The Children Act by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan's most recent publication is as much a polemic against religion as it is a novel. The central character, Fiona Maye, is an English family court judge who rules on matters pertaining to the welfare of children. Among those cases mentioned is one involving two Jewish girls whose divorced parents cannot agree on their schooling because of their religious differences, one being Orthodox and the other not. Another case involves a Catholic couple who refuse to have their conjoined twins separated to save the life of one, considering it to be the will of God that both should die rather than one be sacrificed. Her latest case, the one central to the novel, concerns a Jehovah's Witness boy who needs a blood transfusion to survive, and both his parents and the boy himself (he is almost 18) refuse on religious grounds. McEwan makes abundantly clear that he perceives decisions based on religious belief to be wrongheaded, his wise judge always favoring rational action over emotional reaction. However, the usually exacting and stable judge is undergoing a crisis of her own, leading her to react emotionally and make a misstep, with unexpected consequences.

This is a short novel, but McEwan has previously proven over and over that he can pack great power into a few pages. I did not feel that power in this one. The subplot about the judge's marital problems is given much space, but appears to be included primarily to account for her being uncharacteristically out of balance. (And maybe to flesh out the novel to just over 200 pages, so that it's not a novella.) The whole thing has an almost allegorical feel, a kind of reverse Pilgrim's Progress, with the characters encountering the perils of religious belief and emotionalism on the way to a rational atheism.

Do not make the mistake of presuming I judge this novel harshly because I agree or disagree with McEwan's attitude toward religious belief. I just object to novels whose main thrust is to preach to me, no matter what the subject.