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My Real Children Paperback – May 19, 2015

by Jo Walton (Author)

69 customer reviews

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It's 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. "Confused today," read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know-what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don't seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead. She remembers the bomb that killed President Kennedy in 1963, and she remembers Kennedy in 1964, declining to run again after the nuclear exchange that took out Miami and Kiev.

Her childhood, her years at Oxford during the Second World War-those were solid things. But after that, did she marry Mark or not? Did her friends all call her Trish, or Pat? Had she been a housewife who escaped a terrible marriage after her children were grown, or a successful travel writer with homes in Britain and Italy? And the moon outside her window: does it host a benign research station, or a command post bristling with nuclear missiles?

Two lives, two worlds, two versions of modern history; each with their loves and losses, their sorrows and triumphs. Jo Walton's My Real Children is the tale of both of Patricia Cowan's lives...and of how every life means the entire world.

My Real Children

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Product Details

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (May 19, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 076533268X
ISBN-13: 978-0765332684
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9456 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

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Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars

5 star		47%
4 star		22%
3 star		23%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful

What really matters in life

By OtterB on May 20, 2014

Format: Hardcover

I'm finding it hard to put into words what was so gripping about this book. It is a quiet story, in a still-waters-run-deep way. A woman marries (or doesn't), takes a job (or doesn't), has a same-sex partner (or doesn't), has 3 children (or 4), makes a home here or there, lives through this world event or that one. It is an alternate history story - two of them, really - but the focus is not on the big, sweeping movements of history. Stroke by stroke, in Patricia Cowan's two parallel histories, Jo Walton paints a picture of the way our choices shape our lives, and our lives shape our choices. Really an excellent, thought-provoking book.

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

Good writing, but not entirely satisfying

By E. Smiley on June 1, 2014

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Jo Walton's books always seem to come out around 3.5 stars for me: I like them, but not as much as I want to. I keep coming back because she is a good writer, and because, unlike most fantasy authors, she has a talent for telling a story in one book without padding, and for telling a unique story every time. That holds true here, though again my response was lukewarm.

Patricia Cowan is a very old woman with dementia, but her symptoms go beyond the expected: she remembers two distinct lives, two different partners, two sets of children - who both come to visit her in two different nursing homes. This book follows her throughout both of her lives: through her childhood, to the point of divergence in 1949 (when she accepts a proposal of marriage, or doesn't), and then through alternating chapters in two increasingly different worlds. There are actually two alternate histories here - one a more peaceful and accepting version of 20th century history, the other more violent and ugly. The history plays out in the background, however, in asides while our protagonist goes through her life as either Pat or Trish.

This is a story told largely in summary, as it tries to capture all important events in two different lives in just over 300 pages. In some ways that's a strength, as Walton captures the scope of two entire lives with relatively few words. The children in particular come vividly to life with just a few deft strokes. The way the two lives unfold in counterpoint is clever and well-done, and for narrative summary, the story manages to be quite compelling. On the other hand, this technique also distances the reader from the characters, a problem particularly evident in both of Patricia's relationships.Read more ›

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

Brilliant, compelling alternate-world novel on the personal scale

By Cissa on June 4, 2014

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

While I don't have dementia, I do have very vivid dreams. Often, they are powerful enough that it takes me some time as i wake up to unwind what was true in my dreamscape from what is actually real. And as I try to unwind this- I feel like Pat/Trish in this novel.

The framing story is that Pat/Trish has inherited dementia, and is in a nursing home, and is "confused". Part of her confusion is that she distinctly remembers two different and incompatible lives, both with their joys and sorrows. Her own live diverged when she said "yes" or "no" to a marriage proposal; however, while I don't see that her life caused history to change, the world was also very different in these 2 threads, implying a greater range of alternatives than are depicted here.

I really loved that this was so focused on the personal, rather then Saving The World. Pat/Trish's choices do make a difference... but mostly for herself and her families.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..." This book is about that.

One of the most powerful, and best, novels I've ever read.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

A Lovely Life

By book beach bunny on June 1, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Books like these… they make me sad. That’s not really an observation on the book as much as my general feelings about books (or movies or television shows) in which we are with an older character near the end of her life looking back over the life that they have lived. In the book the main character actually gets two fully realized lives with lovers, children, friends and the whole nine yards. In one life it’s a crap marriage and some personal tragedies but a fairly nice normal world to live in while in the other it’s a happy personal life but the world itself sucks- nuclear bombs, horrible cancers. For her both of those worlds are currently running together. Which one did she chose? Which one should she have chosen?
Honestly whether Pat or Tricia it’s very well written. You do care about her. It does get kind of boring as it winds down but again most of life gets kind of boring as it winds down- it felt like a lot of reading off a list the last years; people died, people were born, Pat did this, Tricia did that and then the kids did this and that but those books always get me. The other issue for me was she sees the split in her life as whether or not she decides to marry Mark. While I definitely agree it’s a life choice even before she married him I couldn’t see any reason why she would. Meanwhile her partner in the other life is so perfect that she handles being crippled with the kind of aplomb that could be ascribed to a saint. Not much subtly in the romantic partners so when Patricia sums up her question as which life would you chose for me I couldn’t see how there was any question which one a person would chose.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Oddly Compelling Read

The narrative is very plain and straightforward, almost as if you were reading a summary of a life. However, I found I had to keep reading. Read more

Published 14 days ago by Andrew Gray

Had promise, but was a bit boring.

"My Real Children" has a wonderfully interesting premise. The idea of someone realizing that they could remember having lived two completely different lives over the same... Read more

Published 15 days ago by Josh

Two worlds out of one choice

Yes, the main device of this novel is decision a young woman makes around marriage. But from this choice comes two different worlds both deviating from our own. Read more

Published 28 days ago by Ross

Lovely story

As always, Jo Walton packs an emotional punch mixed with a fascinating what-if. I can't recommend this book strongly enough.

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

great book. one of the best I have read in years

Published 3 months ago by dale johnson

Very nice book. Fully realized worlds and it stick with ...

Very nice book. Fully realized worlds and it stick with you. I think about her lives and her choices all the time, and especially the different political atmospheres of her... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Katherine Binford

SURREAL ALTERNATE REALITIES

Confusion. Holes in her memory. A surreal sense of two separate lives that veered from one path into two during her younger years. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Laurel-Rain Snow

An Interesting Read

I found this to be a very interesting read. Everyone wonders how their life would hace been different if they had made different choices.

Published 4 months ago by Avid Reader and Music Lover

Literature disguised as sci-fi

This book has a permanent place on my all-time favorites list. It is powerful, beautiful, and deeply moving. Read more

Published 6 months ago by h3llo0cto

The premise is interesting and I liked the way it seemed real and...

I'm giving this book three stars but it was hard to decide. I was really enjoying this book at first, it started out a four star book. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Elizabeth Serena

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