The Bloggers' Book Club vs. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt - who won?

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt was the Bloggers' Book Club choice for June. I didn't get it until last week when Ann kindly gave me her copy from the library when we met for lunch - yes, it was so nice to meet a fellow blogger in reality rather than virtually and we had a lovely chat - and she will probably write her own comment on the book.

For me - I was defeated before I even started. I didn't like the premise of the book, writing stories for children in Edwardian or Victorian times seemed a bit pretentious to me anyway, and the size of the book was pretty intimidating for a summer read that wasn't blockbuster/bodice-ripper/chick-lit genre. I got about 40 or 50 pages into it and found I kept losing track of the characters, there was a touch of The Railway Children about the opening pages without the promise of a good yarn along the way, and I slowly found myself losing the will to live.

So I quit while I was still breathing unaided. I returned to the book I had set aside in the effort - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver - with a sigh of relief and I am thoroughly enjoying her rehash of the lives of revolutionary Mexico in the mid-War years as seen through the eyes of a house staff member of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, complete with houseguest asylum seeker Trotsky. The history in this book is all very accessible and readable and maybe I just wasn't able to deal with all the preachy detail in the Children's Book, as it too is full of history and way too much information on everything, so maybe I just need to 'fess up to not being as clever or intellectual as I like to think I am!

Anyway this is short as people will drop by to see what I thought of the book, and I don't want to chicken out of commenting on it - if I sign up to the group I feel I should participate - and that's not done grudgingly but from respect for those who put the effort into it - and I have great admiration for those of you who have had the tenacity to see it through. Those who have seem to have mixed feelings about it and so far I haven't read a totally positive review.

I went to Amazon after I quit and was surprised to see the critiques there - so many people said it needed major editing and it seemed to have been lazily proofed that so much unnecessary repetition crept in unnoticed. It seems almost an academic tome if you want to know all about the Arts and Crafts movement and then some, but why dress it up as a novel then?

I guess I am not in a fair position to comment when I failed so spectacularly to read the book, so I will leave it at this. I am really looking forward to re-reading next month's offering - Kingsolver's classic The Poisonwood Bible. This is a long time favourite which I cited in a recent HSE Staff magazine profile (if you want to check out the piece it's on page 88 of the magazine Health Matters) as my favourite book of all time. It resonates on so many levels for me. I hope you all enjoy it as much!