Pam's Book 3: The Children's Book

My first A.S. Byatt book was, of course, Possession. I was going to Europe for three weeks and needed one book that was long enough and dense enough to keep me going for nearly three weeks. I came across it in the library, but ended up deciding that a paperback was the way to go. I found the book fascinating, was caught up in the romance and the mystery. The next summer, when I returned to Europe, I decided to make a tradition out of reading Byatt and purchased The Virgin in the Garden for the occasion. The only mystery in that book was why I continued to read it. Every day my fellow traveler Felicia would ask, "Have you figured out what it's about yet?" Finally, on the plane ride home, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, I shook her awake. "Felicia, I finished the book." "Have you figured out what it's about yet?" "No."

The Children's Book, on an enjoyment level, fell somewhere between the other two. I feel that at 675 densely packed pages, it was a tad bit long. The story begins in Victorian England like many a good Victorian story: with two boys discovering a third, a talented yet penniless runaway hiding in the basement of what would later become the Victoria and Albert Museum. The runaway, Philip, is of course taken under the wing of the mother of one of his rescuers. He is a skilled artist and wants nothing more than to make beautiful pots. Later Philip is taken in by a temperamental master potter. Yet the story isn't really about Philip, although he makes regular appearances throughout the book, even up to the last page. The story is about Philip and the Fludds (the potter's family), the Wellwoods (two sets), the Cains, the Sterns. The elder family members are ardent political dissidents. One child (of course the unexpected child) follows in their footsteps. While the families are all interconnected (in more ways than we suspect at the beginning), each child, in the end, seems like he should belong to a different family, including the dissident child. Several die in the last fifty pages during World War I.

At first, reflecting on the book, I thought I was disappointed in the lack of strong woman characters. Then I realized that none of the characters was very strongly drawn. This is a book driven by characters, as there is only a faint thread of meandering plot. Yet, very characters seemed very three-dimensional. They all have a wispiness to them. I can't help but wonder, though, whether that might have been intentional. A recurring motif in the book is that of a fairyland, an "other" world, somehow connected to our own and accessed by some kind of magical portal. Characters in fairy tales are most definitely not realistically drawn. Did Byatt have the same idea here? I can't make up my mind.

This is a book of secrets, kept dark in the fairyland, regularly brought out into the light, only to be hidden again and acknowledged later. Some of the secrets are utterly dull and banal; some hold more interest. Sometimes the characters act as expected; some do not. Mothers hide them selves away, whether in stories, drugs, or society. Fathers become alternately sexually abusive and then loving. Or not. Two characters commit suicide. In the exact same way. Which annoyed me.

I think this will be my last A.S. Byatt book.