The Children of Men by P.D. James Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Children of Men
Book Review: Better Than the Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is everything that the movie is not: complex, thoughtful, and filled with suspense over the future of the human race. Although many fans of P.D. James have apparently been disappointed by this book based on the reviews that I've read, anyone who has an open mind for dystopian science fiction will be pleasantly surprised. The first part of the book is pretty slow, but it serves to set the stage for the roller coaster ride in the second part--so don't give up on this book early!Book Review: Better than you would think
Summary: 4 Stars
I ordered this book last year, after buying the movie based on it. After a recent re-viewing of the film, I thought it was time to read the book.
Previous reviews cover the basics of the story. It is significantly different from the film, both in terms of plot twists and characterizations, but most importantly in it's main message. That can make it difficult to read at times, as you may attach the actors to the role in the movie and try and fit them into the same characters in the book. If you do that, you will be disappointed.
That said, this is a pretty good dystopian future novel. Some aspects of the world don't seem logical, and in this area I felt the movie did a better job. James' vision is more of a world slowly falling apart, but never to the degree the film portrays it. For example, in the middle of the story the main character takes an off-screen tour of Europe. This isn't a world where civilization is under siege as much as it is a world where civilization no longer seems to serve a point.
The major point James is trying to make concerns power. The Warden may be superficially portrayed as a dictator by some readers, but I think James was making a point about circumstances where democracy doesn't work. If people don't care about their future, who will make the hard decisions? Who will care? And if someone comes along who takes up that mantle, does it matter if you are still allowed the things you care about? The revolutionary group at the center of the story is pretty quickly revealed to have only minor real differences in mind, despite it's self-proclaimed goals. The ending suggests that no matter how good the intentions, the individual man can lose perspective. By the end I no longer found the Warden to be evil, just a normal flawed human being who did what he thought was right, what he thought was best for the group. Even in a democracy, those decisions are made all the time.
Book Review: Boring
Summary: 1 Stars
Her central protagonist is a bore. Since we see most of the story from his point of view, this means we witness an incredibly interesting world from the view of a boring, emotionally stifled man. The two don't mix well.
Also, this protagonist is, by his own admission, a philanderer. However, nary a sexual thought passes through his mind. And his sudden attraction to the pregnant woman is presented suddenly and without any persuasive detail.
The story's pacing also gets bogged down in the description that others mention in their reviews.
In other words: See the movie, skip the novel.
Book Review: Coulda Been Less Ho Hum
Summary: 2 Stars
This is essentially a tepid version of Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."
Both books take place in the near future, when for some reason humanity has lost its ability to reproduce. Nobody is producing babies any more and society as we know it collapses. New, repressive governments take over, civil liberties are squashed, and social miscreants are packed off to some remote place where they run lawless and kill each other. The governments are doing everything in their power to get someone, anyone, to reproduce, but it's all in vain.
Margaret Atwood's book is vivid. It provides sensation after sensation, so you feel you're living the experience. You witness public hangings, torture and rape, and you live through severe repression. In fact, the book gave me nightmares.
PD James's book is more removed, at least the first 90%. Her characters mention enforced sperm tests for males and government-run porn businesses, but you never see them in the book. It's very genteel, no-sex-please-we're-British-and-we-cling-to-our-pointless-useless-lifeless-and-absurd-religion.
The main character in Atwood's book is a fighter. The main character in James' book is a wet fish.
I found "Children of Men" a great way to put me to sleep; I couldn't read more than a page or two before my eyelids grew heavy.
Note: the last 10% gets down to the nitty-gritty and really perked my interest, but I doubt I'll read another PD James novel again.
Book Review: Depressing, yet true, future
Summary: 5 Stars
I like the way PD James takes the readers to see the future England without the usual hi-tech, not relevant part of it. The story is a fascinating view of the humans society in England following 25 years of infertility. The story is the notes of an historian that along side the story also tells the reader his life story. I liked it very much also because the book will keep you thinking about even after you finished reading it.