Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children's books, is confronted with the unthinkable: his only child, three-year-old Kate, is snatched from h...
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May 10, 2011
K.D.
rated it: 
My fourth book by Ian McEwan. Enduring Love. Amsterdam. Atonement. The more I read his works, the more I get convinced that he is the author who knows how my brain is wired. He knows what I want, what I expect from my reading, how I would like my brain to be stimulated, how to keep me awake and keep on reading till the wee hours of the morning.
Reading his books is like drinking a perfect blend: just enough decaf coffee, enough non-fat milk and brown sugar. Those are healthy choices b More...
Reading his books is like drinking a perfect blend: just enough decaf coffee, enough non-fat milk and brown sugar. Those are healthy choices b More...
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Apr 13, 2011
Chris
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I was steered towards this—my first encounter with Ian McEwan—several years ago subsequent to discovering in an interview with troubled actor Tom Sizemore that he deemed this book one of the greatest novels he had ever read. Since at the time I was personally in a state of mind that allowed me to relate quite sympathetically with his particular struggle against demons, I impulsively purchased a copy of the book later that same day.
While I can't agree with him on the novel's relative More...
While I can't agree with him on the novel's relative More...
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Sep 04, 2009
Cecily
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A superb book about every parent's worst nightmare (a child goes missing), but you don't need to be a parent to appreciate it because it is primarily a story of loss, family (is it a couple, parents and children or a patriarchal institution such as the RAF?), distortions in (the perception of) time and reality, and of growing up and of regressing.
Stephen Lewis is a children's author who also sits on a government committee that is meant to produce a handbook on childrearing - to rege More...
Stephen Lewis is a children's author who also sits on a government committee that is meant to produce a handbook on childrearing - to rege More...
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Feb 11, 2008
Robert
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Ian McEwan, THE CHILD IN TIME (Penguin, 1987)
Something happened to a number of bang-up in-for-the-kill horror writers in the early to mid eighties. I'm still trying to figure out what. Patrick McGrath, who'd given the world some of its most wonderfully gut-wrenching tales in _Blood and Water_, started writing slick, witty novels that came to just this side of horror. Clive Barker started writing fantasy. Anne Rivers Siddons gave us one of the definitive modern haunted house novels and More...
Something happened to a number of bang-up in-for-the-kill horror writers in the early to mid eighties. I'm still trying to figure out what. Patrick McGrath, who'd given the world some of its most wonderfully gut-wrenching tales in _Blood and Water_, started writing slick, witty novels that came to just this side of horror. Clive Barker started writing fantasy. Anne Rivers Siddons gave us one of the definitive modern haunted house novels and More...
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Dec 16, 2009
Lauren
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I always have the same reaction to McEwan's books: why does an author who can create passages about human disturbance and misery that ring so true insist upon adding elements into every novel that ring so false? Setting aside his formulaic plotting (barely plausible but not entirely ridiculous tragedy occurs, human relationships suffer - or don't - in the aftermath), why does McEwan throw in government ministers who wear short pants and freeze to death; or possibly-magical religious fanatics; or
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Dec 15, 2011
Shovelmonkey1
rated it: 
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... oh yes, where was I? Mmm, reviewing The Child in Time by Ian McEwan...I remember now. To summarise; an overview of what it is to
a) be a child
b) have a child
c) lose a child
d) regress to a child like state (with the finally irony being that once you've gone through the first three and spend a lot of the book daydreaming about what it would be like to get your child back, you choose to ignore and abandon your friend who, for reasons of a personal/mental h More...
a) be a child
b) have a child
c) lose a child
d) regress to a child like state (with the finally irony being that once you've gone through the first three and spend a lot of the book daydreaming about what it would be like to get your child back, you choose to ignore and abandon your friend who, for reasons of a personal/mental h More...
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Aug 06, 2011
One of Ian McEwan’s earlier offerings. It contains all of the characteristics found in his later novels, and therefore it comes as no surprise that the finely written intrigue of human relationships tantalises, right to the very end.
