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Jan 17, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

Edited - January 17, 2010:

You know when you have a moment about a book -- weeks, months, or years after you've read it -- and it changes the whole thing for you? I had that this morning. I had had trouble determining what this book had reminded me of. Was it just that it covers familiar territory? I have read so many books written during or about this period in England, among these people (real and imagined), or by other authors going back to examine the incredible change that happen More...

23 comments like (61 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2010

Sandybanks rated it:

I looked forward to read this book. I was ready for a sweeping saga about the turbulent years between the closing of the Victorian age and the dawn of the Edwardian, with all its political, artistic and social ferment, and its culmination in the war to end all wars. Who can better chronicle these years than Byatt, with her deep knowledge of the period and her knack for creating affecting, memorable characters like Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte in Possession: A Romance?

Her More...

15 comments like (28 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2010

Felice rated it:

"The Children's Book" is a thick, meaty, treasure trove of a novel. Every turn of a page involves the reader in ideas, plot, emotions, knowledge and sparkling writing. In blurb vernacular it's brilliant, a page turner, un-put-down-able, stunning, complex and my favorite--multi-layered.

The book takes place in England between 1895 and 1919. It criss-crosses Europe following the family fortunes of the Wellwoods, the Cains and the Fludds and a host of vibrant subsidiary c More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2009

Jen rated it:

I savored this novel every evening for the 2 months or so that I chipped away at its formidable length. A.S. Byatt has written a whopping, inimitable masterpiece of a heavy handed Victorian England succumbing to the blithe, jaunty Edwardian era which in turn gives way to the disillusionment and terror of trench warfare and World War I. Byatt, so unapologetically erudite, gives us a labyrinthine novel that is both devastating and whimsical. It's full of complexity and contradictions, stories wit More...

9 comments like (28 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2009

Laura rated it:

Before I go any further, I should say that I love Byatt's work; when I read about this book, I sent to Canada to get a copy as the US edition hadn't yet been released.

This is a Family Saga, only covering many intertwined families and friends rather than many generations. The detail of British history (the Victorian Era, Fabianism, pottery, children's books, etc.) is Byatt's exacting best, giving the reader places to pause as the plot moves forward. The characters are all complex; s More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2010

Joanne rated it:

I had attempted 'Possession' years ago and found I just couldn't get past the first chapter so I didn't think I would enjoy Byatt's latest. However, this was a very ambitious novel, spanning the life of a family from 1895 to 1919 and I found myself admiring the sheer scope and intellectual capacity of the novel and novelist. Not only does Byatt look at the impact of children's literature and the impact that being an children's author has on Olive Wellwood's family, there are also many literary, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 24, 2011

Emily rated it:

The first thing I have to tell you is that this is not an easy review to write. How does one review an 675 page book in just a few paragraphs? But then how does an author manage to fit the whole world into just 675 pages? I honestly don't know, but if A.S. Byatt can do the latter, I can definitely attempt the former, though I fear I may ramble a bit.

This is usually the part of the review where I'd tell you what The Children's Book is about. the summary GoodReads gives you up at the top More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2010

Marjorie rated it:

I've often heard people say that children have more intense feelings than adults. That may or may not be based on any particular psychological insight; it's true there was a time when I would get insanely excited about, say, putting the sprinkles on an ice cream sundae, an experience that would barely get my attention these days (actually I can't remember the last time I bothered with sprinkles, since I figured out they don't really taste like anything).

But when it comes to art, at lea More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 07, 2011

Antonia rated it:

overwhelmed, really. hard to put into words what i would want to say about it. it did not give me a lot of pleasure, except the one of reading a very well thought out and executed novel. with the missing pleasure i merely mean that it is not there to be uplifting or solely to entertain you. there does not seem to be a big agenda or lifted index finger either. it exists in its own right, unapologetically. not trying to catch the reader by fluffiness or deliberate "grimness" as e.g. crim More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2010

Isabelle rated it:

I am an A.S. Byatt fan, have been for a very long time... As usual, the book is full of knowledge on a period of English History I love, the late Victorian/Edwardian transition. There is so much history, art, music, literature, politics underlying the story of a pretty wide group of people, related by blood, love, common interests and the pursuit of fulfillment.
The novel has been described as sweeping, and maybe just this once, Byatt has written an overly sweeping book that spins so much t More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2010

Margaret rated it:

I adore Possession, but since I have never found another Byatt I've loved nearly so much, I was a little anxious upon beginning The Children's Book. Happily, I was enthralled right from the start.

