There is a widespread opinion that the stories of Jorge Luis Borges are not stories at all, but folded, utterly condensed novels. About the same can be said about Ian McEwan - the English classic writes compact novels, each of which, if desired, can be expanded into a huge, perhaps even two-volume epic. However, from time to time, deliberately limiting himself in volume, detail and novel air, McEwan achieves a special effect - a kind of controlled suffocation, which has the ability to generate completely fabulous visions in the reader. «The Children Act» is from the same lean breed as the other texts of the writer. Dry, subtle, and minimalistic—almost to the point of transparency, this novel nevertheless opens the gates for reader co-creation and, so to speak, thought.
Ian McEwan studied at the University of Sussex, where he received a BA degree in English Literature in 1970 and later received his MA degree in English Literature at the University of East Anglia.
Fiona May, 60, a family law judge, is going through a difficult relationship with her husband. But despite the internal discord, at work she will have to walk along the razor's edge and make the right decision in a very difficult matter. 17-year-old Adam Henry, a handsome, clever, talented poet, is ill with leukemia, and in order for the treatment to work, he needs a blood transfusion. But Adam and his parents are Jehovah's Witnesses, and the rules of their sect categorically forbid such procedures. Doctors insist on a transfusion, Adam resists, but he is a minor, and only Fiona can decide whether the young man should live, having lost the support of relatives and friends, or die, remaining faithful to his ideals. However, what seems to be the key conflict of the novel turns out to be only the plot. Fiona saves the boy, and finds herself faced with a problem familiar to every parent, but completely incomprehensible and unexpected for a childless heroine: giving life is not enough. With those who appeared (or, as in this case, remained) in the world thanks to us, we are forever connected much stronger than we ourselves would like. And at this point, impeccable, like a knight in sparkling armor, Fiona is waiting for a catastrophic, heartbreaking fiasco.
«The Children Act» is decomposed into a finite number of clear intellectual schemes, each of which is not new and has been worked out many times in different genres, but from their combination and refraction, McEwan definitely gives birth to some new quality. The letter of the law and the principles of humanity. The right to personal choice and the sustaining warmth of tradition. Responsibility and guardianship or respect and non-interference. The price of an ideal and the value of life (it should be noted that the cold and rational McEwan is not one of those who without hesitation makes a choice in favor of the latter) - we, of course, thought a lot about all this, spoke and read before, but not in such a context, not these words, and, as a result, absolutely not so.
Descriptions and flashbacks, inserted plots and minor characters, adjectives and adverbs - all this, of course, is in the novel, but is indicated by a stingy functional dotted line. All this decor, all this prettiness and curlicues are not valuable in themselves, the meaning of McEwan's novel flesh is solely to support the framework of the novel, without obscuring its slender, slightly pompous structure. Such literary asceticism will definitely not appeal to those who love juicy, full-blooded, rich literature, but for those who see the text in the first place as a reference point for a dizzying independent jump, it is difficult to imagine reading better.
This article was sponsored by Marijana Prascevic
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