There are disparate threads, such as the abduction of a child, the palpable sense of loss, marriage breakdown, journeys made, membership of a government committee, constant seeking, the fascinating interaction between passage of time and events, interesting sexual co More...
There are disparate threads, such as the abduction of a child, the palpable sense of loss, marriage breakdown, journeys made, membership of a government committee, constant seeking, the fascinating interaction between passage of time and events, interesting sexual co More...
Jan 25, 2011
Rob
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jul 02, 2010
Rebecca
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This is an incredibly sad, poignant book that describes the collapse of a couple's marriage (and mental health) after their three-year-old daughter is kidnapped in a grocery store. Although Ian McEwan does a great job, as usual, of writing about things you never thought could be put into words, I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone I know, like I did with Atonement, his most famous novel. Even though Atonement was at times painful to read, it didn't quite cut me to the quick the way The C
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Mar 10, 2010
Erica-lynn
rated it: 
In what might be Ian McEwan’s least-read, but perhaps best novel, The Child In Time, a children’s book author, Stephen, must come to terms with his three-year old daughter’s abduction and, presumably, her death. Complicating this heart-breaking situation is Stephen’s wife Julie, who has hermited herself away in the countryside, and the fascinating and surreal parallel stories of Stephen’s own childhood, and that of his best friends—his publisher and his wife, a physicist. “The child in time” i
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Mar 25, 2011
Martyn
rated it:
Ian McEwan is a masterful writer and I would rank him as one of my favorite authors but I have noticed a trend - he can't finish a book to save to his life. Everything must be sewn up and every last i dotted before he downs pen and this is frustrating to me as a reader, it's almost as if he doesn't trust his reader to draw the correct conclusions or to have the imagination to fill in the rest of the story.
The worst example of this in his novels, in my opinion, is Enduring Love, but Chi More...
The worst example of this in his novels, in my opinion, is Enduring Love, but Chi More...
Aug 04, 2011
Jayne
rated it:
All in all I liked this, with reservations. You can always rely on Ian McEwan for top quality writing though his endings have often been a bit suspect. I actually thought this ended well – despite relying on the sort of plot device soap opera scriptwriters imbibe with their mother’s milk – and though the conclusion was perhaps forehead-slappingly obvious, I didn’t see it coming.
Concerning Stephen, a successful author whose only child was kidnapped several years ago and never found, th More...
Concerning Stephen, a successful author whose only child was kidnapped several years ago and never found, th More...
Oct 29, 2010
Yellowoasis
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 01, 2010
Robin-Hood
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Malgrado il finale mi sia parso frettoloso e, forse, anche un po' scontato, questo libro mi ha lasciato qualcosa. Sin dalle prime pagine ho immaginato Stephen come William Hurt nel film "Turista per caso", lo stesso modo di porsi nei contesti relazionali, esternamente sfuggente alle emozioni che lo devastano al punto d’apparire passivo…
Anche l’atmosfera descritta mi ha richiamato quel film, la cadenza degli avvenimenti, la sofferenza appena accennata e mai realmente affrontata, l More...
Anche l’atmosfera descritta mi ha richiamato quel film, la cadenza degli avvenimenti, la sofferenza appena accennata e mai realmente affrontata, l More...
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Oct 23, 2009
Tad
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Wow, what an unexpected story. The loss of a child almost becomes a minor theme to the effects the occurrence has on those who remain. Beautifully written, it’s a story that exudes so much humanity and the reality of sadness. McEwan has a unique gift with his writing and I felt consistently confronted with what I would do if I suffered the same circumstance. For instance, how does ones day end when your child is abducted? Can it? How inconsolable it must feel. How unimaginable his wretche
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Jul 16, 2009
Charly
rated it:
A slightly different offering by McEwan in which he explores the child in us and the chronological child. There relationships which are complicated by various elements. Not the easiest read of his works. Took a bit of time to grab me, what he presents I think is that in our own way we are all a Child in Time.
