a traditional closure, the unity and proportion of the novel is nigh-on perfect. Whilst it may be a novel of Ideas, and for the most part follows the protagonist's masculine emotional bluntness, it is also by the end profoundly moving. A spine-tingling climax to a genuinely brilliant novel.
The novel follows a narrative trajectory that is common to many of McEwan's works: one significant - and in this case highly tragic - event leads to a period of disintegration and an exploration of themes.
In 'The Child In Time' a virtuosity of interwoven storylines all centre on the protagonist Stephen Lewis, and offer a deep exploration of the nature of the personal and the private. These two worlds are juxtaposed brilliantly, and with great subtlety. Stephen is presented as father, children's author, member of a government committee on childcare and friend. As in 'Saturday' there are lengthy passages involved with the minutaie of professional life - in this case Whitehall - but perhaps some of the political machinations become more relevant to the reader when viewed as embodiments of the Government stance on childcare, and the more self-centred ideology of the time. It is wrong to criticise the book on account of these sections seeming 'dull' or 'irrelevant' as has been the case below, as they are all part of the common theme of the novel; whether political life is relevant to the reader or not should not matter when it is the nature of time and childhood that is in fact being discussed. This is relevant to us all.
Further weight is given to McEwan's premise in the contrast of the rural and the urban; the rural embodying the return to the private self, the public world of city life presented as a complacent treadmill of government reports, noise and people.
Whereas a novel like 'Enduring Love' cannot live up to its infamous opening passage, 'The Child In Time' has a sense of balance that is hard to find in many modern novels. Whilst certainly not a traditional closure, the unity and proportion of the novel is nigh-on perfect. Whilst it may be a novel of Ideas, and for the most part follows the protagonist's masculine emotional bluntness, it is also by the end profoundly moving. A spine-tingling climax to a genuinely brilliant novel.
39 of 43 people found the following review helpful
By Erika
Format:Paperback
'The Child In Time' was my first exposure to McEwan, and despite some reservations, led me to reading the rest of his novels and short stories. The child of the title is not one individual but many, and it is the parallels between childhood and adulthood, sanity and madness, portrayed through a number of 'childhoods', both literal and figurative which makes the book work on a number of levels. The main plot concerns Steven's attempts to find his lost daughter, to accept his loss and to salvage his crumbling marriage. Along the way he is drawn back into his own childhood in a sequence of incidents, often therapeutic, at times unhealthy and downright disturbing, where he is forced into examining both his relationship with his parents, and himself as an individual and as a parent. Throughout the process there is the cautionary figure of Charles Darke, a man denied childhood and regressing in his middle age, and the forays of both into politics, with its own bizarre parent-child structures.
The book manages to depict all of this, with realistic, fully formed and yet novel characters, whilst also commenting on British life as it was and as it could have been in a matter of years. As well as the ridiculous workings of politics and spin, the effects of television and the press are shown and the world of publishing is represented by Darke. In this way, McEwan evokes a whole credible environment that supports his points.
My main criticism of the novel is McEwan's tendency towards the sentimental, and in particular his conventional and less than realistic views of men (as active) and women (passive), which undermines the richness and scope of humanity that is such an asset in this tale. I would say this is something evident in his novels as a whole.
There are other novels which treat the theme of lost children ('Ghost Children' by Sue Townsend is a recent attempt) but fail to pack as much meaning into their pages or draw as many conclusions as McEwan does in this enjoyable, original and stimulating book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
book
Didn't enjoy this book as much a I thought I would but this is my opinion and I am sure other people would probably enjoy it
Published 24 days ago by Jackie Mack
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reliable McEwan
Very thought provoking, well written. Deals with how tragedy involving a child affects those closest in conflicting ways. Enjoyed by our book group
Published 27 days ago by doonhamer
4.0 out of 5 stars
McEwan's book always seem to have air of sorrow and melancholy - this...
This is a very deep and reflective story with a sense of long lasting sorrow. Some of the incidents seemed incidental and too manufactured but I suppose they all led to Stephen's... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mumbo
4.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely well written
This was a book chosen by our book group and one I wouldnt have chosen but I am very glad I read it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Margaret Phipps
3.0 out of 5 stars
The child in time
Started well but didn't really hold the narrative. Quite rambling in parts and one or two characters which seemed to be padding rather than central to the story.
Published 4 months ago by Sharman Normand
5.0 out of 5 stars
Challenging read but worth it
I read this for my book club and out of five of us only two of us liked it. It starts off quite dull and unpromising, but if you can get into it and start to accept the academic... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Emma Hawes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simple premise with a complex message
The story has a simple premise with a complex message. The premise is that a father takes his child shopping and the child is abducted whilst in his care. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. R. P. Bushell
4.0 out of 5 stars
Timely tome
Having read the author's recent output and loved it I thought I would go back in time and read his early offerings. Read more
Published 18 months ago by nickyb
4.0 out of 5 stars
Formed in infancy
Stephen Lawes appears to be pretty well-heeled. His successes seem remarkable. He is a successful writer of children's books. Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2010 by Philip Spires
5.0 out of 5 stars
the quantom child
WE have all lost the child in time, eg, ourselves, our childhood is over yet lives on...McEwan gives this platitude a neat spin by dramatising it as abduction and by threading a... Read more
Published on 17 May 2010 by Mr. P. O'hara
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