The Children Act by Ian McEwan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

" [...] she thought in idle moments that she could send down [to prison] all those parties wanting, at the expense of their children, a younger wife, a richer or less boring husband, a different suburb, fresh sex, fresh love, an new worldview, a nice new start before it was too late."

I believe that many ills of our world can be attributed directly to parents damaging their children during childhood. I do not mean child abuse - which also exists and is a criminal activity - I mean the non-criminal, ordinary human behavior of parents caring about themselves at the expense of their children. The author's view is clear: he advocates giving the welfare of children the highest priority in parents' hierarchy of values. Since I subscribe to exactly the same view Ian McEwan's The Children Act (2014) should be one of my favorite books. Why then I am not enthusiastic at all? Well, it reads as a social advocacy piece rather than a novel. It does not feel much like literature to me.

We meet Fiona May, a British High Court judge in the Family Division, as she prepares to decide one of her cases. Judge May has been happily married for over 30 years but now that their marriage has turned passionless her husband stuns her with a request that she allow him to have an affair with a woman half her age. But Fiona's marriage troubles soon fade into the background as we learn about Judge May's most important case, the case that lends the novel is social advocacy emphasis. Adam, not quite 18 yet, is suffering from an acute form of leukemia. Blood transfusion has a record of being helpful in that form and stage of the disease and the doctors are optimistic about saving the boy's life. However, his parents are Jehovah's witnesses and it is "contrary to their faith to accept blood products into their bodies." The boy himself, devoutly follows his parents' beliefs and does not want the procedure: he would rather die than violate the articles of faith. Since the boy is not yet an adult, the hospital wants the judge to override his wishes and force the procedure to save the boy's life.

The author takes a clear stand on the issue but he editorializes too much: he expresses his opinions without at least some semblance of using standard tools of literary fiction even if this is supposed to be a novel rather than a polemic in a newspaper. Neither do I like when the author milks all the heart-rending aspects of the case to their full extent and in a sensationalist fashion. Also, the further part of Adam's thread seems to stretch the boundaries of plausibility (although for readers who like the so-called "twists and turns" of a plot it might be considered a bonus). To me, it is yet another case of the plot being custom-tailored to be "gripping" or, in other words, "too much of a good thing."

I am not all negative on the novel. As usual, Mr. McEwan dazzles with accomplished prose. There are some wonderful passages capturing the characters' psychology through detailed observation of their micro-behaviors:

"But there are ways of setting down a cup on a table, from the peremptory clip of china on wood to a sensitive noiseless positing, and there are ways of accepting the cup, which she did smoothly, in slow motion, and after she had taken one sip she didn't wander off, or not immediately, as she might have on any other morning."

Perhaps the best feature of the novel is when the author refrains from editorializing and sensationalizing and alludes to Judge May's childlessness as a possible factor in her decision on the case. He refrains from telling the reader what the influence might be. It is not the author's business to tell the reader what to think!

If you read books for their social or political message, this is a great book. If, however, you read them for literature, perhaps it is not a good choice.

Two-and-three-quarter stars


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