Aug 19, 2009
Amy
rated it:
It was worth the read but definitely not as good as his others. Although, I would say this ending is by far the happiest of all his books I have read. There is a redeeming quality to it, which is enjoyable. The idea of people processing pain in different ways and on their own time, but ultimately being able to heal together felt like a genuine approach to the story and the characters.
McEwan explored the idea of time in this book and how no one really has a grasp on what time tr More...
McEwan explored the idea of time in this book and how no one really has a grasp on what time tr More...
Jul 23, 2011
David
rated it:
Ian McEwan's 3rd novel is hard to describe. It's beautifully written like all his books. This author loves descriptive prose. It's literally page 38 before there's a single line of dialog. Describing the plot of this is truly as difficult as describing a Faulkner book. At its simplest, it is about a separated couple who are grieving years later over their missing daughter. The man sees his daughter everywhere, hallucinating a phantom growth. Not only that, he gradually begins to see events out o
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Jul 15, 2011
James
rated it:
Dealing with the themes in does (of love, loss and our peception of time) requires a certain amount of engagement with plot and character.
For me, this novel did neither.
Without the depth of character study of McEwan's other texts, in often seems superficial; with the reader passive in seeing the character action and decision-making process, rather than feeling they understand the motives and motivations.
The plot itself seems rather uneven, building up suspens More...
For me, this novel did neither.
Without the depth of character study of McEwan's other texts, in often seems superficial; with the reader passive in seeing the character action and decision-making process, rather than feeling they understand the motives and motivations.
The plot itself seems rather uneven, building up suspens More...
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Apr 26, 2011
Gwynne
rated it:
Ian McEwan, why must you be such a gorgeous stylist?
Ian McEwan, were you born possessing the genius of your generation, or did you make a deal with the devil to be so wise?
I'll make no bones about it. I'm an Ian McEwan groupie. I fell in love with his novels last summer. I just can't get enough of him. *The Child in Time* is now my second favorite of his work. (*Atonement* was my first love.)
My fiancé once teased me that my favorite childhood hobby was crying. No More...
Ian McEwan, were you born possessing the genius of your generation, or did you make a deal with the devil to be so wise?
I'll make no bones about it. I'm an Ian McEwan groupie. I fell in love with his novels last summer. I just can't get enough of him. *The Child in Time* is now my second favorite of his work. (*Atonement* was my first love.)
My fiancé once teased me that my favorite childhood hobby was crying. No More...
May 30, 2010
Shane
rated it:
An internal novel that plays on its title: the search for childhood lost or to be yet found, and time moving back and forth in waves, weaving past and present into one tapestry.
In typical McEwan tradition, the novel hovers around a singular event - protagonist Stephen loses his three year old daughter in a supermarket -an event that send his marriage and personal life into a dark spiral. As Stephen tries to grapple with his loss and revisits his own lost childhood, his friend and one More...
In typical McEwan tradition, the novel hovers around a singular event - protagonist Stephen loses his three year old daughter in a supermarket -an event that send his marriage and personal life into a dark spiral. As Stephen tries to grapple with his loss and revisits his own lost childhood, his friend and one More...
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Nov 14, 2011
soul
rated it:
Така и още нямам избистрено мнение за тази книга. През цялото време, докато я четях, ми се струваше ужасно (и излишно) разхвърляна, на места спъваща, но понеже това е Макюън, му дадох шанс до последната страница. Според анотацията от корицата очаквах да е задълбал върху семейството и какво се случва с двамата след загубата; как се борят или не, как се губят и търсят; бягствата им от проблема и от тях самите - нещо примерно като филма Rabbit Hole (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0935075/).
Децата More...
Децата More...