The Children's Book is a sprawling, absorbing family epic, stretching from the late Victorian era through the Edwardian and ending just after World War I. Olive Wellwood is a children's book author who lives with her husband Augustus and their seven children at their beautiful country home, More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2009

Chris rated it:

I was lucky enough to be in Toronto and so was able to pick this up before its U.S. release (apparently we don't deserve it until the fall).

I thought it would be a second Possession, but it's not, which is good. In some ways, Byatt's style in this book seems closer to the style of her sister, Drabble, a hands off approach which makes it a little harder (or takes longer) to come to terms or grips with characters. There are even some characters we never come to grips with (interestin More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Susan rated it:

Some background:
I've been a Byatt fan since I started reading her about 1990--I heard about Possession when it won the Booker I think and am always fascinated by novels that attempt to reconstruct the past from documents and bits and pieces picked up in research. But even in Britain it was still only in hardcover so I bought a few paperbacks of earlier novels on a trip to London: The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life and The Game. Read them in quick succession and was hooked.
Last sp More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 11, 2009

Emily rated it:

In my reading of this I alternated between deep admiration of Byatt and deep irritation with her. She has put all the force of her prodigious talent into burying the threads of two or three really interesting novels of reasonable length in this over-sized book. In a way, it is like a vast tapestry of the cultural movements in England, and to some extent Germany, from 1895 to 1919 (with fascinating personal stories that can be perceived if you peer up close), but really it's more of a vast tang More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2010

Jane rated it:

A pleasure. This is an engrossing family saga set in England that manages to weave numerous threads of culture, history, and politics from the era of the 1890's to the first World War. Incrediby well-researched, masterful plotting (whatever the verb is for that). Some might argue that it's not as well written as Possessed and I'd agree with those who would argue that the poetry in the latter is more accomplished. Byatt had set a lofty standard for herself. The Children's Book is more accessible, More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2009

Anna rated it:

I stayed up all night last night to finish this one. I was so engrossed I didn't realize the book was ending until I turned the last page and found myself faced with acknowledgments instead of another chapter. Although there are some now typical Byatt conventions in The Children's Book, such as a the central use of theatrical production to bring disparate groups together and in fact the disparate group of improbably connected characters itself, the novel is wonderful. I didn't want it to end, an More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2010

Aeron rated it:

Hooked from the beginning: Nineteenth century England, a Midsummer's party in the country with handmade lanterns and fanciful costumes; richly described, elaborate puppet shows; a run-away boy thrust in the middle of the madness with nothing but his dreams of being a potter.

This book was pure delight for me, exploring playful and sometimes painful observations of the creative process. A.S. Byatt is amazing.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2011

Maria added it

This was the first time I have read Byatt & perhaps it wasn't quite the right one to start with. I started off enjoying the story and her very lyrical, layered, unusual writing style, but in the end I found the endless historic, literary, artistic, political etc. references to be a bit much, detracting from the main stories. There was a lack of character development & so many characters that I identified with none, although I really did want to and found myself wanting to know more about what th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Robert rated it:

The first seventy pages felt like two hundred. I read to the end because I adored Possession. By page 615, I emerged dazed and confused. It was such hard work keeping track of the many characters and their relationships. A friend told me that she needed to draw up a family tree. I wish that she had given me a copy. If she had I might have worked out why the fate of the two Robins was given such significance, given that they appear as important characters only around about page 527.

In More...

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Jan 11, 2012

JulesQ rated it:

There were about 100 pages in the middle of this book when I was ready to proclaim it awesome -- I was envisioning a shiny four star review and a continuing Ken Jennings 100% success rate. Unfortunately, this book is 675 pages long.

During those 100 or so pages, I was excited by Byatt's style, which deliciously echoed the style of other novels written during that period, and what so wonderfully descriptive. I enjoyed the caricatures of the age, and the obvious familiarity that Byatt has More...

