A Children's Bible : : a Novel

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Millet, Lydia, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Millet, Lydia
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch

"[This novel] follows a group of children and their families on summer vacation at a lakeside mansion. The teenage narrator Eve and the other children are contemptuous of their parents, who spend the days and nights in drunken stupor. This tension heightens when a great storm arrives and throws the house and its residents into chaos. Named for a picture Bible given to Eve's little brother Jack, A Children's Bible is loosely structured around events and characters that often appear in collections of Bible stories intended for young readers. These narrative touchstones are imbedded in a backdrop of environmental and psychological distress as the children reject the parents for their emotional and moral failures-in part as normal teenagers must, and in part for their generation's passivity and denial in the face of cataclysmic change. In A Children's Bible, Millet offers brilliant commentary on the environment and human weakness and a vision of what awaits us on the other side of Revelations"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A modern retelling of Noah’s Ark submitted by sVfGI7Glt2pz7GZgVB90 on July 5, 2020, 7:37am A group of indolent rich friends and their feral children rent a mansion near the ocean for the summer. The adults drink and party, and completely ignore the kids. then a massive hurricane hits. Superbly imaged. Thought-provoking read.

If you liked “Lord of the Flies…” submitted by 21621031390949 on July 5, 2021, 1:16am Shades of Lord of the Flies, this allegorical novel is a painful read. It’s hard to witness the cruelty, wastefulness, and depravity depicted here. How can the parents be so irresponsible, the children so cynical and mean? In order to accept this story you must leave literal reality at the door, and flow with the metaphor; then it will make more sense. This is a story about climate change, humankind’s selfish destruction of the planet, poured through the Biblical metaphor.

The book is well-written. So why only a 3-star rating? I felt the allegory was just too heavy-handed, the Biblical metaphors too obvious. What is the author’s goal here? Is she trying to educate about climate change? Is she trying to convert non-believers? I can’t imagine that this book will change anyone’s mind about the reality of climate change. More likely, non-science-believing Christians will either be offended by the “distortion” of Biblical teachings or be focused on thinking about those stories themselves.

Still, it’s great that climate change is becoming a backdrop (or center-stage) for novels. This is the reality of our world, and we can only speculate about what our society will look like in the future.

Interesting premise that fizzles out submitted by avandeusen on July 17, 2021, 10:20am A great idea of children needing to take control during a challenging situation with many references to a well-known text. The plot drags toward the end with a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion.

Brilliant theorizing on a new age submitted by chfairey on July 21, 2021, 11:56am The core of this novel was rebuking the idea that young people are unfit to inherit the world. The parents here are coddled by a social structure that is slowly, then quickly, eroding. Shifting between the first person plural and the intensely personal, this is a fascinating novel for the coming apocalypse.

Dark and sad, but worth the read submitted by TeacherN on June 15, 2022, 5:44pm If you want to FEEL climate change, read this book. It felt like it helped me notice, at least for a little while, the water we're all slowly boiling in.