Children of Men

The Children of Men by P.D.James Review                   Imagine a world where no one is bearing children anymore, and I mean no one.  This goes on for twenty-five years and there is no end in sight.  Medical science cannot even understand why it is happening.  This is the premise of The Children of Men by author P.D. James.  It is quite an interesting concept, a very thought provoking scenario, and I am looking at using something similar as part of the backstory for my fantasy novel.                 I enjoyed the tone of this book, the style, the vocabulary, as I usually do when reading books by British authors.  There is just something interesting about British culture.  Perhaps it is because they are so similar to us Americans and yet so different at the same time.                 While the book delves into such a grand, and potentially epic, subject matter, it stays very personal and character focused.  Rather than tell the story from multiple points of view and with a broad scope, James chooses to follow one man, Dr. Theodore Faron, an Oxford Professor and the cousin of the Warden of England.  Theo, because of his relationship to the Warden and his one time capacity as advisor to the Warden's council, he is befriended by a small movement of dissidents.  He is reluctant to help them, not because he entirely disagrees, but out of a general sense of apathy and hopelessness.  Most of the book is written in third person, but there are scattered first person sections in the form of journal entries.  The character is well drawn and complex.  I found myself, more so than I even wondered what would happen next, wondering where his mind would go next.  His fascinating thought processes also served to make the other characters come to life.                 I quite enjoyed this story, but be aware that it is much more interesting than it is exciting.  Don't expect to be on the edge of your proverbial seat.  Rather, you should expect to be drawn into a portrait, of a man, of a world, and an idea.                 I only had a couple of complaints about The Children of Men.  The ending seemed rather abrupt.  There was barely any denouement at all.  In some stories I don't mind this, and depending on your personal taste, you might not mind here either.  But in a story based on such a deep and complex premise, I wanted to see an Epilogue explaining how everything turned out.  My other issue is with one of James's speculations about a world with no procreation.  In the book, no one really wants to have sex anymore.  The government has even set up pornography shops to encourage people to keep having sex, just in case.  I don't buy this at all.  The sex drive doesn't go away with the knowledge that it is separated from the function of procreation.  It seems that there is ample evidence of this in our own society.  My speculation is that in the world that James has created, there should be an increase of sexual activity and general promiscuity, not the opposite.                 Aside from these minor gripes, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I have no qualms about recommending it if this sounds like your cup of tea.  ____________________________ Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum, Paul A. Myers