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Jan 09, 2012
T.
rated it:
This was my first Ian McEwan novel...I think I have started and set aside Atonement a hundred thousand times. But this story intrigued me at the outset and maintained my interest through to the end. It is first and foremost the story of Stephen Lewis, a man whose child is abducted while under his watch. But it is also a study on childhood, as well as an examination of time. I found the primary narrative regarding the child's abduction to be almost excruciating. I am not sure I have ever seen gri
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Apr 27, 2009
Youndyc
rated it:
As with most novels by Ian McEwan, there is a point at which you wonder why you are doing this to yourself. But his writing is almost like listening to good music - it's lyrical and it carries you along. This particular book had a definite slow period in the middle, but the story moved you through it. In this novel, Stephen and Julie have a lovely 4 year old daughter Kate. Kate is stolen one morning when Stephen runs to the grocery story. This all happens in the first few pages. The rest o
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Aug 12, 2010
Rhiannon
rated it:
Admittedly it was an audio recording that I listened to which I begun whilst making some etchings in the studio. Nine hours later I had finished listening to the entire CD. There were some dodgy bits in there that were a bit ridiculous like about the prime minister and his politician friend. It would have been better to keep it more to the point. I like how he includes a specialist as a character so he can discuss science and theories in greater depth. I think the book begins near Vauxha More...
Feb 04, 2012
Frank
rated it:
I thought it was very well written, with excellent characterizations, and an absorbing story about the agonies when a young couple loses a daughter by abduction. Having two young daughters myself, I can't imagine how horrific this experience would be. I thought McEwan did an excellent job of telling this story and how the parents tried to cope with the situation. The story is sometimes a little disconcerting by going to stories in the past relating to the husband's parents and early experiences.
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Sep 17, 2011
Nurshafiqa
rated it:
"the child in time" evokes a melancholy in me. i felt a kind of sadness and reading it put me in a pensive mood. sometimes, i feel like i'm mourning for my childhood (while reading the book), which was great. i wanted to be a child again, and felt somewhat depressed i'll never be one again.
there were so much truth in this book, sometimes i feel like the author is speaking personally to me. it also made me wonder if one day, if i became a parent, a mum, and lost my child in t More...
there were so much truth in this book, sometimes i feel like the author is speaking personally to me. it also made me wonder if one day, if i became a parent, a mum, and lost my child in t More...
Aug 01, 2011
Karen
rated it:
Well, thank you very much, Mr McEwan. I now have a phobia of taking my children to the supermarket and of overtaking articulated lorries.
I read the beginning with an iceberg in my stomach which thawed to real tears in the closing chapter. Somewhat perversely, I enjoyed wallowing in Stephen's bereaved solitude and, like him, got a bit irritated when other people intruded on it, with their conversation, and their problems, and their demands on Stephens emotions.
I can't pretend to have understood More...
I read the beginning with an iceberg in my stomach which thawed to real tears in the closing chapter. Somewhat perversely, I enjoyed wallowing in Stephen's bereaved solitude and, like him, got a bit irritated when other people intruded on it, with their conversation, and their problems, and their demands on Stephens emotions.
I can't pretend to have understood More...
Mar 01, 2011
Laura
rated it:
Before The Child in Time, I'd never read a book by Ian McEwan. The lure of Atonement had meant that he had been in my sights for a while, but I hadn't got round to reading any of his books.
Why - how - did I wait so long? The Child in Time was more than I expected. McEwan's writing style is succinct, symbolic, subtle. It was not so much the story I wanted; no, the story itself was vaguely disappointing, but it was McEwan's writing I wanted to immerse myself in.
I had varyin More...
Why - how - did I wait so long? The Child in Time was more than I expected. McEwan's writing style is succinct, symbolic, subtle. It was not so much the story I wanted; no, the story itself was vaguely disappointing, but it was McEwan's writing I wanted to immerse myself in.
I had varyin More...
Jan 28, 2012
Sibylle
rated it:
This would have been 3 stars without the cringe-worthy ending.
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