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The Child in Time (Paperback)

by Ian McEwan (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The Child in Time opens with a harrowing event. Stephen Lewis, a successful author of children's books, takes his 3-year-old daughter on a routine Saturday morning trip to the supermarket. While waiting in line, his attention is distracted and his daughter is kidnapped. Just like that. From there, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche and time itself: "It was a wonder there could be so much movement, so much purpose, all the time. He himself had none." This beautifully haunting book won a 1987 Whitbread Prize. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
A sense of loss pervades this fine, provocative new novel by the author of The Comfort of Strangers. The protagonist, Stephen Lewis, a successful author of children's books, is introduced to us in a scene more frightening than any from a horror novel: while he is shopping with Kate, his three-year-old daughter, the child is kidnapped. Stephen's mounting terror as he combs the store for Katetrying in vain to recall the face of the dark-clad stranger he glimpsed behind themis palpable. As the story moves forward, it focuses not only on Stephen's search for his daughter, but also on his attempts to come to terms with his loss and the likely collapse of his marriage to Julie, a musician. Woven through the narrative is a subplot that deals with childhood and loss of a different sort. It is the innocence of youth that Stephen's friend and former editor, Charles Darke, longs for and ultimately recaptures at a terrible price. This is a beautifully rendered, very disturbing novel. First serial to Esquire.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Anchor (November 2, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385497520
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385497527
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,134 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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64% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
5 star:
 (14)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, January 19, 2003
This is the first of McEwan's mature novels, and easily one of his best. He goes well beyond the psycho-sexual darkness of his short stories and novellas into new philosophical territory. When it opens with the daughter of children's author Stephen Lewis being snatched from the local supermarket, you could be forgiven for thinking this novel is going to be about Stephen's obsessive, fruitless search for her and his inevitable psychological collapse. But Kate's disappearance is just the beginning. McEwan sidesteps the perils of family melodrama and rapidly escalates this into an intelligent and surprisingly moving novel about childhood, memory, growth, the horrors of conservative politics, and the joys of theoretical physics. McEwan's topic is time, and in addressing it from unexpected and seemingly disparate directions he demonstrates that a novel doesn't have to be an obvious, linear, plot-driven story. By the end, you realise you have in fact been told a wonderful story - one about Stephen's emotional adaptation - but that the novel is all the better because this has not been the explicit or only focus. In fact, all the pieces of this dazzlingly audacious philosophical puzzle slot perfectly into place in a final chapter which is as wonderfully unexpected as it is profoundly moving. McEwan's gift is for making the "big themes" real for us; for showing us how they're constantly moving, like continental plates, beneath the mundanity of our every day lives. He takes you places you don't expect to go. He assumes you're as intelligent as he is, and he gives you plenty to think about and plenty to do. When it works, as it does here, it's wonderful.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars McEwan Is A Terrific Writer!, July 4, 2004
On a most ordinary day Stephen walks with his three-year-old daughter Kate to a supermarket. At the checkout lane there is no no other customer behind him. As he checks out, he turns briefly from his daughter, looks around and she is gone. What has to be one of the worst nightmares that any parent can possibly conceive of happens to Stephen and his wife Julie: their beautiful daughter has been kidnapped. With that calamity, Ian McEwan begins another fine novel.

The trademarks we have come to expect from McEwan are here: something horrendous happens to people through no fault of their own, and their lives are irrevocably and forever changed. In McEwan's own words, a "malevolent intervention" occurs. McEwan asks hard questions about the very nature of existence and relationships and life. He makes profound philosophical observations; and as usual, even though his prose is dense, the reader races through his story.

McEwan delves into the meaning of childhood-- children always live in the present-- memory-- you remember what you remember; you forget what suits you-- the relativity of time: time is dependent on the speed of the observer; time slows down during a panic.As always, McEwan's language is both precise and concise. And I believe he coins a couple of verbs too: "first-naming" and Brylcreemed."

Without giving away the ending of this incredible novel, I can say that this is the most positive McEwan I've read, and I've read my way through most of his works. Usually the action takes place someplace beyond despair. Here we have the joy of starting over. As Emily Dickinson would say, "love is all we know of love. A beautiful ending to a beautiful novel.

Mr. McEwan is one terrific writer.

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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully written piece, I found the ending very moving, July 12, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Child in Time (Paperback)
When Kate, daughter of Stephen and Julie is taken from a supermarket(don`t worry, I haven`t spoiled anything!)there is no way for Stephen`s life to go but down.The book centres on his struggle to find his daughter,meeting people from his time and even travelling to the past to discover aspects of his parent`s lives. The time element in this book is uncomfortable to the reader, yet McEwan`s writing takes you fluidly through the plot,with the difficult subject of time beautifully interwoven. I really enjoyed reading this novel and studying it for English Literature A-Level as it is written so provocatively that one cannot fail to relish the piece. The characters are fully rounded and fit into the plot with the greatest of ease. The plot itself is extremely well thought out and expertly written by a great English writer. McEwan is able to draw upon the innocence which the plot desires, Whilst also creating a clillingly spooky atmosphere. This book is no easy read, it`s wonderfully moving ending is reached only after a disturbingly beautiful and sometimes horrific plot. This has to be counted amongst McEwan`s greatest works,and all in all, "The Child In Time" is a wonderfully written journey through the darkest elements of time, which leaves the reader with the radiating glow of hope.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars quequeeg
McEwan does it again. "A Child in Time" is a provocative, suspensful tale about the aftermath of a loving couple's four year old daughter being abducted from under the father's... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Quequeeg

2.0 out of 5 stars Not up to scratch
I've read lots of Mr. McEwan's work, and every other novel is brilliant. Unfortunately, this is the Other novel. Read more
Published 11 months ago by J. PARKER

3.0 out of 5 stars A good early work
The two key themes of A Child in Time are contained in the title, which is a kind of a pun on the baby that arrives in time to save the marriage. Read more
Published 14 months ago by kirlena walsh

3.0 out of 5 stars Introspective
This is the eighth book of McEwan's that I have read, and it was not among my favorites. This was probably McEwan's most introspective novel so far, but I found myself getting... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Julie Merilatt

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful mix of passion, introspection, and contemporary commentary
McEwan manages to take the theme of a kidnapped child and turn it into a story of courage, love, and hope, without dredging it in sentimentality and triteness. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mondegreen

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfectly rendered
I see I'm not alone in loving Ian McEwan's books. I'm working my way through them all, but "The Child In Time" is one to stop and savor. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Elizabeth C. Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Even though I was forced to read this for my A level.. I loved it. I was in floods of tears by the end of the first chapter and stayed with the plot to the end. Read more
Published on February 27, 2007 by Raven tales

3.0 out of 5 stars Pales in comparison
When this book first came out, it represented a leap for McEwan. He had moved from dark, pathological novels to this, which is clearly a more mainstream approach to novel... Read more
Published on February 14, 2007 by Glenn Miller

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing!
There are few novelists as articulate as Ian McEwan. In THE CHILD IN TIME, McEwan frequently uses this great gift to lift the perfect observation from familiar situations so that... Read more
Published on May 30, 2006 by Ethan Cooper

5.0 out of 5 stars Gut-wrenchingly worthwhile.
It's the seventh McEwan book I have read and he never ceases to amaze me, but this one was exceptionally good.
It is a story that works on so many levels... Read more
Published on March 16, 2006 by Cipriano

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