Ian McEwan has written a lot of best sellers, a lot of which have been turned into movies. This book, The Children Act, was written in the perspective of a woman judge. It promised to be a very interesting read, but I found it lacking in depth. The premise was for the judge to rule on a case about a young Jehovah's Witness who was refusing a life saving treatment due to religious reasons. The book, unfortunately, did not stay on this case, but gave tidbits of random other cases, that were not relevant, and distracted from the main case. It also did not delve into the religious aspect and history of Jehovah's Witnesses and it seemed as if it really just scratched the surface. McEwan writes beautifully, and I was impressed with his vocabulary, but I think this book could have been better researched and the characters more flushed out. I would like to read more of his work to compare.
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Jennifer Mcgillis
I have been working at the Morse Institute Library for 18 years, and running the Wednesday evening book group since February 2005. |