The Children of Men
by P.D. James
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Book Reviews of The Children of Men
Book Review: dystopian fiction meets romance in a morality tale
Summary: 4 Stars
I always knew PD James as a mystery writer. The film of the same name inspired me to read this book, and I'm glad I did. PD James' prose is muscular, yet beautiful. Her understanding of the nuances of human character transcend this story beyond its dark, dystopian premise: in the future, the human race has lost its ability to reproduce. With the end of the species in sight, humankind becomes depraved, depressed, and lost.
PD James explores how some people confront this dismal future with lust for power, and others with unfailing hope. She touches on topics which are germane today: treatment of immigrants and the aged; violence in the face of despair, etc.
The story and the movie are rather divergent at points, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying either one of them for what they are. I would absolutely recommend this book for both the fearful vision of the future PD James conjures and for her relentless, confident prose.
Book Review: A Dying World
Summary: 3 Stars
From what I have seen of the movie trailers I really wanted to see this movie. But I have not yet, the movie never came to my small town, it seems that if anything is remotely political it won't come to my towns single 8 movie theater. So, in anticipation of the movie, which comes out on video tommorrow, I read the book, and found it to be not at all like I had expected. The book has none of the social conditions depicted in the movie, and I began to think, why make a movie out of this? Then it occured to me, they took an already lack luster novel and decided to try and make it better, I say try, because I have yet to see the movie.
Take the mutterings of social unrest and turn them into a full fledged revolution. Take a somewhat benevelolent dictatorship and make it a tyranical one.
From what I have seen, and I've yet to see the movie mind you, but I would rather see the movie.
Book Review: This is the rare situation where the movie is better than the book
Summary: 2 Stars
The fact that the premise of this book is so interesting made me all the more disappointed that the execution of it was so poorly done. The characters are shallow, cliched, and very poorly developed. To make matters worse, the main character experiences a significant change in his fundamental personality that is completely unbelievable. And the final scene of the book is so cloying that it makes me shudder to remember it. If the premise hadn't been so intriguing, I would have only given this book one star.
This is the only time I've ever been able to say that the movie far far surpassed the book. The movie differs significantly from the book, basically abandoning everything except the main plot line. I would highly recommend the movie, but unless you're into any dystopian novel regardless of quality, I wouldn't recommend the book.
Book Review: Unfulfilled promise...
Summary: 2 Stars
Start with an interesting premise - all males have been rendered sterile simultaneously; follow through with this - the last humans was born some 20 years ago and when the remnants of the human race die, there will be no more man; then present hope - a woman becomes pregnant. How will here pregnancy be received by the powers that be?
What could have been a great book is marred by two dimensional characters and an ending which seems as though it was tacked on when James couldn't figure out where to go with the story.
A great book is a "good story, well told". In this case, an interesting premise didn't translate into a good story and it certainly wasn't well told.
Will I ever want to read it again? Nope! Would I recommend it to a friend? Nope!
Don't waste your time...
Book Review: Interesting, but sometimes dull
Summary: 2 Stars
I thought the movie Children of Men was interesting so I picked up the book which, like the movie, describes a world moving into apocalypse due to 25 years of the inability to procreate. Many descriptions of events in the book are vivid and full of detail, yet many of them do not relate to the overall theme or later events in the book which left me wondering why they were included at all? The beginning and ending of the book are very interesting but the middle did bore me. The book and movie both have good qualities but I think the movie would have been better if it had stayed true to the book. They had an opportunity to fix the books pacing issue but, instead, they omitted scenes from the book that I thought were critical and introduced additional social issue story lines that had little or no purpose.