The Children of Men

I was really excited to pick up P.D. James' novel after I saw the trailer for the upcoming film based on the book. The concept behind the plot captivated my interest from the start.

A short time in the future, mankind suddenly realizes that children aren't being born. Suddenly, mankind realizes that we are doomed. For reasons unexplained, we can no longer have children. Years go by and men give up hope. What happens after time? What happens to the spirit of the masses? What kind of world would we have if we realized that we were on the extinction list? Then, throw back at mankind the first pregnancy in 25 years.

It's a terribly fascinating concept and P.D. James does a wonderful job in giving justification for this extinction scenario. As a population, we are steadily declining our birthing rates. It is claimed that we are not wanting more children, but what if we don't know that we are becoming less able to have children. It's a terrifying prospect.

A couple of complaints:

First, James wrote this book in 1992. She placed the end of births (Omega) in 1995. I'm always really bothered by futurist writers who feel the need to place dates on their stories because it automatically obsoletes the text. Someone living in 2006 finds these dates a bit silly when we're talking about suspending my sense of disbelief.

Second, although the concept is so amazingly air tight as a sure fire place for an amazing story to happen, nothing happens in this book. It's basically a story about power and the corruption of power. Interesting, but I kept wondering if I wouldn't have been more interested in reading this story from the perspective of one of the different characters. Or of the focus being more tender. Or maybe it's that I never cared for any of the characters. The author didn't want me to. So, how can I care for this book?

Third, James greatly underestimates certain aspects of humanity which are always prevalent. She apparently hasn't done any historical reading about people in crises. One thread that humanity never lets go of is religion. Despite that religiousity has declined, especially in the past century, people cling to religion more fervently when something terrible happens to the greater populous. I had a hard time believing in P.D. James' world because she puts such an emphasis on how people abandoned God and religion.