The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
Expansive. Covering years from 1880’s to end of WWI in England. Many intertwined personalities with whom we become intimately acquainted. Victoria and Albert Museum prominent in 1st half of book. Pottery. Ceramics. Textiles. Puppetry. Marionettes. Germans. Munich. Socialism. Anarchy. Victorian to Edwardian eras. I learned so much about the history of the time. Detailed depictions of everything from the texture of cloth and the tactile sensations of clay to the horrors of trench warfare. Evocative. I was sad to leave the characters and sad to finish the book.
The conversation on pages 405-410 between father and daughter, between Anselm Sterm and Dorothy, is a lovely conversation, of a type I wish I could have had with my father.
When again I visit London, I am inspired by this book to visit the Victoria and Albert and spend good, important time in the newly redone Imperial War Museum’s WWI exhibit.
impressionstravl.com 