The Children

Staying with family during the holidays can often bring back childhood tensions, memories and bonds. I do not know of any family that is without it's issues - resolved or usually, unresolved and simmering. The dynamics and personalities within each family is so different and unique, but all are equally fascinating to me.

Whilst staying for a week with my parents (plus my two boys) I read, 'The Children' by Charlotte Wood. I haven't read any of her books before and really enjoyed the easy style and gentle moving pace of this book.

'You bring your children up to escape sorrow. You spend your best years trying to stop them witnessing it on television, in you, in your neighbours' faces. Then you realize, slowly, that there is no escape, that they must steer their own way through life's cruelties. In The Children, Charlotte Wood one of Australian fiction's rising stars, delivers a short, sharp shock of a novel that takes us into the heart of a family as normal, and as broken, as any other. When their father is critically injured, foreign correspondent Mandy and her siblings return home, bringing with them the remnants and patterns of childhood. Mandy has lived away from the country for many years. Her head is filled with images of terror and war, and her homecoming to the quiet country town - not to mention her family and marriage - only heightens her disconnection from ordinary life. Cathy, her younger sister, has stayed in regular contact with her parents, trying also to keep tabs on their brother Stephen who, for reasons nobody understands, has held himself apart from the family for years. In the intensive care unit the children sit, trapped between their bewildered mother and one another.'

I really enjoyed this book and found it an easy and quick read- although it was slightly depressing and real - but the events and the characters appealed and kept me turning the pages. I can't explain too much about the book without giving too much away but I do recommend you read it.