Book+21++-+The+Children's+Act


 * Discussion Dates:** Friday 10th July to Friday 24th July



1. What would you rate this book out of 10 and why?

Jane: A strong nine. But Ian McEwan can do little wrong in my eyes. Oh, except when he wrote Solar. Perhaps the only reason I don't go for the full 10 is because I raced through it far too quickly.

Mel: 7.5/10. I really liked the start of this book. London and the law. Two of my favorite themes. I thought that it faded a bit towards the end, but still came away thinking that it was a very interesting premise for a book.

Lynne: 7/10. I loved it and then, after finishing it, I wanted more - from Jack, from Fiona, about their personals struggles. I think in the end it was a bit too skewed towards her professional life and the cases she was involved with, and the other lawyers etc etc. I wanted to expand on their marriage, or is that a whole other book? Anyway, this is a small criticism of a fantastic book. So concise, so powerful. I have gone back and read different parts again and again. Mel, why are you editing at the same time I am editing?? It's freaking me out.

Mel: Great minds Lynna! Working on this at the same time. You... freezing you butt off in Melbourne. Me... sweating it out in the singlet top in Singapore.

Gen: 6/10. I didn't love it. Like Mel I was interested in the first part (especially having worked for a Family Court judge in my past) but then I found the parts with Adam in the second half of the book to be very far fetched and a bit too like a parable for my liking. Still it was very well written. And a lot quicker to read than our next book (which I REALLY loved but more of that later...)

Carissa: 8/10. I enjoyed reading about the law and about life in the London courts of Justice. The particular case of Adam was intriguing

Jane: Heat, Mel, heat! Send some sweat-inducing heat over this way.

Lynne: Gen - good to see you back and love that you are panning a book. Reading your comments made me remember that I forgot to write that I found Adam a really irritating character. I know I was supposed to feel sorry for him, teetering on the edge of life, but he was a pain.

Sharyn: 6/10. This was an easy read, even for someone in the midst of moving countries, but my heart wasn't in it. I found it too restrained, too cold. The length of the book didn't allow me to really get to know the characters or to explore the various relationships in any depth.

Rachel: I am really torn with this one. Like you Jane, McEwan can do no wrong in my mind. 'Child in Time' is up there as one of my favourite books of all time and I love his ability to capture the flaws and absurdities of life. But there is something I just can't my finger on with 'The Children Act'. Sharyn, I think you might have nailed it for me in describing it as cold. The characters are convincing, the content is intelligent - fascinating in fact - but I still came away feeling 'mhaah'??!! I wanted MORE. I kind of felt McE might have just given up somewhere along the linbe. I didn't feel emotionally involved enough with the character Fiona to care about her or her guilt at the end. A squandered opportunity I'm sorry to say which is why, with regret, I give it a 5/10. A decent read but McEwan can do so much better.

2. Jack refuses to take full responsibility for his decision to have an affair, saying that in part it is due to Fiona (pp.32–3). Do you think she is partly responsible for Jack’s decision? To what extent do you sympathise with Fiona? To what extent do you sympathise with Jack?

Lynne: I do think she is partly to blame, and she knows it. But there were extenuating circumstances (the siamese twins case and the heavy burden of the ruling she ulitimately made), but she never communicated this to Jack, and so, he feels shut out and looks elsewhere for a connection. I don't feel any sympathy for her. She should have sensed her husband's feelings. I reckon you can always tell when your man is out of sorts. I have a lot of sympathy for jack and getting to such an advanced age, without children, and sensing your significant other starting to drift emotionally. I raised the idea of 'one last passionate fling' with my husband (in the context of this book, not our lives!) and neither of us could ever imagine growing older and prioritising sex over all else, because that is what Jack did - he made sex more important than their marriage.

Mel: I totally agree Lynne with never imagining giving sex such a priority in my life that I would be prepared for the rest of it to potentially come crumbling down like a house of cards around me. But I am sure that there are a lot out there, like Jack, who would.

