Book review: The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt

[effani]

As far as I can tell, there are exactly two good things about this book:

1. The cover
2. The fact that it's written in standard English with correct punctuation.

Comments

[wuruiqiu]

That is sometimes the only good thing about some books.

[effani]

I thought you might disagree with me on this one. I'd be curious to hear your take, especially since my book club was unanimous on it

[effani]

I guess I'm just looking for different things in literature than you are. (I guess we knew that already.) I can see its appeal through your eyes, but for me, it has to clear the hurdle of getting me to care about the characters and what happens to them before I want to pay attention to those things. This book didn't at all.

Out of curiosity, have you read Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett? We read it for book club a couple of months ago, and I really enjoyed it and thought that it did some of the things you're describing well. Not all--the timeline is relatively short, and the historical context obscured and not fully described. But it does have a large ensemble cast, and part of the joy is watching them interact over the course of the book. Without both books in front of me, I can't say what made me care about one set of characters and not the other, but I did