A Cautionary Tale

Ian McEwan's latest novel, The Children Act, shows us what can happen when you dare to listen to your inner desires, when you take risks and try new paths, when you rock the boat.  According to McEwan the result is not pretty.  Better to stay inside by the fire, repress those nagging urges, and get on with your conventional pale existence.

That's a depressing message in a number of ways. Desire and fantasy are often the breeding grounds for future adventure and happiness.  There are times when the boat needs to be rocked because like it or not the boat is on a disastrous course.  And of course so many people don't have that comfortable well stocked and fortified position to hide in.  They're out there in the world without the protection of an approved and comfortable role.

The Children Act is a novel about a judge and the law.  What could be more conventional, more about restrictions, prohibitions, and societal approval?  The three main characters (a female judge, her husband, a teenage boy whose illness and religion create a legal controversy) each take a tiny step outside their conventional boundaries.  The husband has a short and abortive affair (reminiscent of the sad and funny wedding night scene in On Chesil Beach), the teenager temporarily abandons the protection, limitations, and comforts of a strict religious lifestype, and the wife (childless herself) opens up to a true emotional bond with the young boy. All three beat a hasty retreat.  They are simply unwilling to endure the hardship of finding their own way and dealing with the contradictions and discomfort of reconciling inner and outer lives.  How sad.

The same goes for McEwan as an author these days.  The prose is crystalline, very carefully laid out. The plot is very well ordered.  It's all so well put together, and yet devoid of passion and raw emotion.  I lose patience after a while.  I want someone to scream, someone to make a serious error that they will learn from, someone to dig inside themselves and be uncomfortable for a while.  It just doesn't happen.  It's a depressing and limited world view that even in late middle age makes me bristle.

It's the quintessential conservative message.  I didn't like hearing it from my parents, and I still don't like hearing it as an adult.