Jane: I think that two people contribute to and take away from a marriage, but, in the end, a person's decision to have an affair is ultimately their own. I sympathise with both characters, one who is highly ambitious and another who seeks warmth and desire.

Mel: I don't accept that Fiona is partly responsible for Jack's decision to have the affair. He needs to own that decision. Yet, I think that McEwan is clever in that he allows the reader to understand (if not feel sympathy for) both positions. I do get where Jack is coming from, but I also understand Fiona's fury at his thoughtless and cavalier decision.

Carissa: I agree that the decision to have an affair is Jack's sole responsibility, but he was left out of Fiona's exacting, driven and ambitious career. Had he been a stronger personality, he might have insited that she see his situation and loneliness, or suggested counselling, to restore their affection and intimacy.

Sharyn: I don't have much sympathy for Jack. I think what he did was cruel, heartless and selfish. Even if Fiona was partly responsible for the demise of their marriage as a result of her preoccupation with work and emotional neglect, that doesn't excuse his actions.

Rachel: What an idiot this guy is - if I had more connection to the character Fio0na, my rant might be longer! What I did find fascinating was Fiona's observation about the vast numbers of spouses who break up their family units ultimately for a 'trade up' - someone younger, richer, better looking. I didn't feel McEwan was being preachy or judgemental, just making the point about how the actions of adults impact children the most every time. It was also slightly sad when Fiona mused about how her imaginary children might have reacted to their father's rash decision to have an affair.

3. The word ‘cruel’ occurs several times. Fiona refers to herself as ‘selfish, cruel, drily ambitious’ (p.45), do you agree with her? Later, she thinks of Jack ‘it didn’t seem possible that the person she knew most intimately could be so cruel’ (p.83). Do you think Jack is cruel?

Mel: I didn't think that Fiona was cruel at any point in terms of her relationship with Jack. In fact the catalogue of thoughtful gifts and ideas for shared time that she describes puts me to shame!! But kissing Adam could be classified as cruel. He was so needy and trusted her so much.

Jane: I do not think of Fiona as cruel at all. I think she has good intentions, but makes mistakes along the way. Like all humans.

Lynne: I did not think Fiona was cruel to Jack but it was cruel of him to take such extreme action when all he needed to do was coax her back towards tenderness. Show some understanding of the stresses of her job and get her to talk through her hesitations - not just pack a suitcase and hop into bed with a willing candidate.

Carissa: I felt that Fiona was cold towards Jack, if not actually cruel. She seemed to me cold/cruel not to have replied to Adam's firsst letter, along the lines Lynne suggested, in order to deflate his infatuation gently.

Rachel: I agree Carissa, Fiona is more guilty of coldness than cruelty, but specifically her coldness towards Adam rather than Jack. Again, man up Jack you idiot! Boo hoo, so your successful wife isn't showing you enough love and affection? Get over and deal with it! Fiona was clearly detaching herself, trying to process the psychologically demanding case in which she had to make the choice of one Siamese twin over the other - just awful. Jack should have shown compassion and understanding and was cruel in his lack of it. I often wonder how doctors and judges etc make the decisions they do and function 'normally' in their personal lives.

4. Fiona’s personal problems are constantly juxtaposed with ‘larger’ world issues and with the court cases that she is presiding over. Consider pp.24–31, the Siamese twins case, and p.59, the litany of horrors on the world news. Do you think this sense of scale belittles her personal situation?

Carissa: On the surface, it certainly does, but, in reality, the utter bleak loneliness of being abandoned by your husband, whom you have trusted and loved for decades is pretty serious.

5. When Jack comes back to Fiona she responds by hiding behind her work, spreading out work documents in front of her as ‘a form of protection. Without them she would not know what to do with herself’ (p.126). Do you think Fiona is totally defined by her job?

Mel: No I don't. She has her music. Has had a full life with her husband and extended family. She traveled.

