The Children's Book

With Rosalyn Landor's superb reading of Byatt's novel, set in the years from 1895 to the end of WWI, listeners become completely absorbed in the lives of the large Wellwood family. The story is centered on the mother, Olive, a celebrated author of children's fantasies. Landor meets the challenge of delivering this lengthy novel, which interweaves multiple elements: the story of the Wellwoods' complex relationships with other families in the Kent countryside, the stories Olive has written for children, and extensive passages providing artistic, intellectual, social, and political details of the era. Landor narrates with a mellow tone and an unhurried tempo, and gives each character a distinct voice. A better pairing of narrator and novel can't be imagined. Audio is the perfect format for this finalist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. C.R.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

June 8, 2009
Byatt's overstuffed latest wanders from Victorian 1895 through the end of WWI, alighting on subjects as diverse as puppetry, socialism, women's suffrage and the Boer War, and suffers from an unaccountably large cast. The narrative centers on two deeply troubled families of the British artistic intelligentsia: the Fludds and the Wellwoods. Olive Wellwood, the matriarch, is an author of children's books, and their darkness hints at hidden family miseries. The Fludds' secrets are never completely exposed, but the suicidal fits of the father, a celebrated potter, and the disengaged sadness of the mother and children add up to a chilling family history. Byatt's interest in these artists lies with the pain their work indirectly causes their loved ones and the darkness their creations conceal and reveal. The other strongest thread in the story is sex; though the characters' social consciences tend toward the progressive, each of the characters' liaisons are damaging, turning high-minded talk into sinister predation. The novel's moments of magic and humanity, malignant as they may be, are too often interrupted by information dumps that show off Byatt's extensive research. Buried somewhere in here is a fine novel.