The Children of Men. - book reviews

Placing the words in the mouth of one of the five members of Xan's Council, P.D. James summarizes: "You [Theo] know what evils have been perpetrated through the ages to ensure the survival of nations, sects, religions, even of individual families. Whatever man has done for good or ill has been done in the knowledge that he has been formed by history, that his life-span is brief, uncertain, insubstantial, but that there will be a future, for the nation, for the race, for the tribe. That hope has finally gone except in the mind of fools and fanatics. Man is diminished if he lives without knowledge of his past; without hope of a future he becomes a beast."

Because James is known as a writer of murder mysteries, readers might expect that the plot, the suspense of the unfolding story, the excitement of the chase would provide the main interest of this book. Unfortunately, the unfolding story, buried in a mountain of detail, holds littie suspense, the chase little excitement. The framework of the book, all too plain to see, is never richly clothed; the numerous characters wander over a skillfully depicted landscape like so many sticks. It is too difficult to believe a redeemer will rise from the bed in the woodshed. The idea was a good one, but like so many of P.D. James's mysteries, this novel makes you wonder what makes her the queen.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Commonweal Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group