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The Children Act
As seen:
By Ian McEwan
avg rating
3 reviews
A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author of Atonement and Amsterdam.
Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out.
She visits the boy in hospital – an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. But it is Fiona who must ultimately decide whether he lives or dies and her judgement will have momentous consequences for them both.
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We felt that although this was a very interesting premise the book overall was not very pacy where it really could have been. It was actually quite dull and dry in places making it tough to read. Some of the cases mentioned were very interesting to some members of the book group. We actually went on to discuss some of these cases within the group such as those relating to cot deaths. It is interesting and a little scary how things have moved on even though some people were judged wrongly at the time.
We discussed the job of the main protagonist and how we felt that although she seemed to be functioning well she was actually completely falling apart on the inside. We wondered how we would have coped if we were her. She had such a tough job with those decisions she had to make affecting people and their lives. We felt that she should have had someone professional who she could talk to about the things going on in her job, not from a job point of view but simply to help her cope with everything. It felt to us that often the people in the cases seemed happy to shift the stress and burden of the decision onto her for a while until the decision was finally made. They didn't want to make a decision so they made her do it instead and she would have to live with the consequences. We wondered if she would have been able to do the job she does if she had children of her own, would this have made her make different decisions?
We had a discussion on religion and how it affects how people make decisions and how they life their lives. It's interesting to see how so many people interpret religious texts in so many different ways and how that then means they have to live.
Overall we gave this book 6 out of 10.
Read with Gloucester Book Club. What a great book, I just loved it, but then I usually like all Ian McEwan's books! So much to discuss here about the ethics of forcing a 17 year old to have hospital treatment against his wishes. Would thorough recommend for a book club read.
Read with Funky Monkey Book Club, Davenport, Stockport. Overall average score 7/10.
