The Children of Men

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Summary: Futuristic Novel Examines World Without Children
Review:

Often the appeal of science fiction lies in the genre's ability to extrapolate from the trends of the present and project them into the future. One novel exemplifying this tendency is "The Children Of Men" by P.D. James.

In "The Children Of Men", the reader finds a world where the population has become inexplicably infertile and must deal with the stresses of a dwindling population and the psychological angst that results when many realize what's the point of life if it will come to a screeching halt in a scant generation. Such a milieu is explored through the eyes of Oxford Historian Theodore Faron who becomes a reluctant intermediary between a group of bumbling, idealistic revolutionaries and the dictatorial Warden of England who happens to be Theodore's cousin.

The group starts out with the goal of enacting needed reforms such as better treatment of migrant workers known as Sojourners and restoring order to an out-of-control penal colony on the Isle of Man where the inmates --- some not as criminal as the general population is led to believe --- are left to fend for themselves. However, as the story unfolds a matter of greater urgency comes to the forefront of the plot, namely that a couple within the cell has been able to conceive a child.

"The Children Of Men" is not the most riveting example of the dystopian police state novel. It often gets bogged in the details of the personal experiences, emotions, and perceptions of its protagonist Theodore Faron. Yet at times the book provides glimpses into a morally eerie world where the outrages of our own day are allowed to fester to ghastly proportions.

For example, the elderly are encouraged to commit ritualized suicide in a ceremony called the "Quietus", which Theo discovers is not quite so voluntary for those trying to back out at the last minute. Since people no longer have children, they instead lavish their nurturing affections on pets, even having their kittens christened at formalized baptisms. Those born into the last generation are given free reign and little moral instruction --- as such they are self-absorbed to the point of arrogance and even murder.

Of particular interest is the frequent mention of religion made throughout the novel. Two of the revolutionaries are motivated by Christian beliefs. However, others hide behind the cloak of aberrant faith as a scam to enrich themselves personally.

"Roaring Roger" is a fire-and-brimstone televangelist preaching that the global infertility is God's judgment while playing on guilt and fear to finance his own lavish lifestyle. Rosie McClure is more broadminded in her religious views, but so much so her brain roles right out as she preaches a gospel of nonjudgmental hedonism. The Church of England is characterized as "no longer with a common doctrine or common liturgy, [and] so fragmented that there was no knowing what some sects might have come to believe." One just wishes Ms. James had spent as much time in such socio-clerical exposition as she did in embroidering the extraneously tedious background details of Professor Faron's psyche.

The political situation described in "The Children Of Men" serves as a cautionary tale where our own institutions are headed if we are not careful. In most speculative narratives dealing with one form of totalitarianism or the other, the regimes under consideration often lord over the masses with brutality.

In "The Children Of Men", however, the Warden's regime is rather genteel as far as dictatorships go if you happen to be a good little citizen and not to stir up offense. But then again, most of the citizens don't cause much trouble anyway since most have lost interest in political participation and the Warden is careful to maintain illusions of democracy. Of this society very much like our own, one is reminded of Francis Schaeffer's warnings in "A Christian Manifesto" about comfort and affluence becoming the organizing principles in a political system where higher truths such as freedom and self-reliance are increasingly seen as impediments to rather than a necessity of just government and good order.

Rating:
Summary: No Emotion, Please. We're British.
Review: The premise of this novel is intriguing. Unfortunately, the intrigue ends there and is replaced with a drab portrayal of a depressing future.

The greatest problem is I have with this book is the detachment with which the year 2021 is explored. Objective perspective may work well in a detective novel, but in The Children of Men, James' prose is affected by the same ennui that has overtaken her Twenty-First Century world. In the opening chapters, for instance, there is a scene where one woman brutally destroys the porcelain doll another woman has been treating as a baby. The initial moment of violence is shocking, but beyond that the scene lacks emotional impact: We see the people around her react by not reacting, simply continuing on with their lives. Unfortunately, the ultimate result of James' technique is that we don't care if England is living under a totalitarian regime because none of her citizens, her protagonist chief among them, seems to care either.

Another problem comes from the fact that nothing exists in 2021 that didn't exist in 1992 when the book was written, and for the most part little that existed in the 1980s is present either: no computers, no cell phones, etc. If James took little risk in exploring the emotional depths of her characters, she took even less in exploring the potential for the use (or misuse) of hypothetical future technology. Cloning, an obvious solution for the book's dilemma, is never even mentioned. Why set the book in the future if everything about it is identical to the past? Sure, things won't come to pass exactly as you imagine, but 1995 came and went without global infertility and that's the element people enjoy most about the book.

Finally, the novel fails to look at the situation in England, which we are told - but never shown - is despotic, by comparing it to the situation in any other European country. At the end of Book 1 Faron travels to France, Spain and Italy, but we're never told if or how things fare better or worse there. His travels serve only to provide a reason for the time gap between Books 1 and 2. James misses an opportunity to provide a context for or comment on the political situation in England, and all the reader can do is shrug his or her shoulders and keep reading (the ennui is contagious).

Maybe there's a subtext I'm missing - maybe James is saying that people can numb themselves into accepting totalitarianism, or that nothing really changes, or that life's the same all over - but if she is she's doing it far too subtly for most of her readership (based on the majority of reviews here). I don't regret reading this book, but I can't find much in it to recommend to others.

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Summary: She is no mere crime writer. This is a WRITER.
Review: This is a great book. P. D. James has clearly displayed that she can suceed at anything she turns her hand to. i even found myself enjoying this novel even more than some of the Dalgliesh books.

There is one word that can describe this book. That word is............Lovely...........mainly because it is. The plot is, perhaps somewhat simple, but that just makes for an easier read. and it does start fairly slowly. But it is lovely. Aside from being a futuristic novel, it is also a very tender lovestory. One of the things that make this book great is the fact that it is a nice old fashioned story. Some of the ideas Ms James had are now, clearly not correct, but could well have been. everything she has written is the product of a very logical mind and, if things had gone differently, none of them are beyond the bounds of our imaginations. Some of the things she writes even seem comical compared to now. Which, whilst probably not intentional, does add flavour to the story. There is also good, adventure, intirgue, action, etc.

Well done, I would reccomend this to one and all as proof of Ms James title as one of the best writer's the world has ever seen. I shall savour every one of her novels, because i only expect there to be two, possibly three, more, because, let's face it people, she won't be around for ever, enjoy her while you can!!!!

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Summary: Welcome to Britain: 2021.
Review: Welcome to Britain: 2021. Crime writer James' foray into the science fiction genre is as chilling a vision of the near future as Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale or Orwell's 1984. Although it ultimately descends into a fairly routine adventure story with religious overtones, the initial depiction of an infertile world where no child has been born for a quarter of a century is powerful enough to sustain any reader's attention. Although a decade old, The Children of Men is still frighteningly plausible. The Year of Omega (when Earth's last child was born) may have been 1995, but if the reader projects the novel's dateline a decade forward, the story loses none of its potency. Admittedly, James occasionally lets herself down - surprisingly she falls into the common sci-fi trap of giving unconvincing names to her protagonists; are Theodore Faron and Xan Lyppiatt really such likely names for two Britons supposedly born in the early nineteen seventies? Nevertheless, James' Britain, where mass euthanasia for the old is both commonplace and state-sponsored and where the Isle of Man has been transformed into a hellish penal colony is convincingly detailed. A good, if sometimes harrowing, read.