Lynne: I reckon she was defined by her job and the music was a conscious effort on her part to ensure she not consumed by her work. She was ambitious from the time she left school and placed career above family and I think she lives to regret this. I reckons she's pretty 1 dimensional and on reflection I don't like her very much. Ouch!

Carissa: I agree with Mel. That action of using her work to protect herself when Jack returned is a natural way of staving off the confrontation that she dreaded, feeling guilty, herself, and yet, feeling disgusted that he has hopped into bed with someone young and delicious.

6. Do you think Fiona makes the right decision in ruling in favour of the hospital and allowing them to treat Adam against his wishes?

Jane: I like this question because I can relate to it right at this moment. I am currently on a hospital based placement, working with children with severe disabilities, developmental delays, and brain injury. Ethical dilemmas emerge every day. And 'professionals' always consider the principles of ethics, legislation, codes of conduct that apply to their fields... a patient has the right to autonomy BUT the professional has to fulfill their obligation to beneficence, ie. doing good for the patient. I guess Fiona's legal mind considers only the legislation in this 'ethical dilemma' and makes her decision. There is no right or wrong decision, I don't think. It is not a binary, not so black and white.

Lynne: I do think she made the right decision and she is vindicated when Adam (who thought he was making the right decision by refusing the transfusion) ends up thanking her for saving his life. Even though he was close to 18, she obviously thought he was not ready to make such a crucial decision and essentially overuled him and his family. It could have turned out so well, if only.......

Carissa: Yes, I think it is the right decision and I think it was good that she went to talk to Adam to get an idea of the state of his mind.

Rachel: Jane, that's really interesting. If this was a real time, face to face chat, I'd love to talk to you some more about your placement. Very consciously wearing my liberal, secular hat, I think she absolutely made the right decision. I wonder how some of my international more devout students might respond if they had a chance to answer the same question though?

Mel: As I was reading this book I came upon an article in the paper about a very similar case in Queensland. The judge ruled along the same lines as Fiona. I meant to save the article and send it to you guys....

7. How did you feel when Fiona kissed Adam. Did this change your opinion of her?

Mel: I was quite surprised. It seemed incredibly reckless and unethical. Hinting I guess to her state of mind at the time rather than who she is at he core.

Jane: Agreed, reckless and out of character. But she was obviously needing/looking for something and happened to find it in Adam. Completely unethical, unthinking and unexpected. I wished at that moment that she made her mistake with someone else, with someone not so vulnerable.

Lynne: I was repulsed. I think I had already decided I didn't like her when she refused to answer his innocent little notes in the mail. Then it escalated to him tracking her down and her reaction was to linger on his lips - gross. So inappropriate and creepy. I thought she felt a maternal type of regard for the kid so I was shocked that, as the older & more mature person, she did not immediately pull away.

Carissa: I did not like that bit at all. I felt that Fiona, too, felt appalled by her sudden lapse. It changed my opinion of her in so far as it showed her to be less cold and steely than she had seemed. Her loneliness and loss had made her unreliable.

Rachel: Yep, didn't get this plot twist at all. I think I 'ttsked' in fact! It was just so unconvincing - other than it being necessary to plot progression, what was McEwan thinking?? Adam was clearly needy and vulnerable - that I get. But her?! There was no sense that she was reeling enough from the breakdown of her marriage, in desperate need of feeling wanted enough to warrant her actions.

Mel: I 'ttsked' too!

8. Do you blame Fiona for what ultimately happens to Adam?

Lynne: partially. She could so easily have written to him that she was glad he was happy and recovering but that her position prevented her from engaging in on-going correspondence blah blah blah. Instead she hid from her repsonsibility and it made him pursue her more enthusiastically. She could have contacted the social worker to act as a messenger, or his parents to get them to assist. Anyway, Adam ultimately decided his own fate but Fiona was partly to blame.

