The Children's Crusade

by Rebecca Brown

The narrator relates her childhood memories of parental and sibling relations, with all of their bewildering boundaries and limits, and finds herself drawn into a bizarre custody battle which separates her from her brother

Genres: Fiction

119 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Rebecca Brown’s diverse oeuvre contains collections of essays and short stories, a fictionalized autobiography, a modern bestiary, a memoir in the guise of a medical dictionary, a libretto for a dance opera, a play, and various kinds of fantasy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_...

Reviews

[Simon Slidders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite its mere 120 pages I spent most of this novel waiting for it to end, and possibly to reveal itself and its connection to the 13th Century Children's Crusade. I don't feel that it ever really did. It was mainly a poetic exploration of childhood and our fear of death. I could not really recommend it , but it certainly resonated and the rhythms of the writing were occasionally hypnotic with certain images echoing through the book with devastating effect. Occasionally reminiscent of Beckett, which in itself is a compliment to its bleak view of the childhood world.

[Lisa Houlihan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one flummoxed me. I *loved* the political metaphor of spy-diplomat between parental camps, His Highness and Her Honor. But what was *really* going on after that? Thwoop, right over my head. (I know why it's on GLBT lists. It's the main plot that eludes me.)

[derilok Dmytro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Children's Crusade by Rebecca Brown is a short, quiet novel following an unnamed girl through five stages of her parents' divorce and the loss of her brother Sten. It's a difficult read. Not because it's long, but because Brown explains almost nothing, leaving you to piece things together yourself. The writing is spare and sometimes hypnotic, and the final image of the girl writing a letter to her absent brother while already vowing never to let her own future children tear her apart is genuinely sad and stays with you. It's a thoughtful, honest little book, but it keeps you at a distance the whole time, and its meaning only really settles after you've sat with it a while.