Has anyone read the child in time by Ian Mcevan.......?

Question

could you please tell me brefily what it is about, as soon as possible thank you.

Answer 1

Child in Time by Ian McEwan
Stephen’s life is falling apart around him: having lost his little girl while out shopping, he has since become grown apart from his wife, Julie, who moves to the Chilterns to grieve in her own way. Without the stability of marriage or family, Stephen is left drifting – as with The Cement Garden and Enduring Love, at the heart of this book is an ‘innocent’ man trying to come to terms with a world he does not fully understand.
Given that the bulk of the book is given over to the 'inert time' of Stephen's reaction to grief, McEwan manages to sustain the reader's interest to a remarkable degree. In large part this is due to the exceptional ease with which he can write flowing, resonant prose: two sections are particularly impressive, more than matching the body dissection of The Innocent in terms of their immediacy.
There has been a tendency in some writers to include arbitrary and quite thoughtless links to science. Fortunately in The Child in Time, Quantum Physics is not some bolt-on fashion item; the various theories of time permeate the book at a more fundamental level. The resident lecturer on time, Thelma, describes ‘the elaborate time
schemes of novelists, poets, daydreamers, the infinite, unchanging time of childhood’.
Stephen, himself an author of children's books, learns the need to return to his childhood if he is to understand where his future lies.
'Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.' T.S. Eliot
The book, though dealing with serious matters, is never too heavy-handed. The childlike regression of Charles Darke, publisher and rising star in Conservative politics, injects a degree of satire though his character is always treated with great affection.
In conclusion, then, this is a moving, well-written and brilliantly constructed book. I enjoyed First Love, Last Rites and The Cement Garden for their challenging and macabre depravity, but I love The Child in Time for its warm empathy and optimism.