Carissa: I think Adam was a hypersensitive, fanciful boy, who saw suicide as a glorious sacrifice. Although he had been grateful that Fiona had saved him from the hideous death from cancer, he was in love with the idea of death, especially as a sacrifice for Fiona. All his behaviour suggested that he was unhinged, though excerptionally bright.

Rachel: YES!!! Absolutely (I'm conscious that my answers are getting more emotive and forthright the further down this rather wonderful bottle of red I am working through as I sit in rural France!) She established a connection with an impressionable minor, a connection she was well aware had been made in the boy's mind, and then didn't take responsibility for that connection. She was the one who broke protocol, went to the hospital and made that connection, she needed to honour the consequences of those actions. And she carelessly and coldy chooses not to. She opened his eyes to an ENTIRELY different way of viewing the world, paradigm shift proportions, and then just abandons him...

9. The title refers to the 1989 Children’s Act, which enshrines the child’s welfare as the ‘paramount consideration’ in any court ruling. Do you think it is an apt title? What else could the book have been called?

Mel: I don't have an alternative title. I like this one. Essentially the book is about this case and the judge who presides over so many cases that call on her to determine the act.

Jane: Apt title, me thinks.

Lynne: I agree with Jane. Speaking of titles, I just finished reading a book with the greatest title in history, "Every Man in This Village is a Liar" by Megan K Stack. She was a 25 year old journalist on holidays in Paris on Sept 11 so the LA Times sent her to Afghanistan to cover the war on terror. It was full of amazing anecdotes from her time as a foreign correspondent (Mel, you'd love it) in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and back to Iraq. She learned on the job, she was raw/fearless, naive and her insights make you think again about the current state of the world.

Carissa; The title appeals to me

Rachel: Very apt - 'paramount consideration' but McEwan exposes it as being a consideration that is short lived. Fiona considers and moves on, leaving the people dealing with the consequences of her decisions on their own. Necessary of course but the whole process does feel very cold. Ultimately, Fiona fails Adam. Her responsibility for Adam began encroaching upon her tidy and organised life and so she ignored it, ignored him. Very tragic.

10. Is there anything else that you would like to ask or say about the book that has not been covered in the questions above?

Jane: Yes, this: “Worth remembering the world was never how she anxiously dreamed it.” Exquisite. That is all. Mel: Yes Jane, these lines are certainly worth repeating. Unlike you, I have not had an enduring relationship with Ian McEwan's writing. I have started about 4 of his books and put down a couple without finishing them. I liked Atonement but a couple of the others left me cold. But after this concise and well told little story I would definitely try him again. Jane: I love learning about bookish tastes. I feel, Mel, that we enjoy many of the same books (I still rate A Prayer for Owen Meany - which you gave me - as one of my many faves), so I love it when I hear of differences! What is it about the books that made you put the McEwans down? Lynne: Jane is right, there are some stunning little phrases in this book and I'm glad I read it. Like Mel, I liked Atonement and I think I liked On Chesil Beach as well, but have not read the rest. On another note, I am loving Aldi's Dark Chocolate with Almonds. Jane: Lynne, I had to google Aldis Dark Chocolate with Almonds. YUM. Carissa: There seems to be a pattern or something symbolic about the unfolding of the story. At the beginning, when Fiona is rescuing Adam from death, her marriage and life are on the point of destruction. At the end, when Adam does commit suicide, she curls up, helplessy, in her bed, and Jack comes and curls protectively round her and their relationship is re-born.

Lynne: my copy of The Signature of All Things arrived today, and with 550 odd pages of tiny type I better head to bed to get started.

Mel: As I have read all your comments and thought further about the book it has dawned on me the very heady and life and death decisions about other people's children that Fiona makes, and how she has yet never experienced the thousands of little (and often mind numbing) decisions that a parent makes every day with regards to they children. She probably is the right one for the job. I couldn't do it now. Every sad story in front of me I would like be seeing my sons and would be too overcome by the emotion of it I think....