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Iris

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A Children's Bible

by Lydia Millet

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in August 2022

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Iris said: " A Children’s Bible, was, for me, one of those books you pick up and read without setting it down, while going about your evening. It was glued to my left hand while I fixed dinner, fluffed pillows, brewed tea and folded laundry with my right. Someth A Children’s Bible, was, for me, one of those books you pick up and read without setting it down, while going about your evening. It was glued to my left hand while I fixed dinner, fluffed pillows, brewed tea and folded laundry with my right. Something in the children’s chatter, the vivid and haunting descriptions of the flood and the beach and the farm- it took me away to a world that both soothed and inflamed something in me. Although I am not without my criticisms, the blend of strange child-theology, biblical references, and political metaphor lent Millet’s writing a sense of importance. The book starts off strong- and remains so- up until the last quarter or so. The main characters being a group of dynamic children and teenagers filled with the righteous, pure, and narcissistic anger that comes with youth perfectly mirrors the position so many of us find ourselves in: that of children, without choice, forced into an apocalypse by negligent and corrupt leaders. The parents in the book, of course, are these leaders. They are distracted to the point of cruelty, powerful in all the ways that enrage. This heavy-handed metaphor calms the reader, giving us a vessel to pour our frustration into. The children, then, are the future-minded working class of our story: farming their food, inventing ways of protecting themselves, finding entertainment even in the darkest of moments. The energy of the childrens’ conversations and movement is palpable: they have some sort of optimism, found through struggle. Within the last quarter of the book, the heavy but wonderfully written metaphor falls apart, as new characters fail to have any real life political mirrors. A wealthy woman comes to save the children at the end- is she meant to be a hypothetical savior billionaire type? Men show up and terrorize the children, robbing them- who are they, in this layered metaphor? The strength of the writing keeps the book afloat in the rising seas, but the muddled metaphor nearly sinks it. Millet’s work is still definitely worth the time here, however. She masterfully layers themes of rebirth and death in evocative ways, bringing the reader back to a time in which they themselves were young and angry. ...more "

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(page 101 of 224)
— Aug 12, 2023 08:45AM

Nov 13, 2022 06:53PM · see review