Book Review: Children of Men by P.D. James Posted November 10th, 2007 by timothy. 0 Comments 06w51:1 Book Review: The Children of Men (1992) by P.D. James The Children of Men | P.D. James (1992) In anticipation of the upcoming release of the movie, I picked this up last week and am glad to say it is giving away little about the plot, since the film is only loosely based on the book. But, whatev, I’m looking for some broad narrative perspective on the prospect of a world without children and without hope, and without a reason to do anything with posterity in mind. Notable: in the book, it’s the men who become infertile; in the movie, it’s the women. I’m anticipating the movie will be better: it already looks depressingly realistic Also notable: a blatant exposition on the lack of posterity reveals how much we do care about it in the present day, even though it’s not entirely conscious. Why have museums, galleries, libraries? Why sweep empty churches or vacuum office buildings? Because we expect these things to last beyond ourselves; in many cases we maintain so that we can pass along (ie, sell five year old laptops) but in all cases we are anticipating a future.
