Alan’s Reviews > The Child in Time > Status Update
Alan
is on page 24 of 263
…to the first full flood of understanding of the true nature of his loss. Everything before had been fantasy, a routine and frenetic mimicry of sorrow. Just before dawn he began to cry, and it was from this moment in the semidarkness that he was to date his time of mourning.
— Oct 26, 2025 10:21AM
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Alan’s Previous Updates
Alan
is on page 146 of 263
On his daughters birthday
To buy a present would demonstrate he was not yet beaten, that he could do the surprising, lively thing. He would purchase his gift in joy rather than sorrow, in the spirit of loving extravagance, and in bringing it home and wrapping it up he would be making an offering to or a challenge - Look, I've brought the present, now you bring back the girl.
— Nov 03, 2025 08:27AM
To buy a present would demonstrate he was not yet beaten, that he could do the surprising, lively thing. He would purchase his gift in joy rather than sorrow, in the spirit of loving extravagance, and in bringing it home and wrapping it up he would be making an offering to or a challenge - Look, I've brought the present, now you bring back the girl.
Alan
is on page 32 of 263
For children, childhood timeless. It's always the present. Everything is in the present tense. Of course they have memories. Of course time shifts a little for them and Christmas comes round in the end. But they don't feel it. Today is what they feel, and when they say ‘When I grow up.. ' there's always an edge of disbelief - how could they ever be other than what they are?
— Oct 26, 2025 06:38PM
Alan
is on page 10 of 263
They stepped outdoors as though into a storm. The main road was an arterial route south; its traffic rushed with adrenal ferocity. The bitter, cloudless day was to serve an obsessive memory well with a light of brilliant explicitness, a cynical eye for detail.
— Oct 25, 2025 05:37PM