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Jan 03, 2012

Aditi rated it:

Oh how I loved this book. Big, fat, satisfying book, TCB's is a postmodern look at prewar England with a writer at its centre (both Byatt and Olive) creating and spinning stories in Edwardian England. Byatt unravels multitudinous personal and political stories for her readers, while Olive constructs deep and fantastic myths and stories for younger readers. Olive is a central figure in the beginning of the story, her house being a centre of action through her own actions amorous and others such a More...

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Nov 22, 2011

Fiona rated it:

This book irritated the life out of me and if I could give it less than one star, I would. It took AGES to finish because I hated every bit of it. I only persevered with it because it was on the "1001 Books you Need to Read Before you Die" list, otherwise, it might have gone into the recycling bin. The writing style was intensely irritating and obviously written by a woman with bizarrely named individualys interracting randomly with way too much descriptive narrative. I would hav More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 30, 2011

Dona rated it:

I enjoyed reading this book. I was engrossed in it while I was reading it, and impressed by the author's erudition, as always. I enjoyed being immersed in that time and place (England in Edwardian times). I found it infinitely better than Possession, which won the Booker in 1990, but which I found dry and detached.

But now, after giving myself a couple of weeks to think about it, I'm left feeling that it has the same flaws for this reader as did Possession: too emotionally detached, e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Carolyn rated it:

I was disappointed by this book. I loved A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION, so I had high hopes for this. After all, it won the Booker prize. However, as evocative as the writing was, the story just didn't lead me on. There's no forward momentum, the way there is in POSSESSION. I realize that the mystery element of POSSESSION was probably not Byatt's favorite part, it was the lives of writers, the way they write, the lives of the historians, that probably appealed to her, and in The Children's Book, you s More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Free_phoenix rated it:

This book consumed my attention for a good week, drawing me completely into the complex web of relationships at its core and drawing interesting and believable rationales for what made certain characters tick. The breadth of the novel was ambitious, but it was nonetheless executed marvelous well. It is deep and dark at many points, and may be disturbing or triggering for some, most of them stemming from the disasters often wreaked on personal relationships thanks to the obsessive creative urge, More...

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Aug 18, 2011

Sarah rated it:

This is a huge novel, both in pages (almost 900) and in scope. It follows the stories of a number of families -- an author of children's stories and her banker husband and their children, their cousins who live in London, the Keeper of Metals at the new Victoria and Albert Museum and his children, as well as a runaway boy who becomes an apprentice to a potter, and his original and adoptive families -- from the late Victorian era through the end of the first World War. The characters are very wel More...

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Aug 06, 2011

Bungo rated it:

I found this hard to get into but it eventually won me over. Like Olive, Byatt seems to go off the main narrative (whatever this is!) and tell us random stories from time to time but it's a welcome distraction from the all the majolica talk. It starts by two boys, Julian and Tom, finding another boy, Philip, living rough in a museum. Philip wants to make pots. Tom and Julian's families are from an arty set and eventually he ends up working for and with Benedict Fludd, the unpredictable but bril More...

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Jul 30, 2011

Olivia rated it:

I checked this out of the library before I left to Washington’s unsympathetic tree-giants. I plan on stealing it for good. So many, many characters. It centers on every character mentioned. I love it because it goes into such depth with each one. No character is left to be only one trait- there is no such thing as bad and good, even in the political ideologies it discusses. Byatt is almost— almost painfully descriptive. But the metaphors are so perfect. And she does not simply describe things. S More...

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Jul 26, 2011

Ian added it

This is a long novel, which feels long. It is the story of a group of progressive, left-leaning middle class families set towards the end of the 19th century and finishing at the end of the First World War. The book features real life figures from the period in walk on parts (Rupert Brooke, for instance), and central characters based on Edith Nesbit and Eric Gill (allegedly), along with some fictional creations. It is filled with detail, especially about the Arts and Crafts movement and its More...

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Jul 07, 2011

Deb rated it:

This is a fat, sprawling book that spans the late Victorian period through World War I, about writers, artists, Fabian socialists, the arts and crafts movement, free love, the suffrage movement, theater, puppetry and war. If those subjects intrigue you on the face of it, give this book time to sink in: it's one of those lovely slow-paced books perfect for summertime, although its abundance of characters make for confusion at times. The story pivots around Olive Wellwood, a successful writer of c More...

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