A Children's Bible: A Novel

I like it a lot, thanks for the suggestion, but then dystopia, particularly involving climate and youth, and post-apocalyptic, is a genre I’ve been reading a lot of since retirement.  I like the bones of the genre(s) and I will likely enjoy a novel if (a) there is at least one *likable* character (has some good traits and I care about what happens to them), and (b) the writing is good.   The book is a bit rough, but that’s what makes for good dystopian fiction.  Many of the characters are likable - even the ones I’m not invested in are not *bad* people.  I’ll guess the casual sex and sex talk is meant to be a genuine report on the mores of mid-21st century adolescence.  Not my cup of tea because not my experience, but on the other hand I could identify all to well with the rest of the hedonistic ethos.  I’m not sure why I like this kind of story - maybe they contribute to my gratitude for the relative comfort and stability of my own life.  Or, like with ghost stories and horror movies of yore, the frisson of terror is somehow pleasurable.  The climate ones, though, are truly scary because we can *see* the likely (or inevitable) future reality they depict:  “The nuclear threat. So quaint.” “It’s like, if only. Right?” “The climate deal makes nukes look kind of sweet. Like being scared of cannons.” “Slingshots.” “A Hyksos recurve bow.” “Canaanite sickle-swords.”I have apologized to my boys for what we’re leaving them, and have used that stance to encourage their own activism and care.  This story makes the point vividly:  the “adults” are useless at best, and it’s the “kids” who have to make a difference.  The Bible references are fun - and apropos:  the events of the story clearly echo the Bible stories:  Eve, Cain and Abel, flood, Tower of Babel, Moses, plague, baby born in a manger, turning a little food into lots, crucifixion, resurrection, healing miracle, promised land - not with any particular didactic scheme or symbolism, just echoes, some noticed by Jack, some not (but Biblically literate readers will notice), all somehow comforting.  Jack posits that God is Nature, which reminded me of Octavia Butler’s parable novels where God is Change and humans can either embrace God, thereby having an opportunity to affect the present and the future, or resist God, thereby stunting one’s growth and likelihood of happiness.One theme is “what is my responsibility?”  For those in my group (kids), for those outside my group (parents, strangers)? And there’s a lovely meditation on star stuff - how molecules are the same across time and space so we’re all connected at the most basic level.  But the sad thing is my molecules won’t remember your molecules.  There is much to appreciate and enjoy in the details: Eve’s gentle treatment of dissension, her humorous comments on nearly everything (from painful and sarcastic to gentle sweetness to full belly laugh), the beautiful old woman (“the owner”) who enters in the nick of time deus ex machina and reminds me of Irene’s great grandmother in The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, the flashes of brilliant intellectualism from various characters, and many more.  The bite sized scenes make it easy to read and add propulsion to what is, really, a pretty exciting story. Based on this novel and what I’ve read of her since, I will be reading Lydia Millet’s work for a good while to come.

Apocalyptic (?) climate change novel exceptionally well written. Debatable whether it’s realistic or apocalyptic. I’ll let you decide. It can get very intense.

In “A Children’s Bible,” Lydia Millet paints a picture of a vacuous generation handing a broken world to the enterprising children of tomorrow for them to redeem it. It’s a neat portrait, beautifully written that peters out a bit at the end. Yet, the irredeemable nature of the parents and the ingenuity of the youth come off a bit ham handed for anyone who is a parent today or has worked extensively with kids. This feels like the old saw that every generation repeats as it blames those who came before their situation. Every generation claims they will move past the mistakes of their predecessors. Yet today’s teenagers are even more molded to the internet age they were born into than their parents. The skills to handle an apocalyptic age are probably more evident in those who grew up before the age of cell phones and ubiquitous computers. The final few chapters verge on preposterousness with a treatment of young children that overestimates their abilities while treating their parents as dullards who literally take up space. Not to mention the deus ex machine that occurs around the three quarters mark.I understand where this book seems to come from, and it is troubling how the impact of humans on the earth is fundamentally altering our environment and all of its interconnected parts. The book scores some early points, highlighting the faults of the uber rich and the ways that they created the mess and have engineered their own singular solutions. However, if the takeaway is that Gen X - and to a certain point Millennials - have lost their bit because they could not stop a military industrial complex that poisoned our environment and altered our climate, then I find myself pushing back. I think the books’ limp ending is entirely attributable to the dissonance of the conclusion that a group of teenagers will save the day.To be sure, this is beautifully written and a pleasure to read. I just don’t buy where the journey takes me.

This book amazed and surprised me. Such a great concept and narrator.I didn’t want it to end, so I’ll read it again : )

The concept is great but the prose is lacking and overall seems very rushed. Disappointing. I would not recommend reading.

This fairly short novel had good reviews but was hugely disappointing. Written through the eyes of a teenager, Eve, on holiday with a group of children and some quite frankly, awful, millennial type parents. The insight and cynicism of the teenagers is justified and this carries the novel until the big storm occurs and they run away to a farm they just happen to find with a Hobo. From that point the novel loses the plot, becoming absurd and inconsistent trying to paint a picture of “The end of the world”, but rarely succeeding; eventually metamorphosing into a Mad Max type scenario. The Children (and the parents) survive, the children are happy to research via the internet and their mobiles (miraculously still working) and despite despising their parents’ indulgences are happy to bargain for booze and weed from them, bunker in one of the parent’s nice houses and survive off online deliveries! The parents, incidentally, despite experiencing “the end of the world” remain just as awful and stupid. The author doesn’t paint a realistic view of Armageddon and the novel ends rather abruptly as if the writer had run out of ideas. Overall it’s a poor apocalypse novel; much better has been written

A Children's Bible is a small book with a big message. A group of children and teenagers are on holiday at a huge lake house with their parents, whom they judge harshly. The parents are avaricious, they drink and take drugs, are sexually promiscuous and indifferent to their children's welfare. A huge storm is the catalyst for the breakdown of society, as evidenced by a descent into lawlessness, violence and hunger. The story is allegorical, with one of the younger children viewing the chaos through the lens of a children's bible he has been given. (I would have given it 5 stars is the allegorical element had been developed further). Ultimately it becomes clear that the reason the younger generation view the older one with such contempt, is because their materialism has ruined the planet. All we have heard about climate change comes to fruition, including the end of civilisation as we know it. They rich can survive for longer than the poor, but ultimately everyone loses. This is the central message, I think. The disasters that flow from our destruction of the planet are well documented and will affect everyone. No-one will be safe, no lifestyle untouched. The parents muse that they thought they had longer, and respond to the realisation that they could have done something but didn't, by abandoning all hope. In contrast, Eve, the teenage narrator, comforts her dying brother with stories of the planet renewing itself in time - that life will survive, even though they won't. It's a bleak but beautiful message, all the more powerful because it is today's children that will inherit the consequences of unfettered mass consumption.

This book was fine, and I finished it. As serious literature it gets zero stars but it filled another empty evening. Very right-on and superficial, hopelessly implausible and occasionally fantastical : I learnt more about the denizens of The New York Times - who put it in the top ten books of 2020 - than anything else. Put it this way: no mention of politics, but the author clearly hates Trump and his supporters. And also, bizarrely, parents: I would have guessed it to have been written by a teenager if the voice had been less obviously millennial.