Children of the Dust - Louise Lawrence

...holocaust, so my interest in Children of the Dust was piqued and I bought it from Amazon for £4.99.

The novel arrived yesterday and I finished it a few hours later. With its striking cover, it is a book you want to read without delay and it is easy to finish, due to both its compelling story and its brevity at only 174 pages.

SYNOPSIS

The novel is split into three parts, each one featuring one main character ...
...you may not want your children to think about. However, in our increasingly scary world, our children are learning many things we may have wished they had remained innocent of for a while longer. (I had to explain what a suicide bomber was to my kids on Thursday and when they asked WHY someone would kill themselves in that way, what is the answer?)

Anyway, the book certainly doesn't seem to be 'dumbed down' for kids and as an adult, ... more

INTRODUCTION

I first heard of this book by reading a review of it on Ciao by baby1j2005. I am interested in reading about survival and how people cope with extreme situations. I have read many factual accounts from survivors of the Holocaust of WWII and from the inhumane nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I have also read a lot of fiction based on the plague and nuclear holocaust, so my interest in Children of the Dust was piqued and I bought it from Amazon for £4.99.

The novel arrived yesterday and I finished it a few hours later. With its striking cover, it is a book you want to read without delay and it is easy to finish, due to both its compelling story and its brevity at only 174 pages.

SYNOPSIS

The novel is split into three parts, each one featuring one main character - Sarah, Ophelia and Simon. Each part follows on from the former, but is set a few years afterwards. The characters are linked though and the same places are used, so we can see how things have changed over time.

SARAH

The novel begins without much preamble, as an imminent nuclear attack is announced at fifteen-year-old Sarah's school, giving her time to run home. She gets there to discover her step-mum Veronica has created a nuclear shelter in one room of the house. She has sealed the doors and windows and stocked the room with clothes, blankets, food and water.

When the bomb goes off, Veronica and Sarah, plus William (5) and Catherine (8) - Sarah's half-siblings - are all safe in the room and survive the blast. The children's father, Bill, is away at work and they don't know if he has survived or not, but they understand he's not part of their life now and they have to try to continue without him.

This part explains how the family copes, first surviving in the dark, smelly room together and then later as Veronica and Sarah begin venturing outside to find more provisions. The family soon realise that one of them is staying healthy and destined to survive, so they begin to plan for their own deaths and the future survival of the strongest.

OPHELIA

This part follows the family's father Bill, who does survive the nuclear bomb by encountering a genetic scientist called Erica, who has a pass for a government bunker, where they both go to. This section describes the way of life there and how the society underground is structured, comparing it to the society of the 'outsiders' as they are called.

While those living in the bunker are following similar rules to the world they used to live in, those outside have created their own system for the continuation of life. The bunker is based on military leadership and an emphasis on scientific study, whilst the outsiders are learning how to live off the land in the same way as their ancestors had done decades earlier.

Bill is a teacher and his ideas attract teenager Dwight Allison, who is a bit of a rebel and a revolutionary. When he discovers the military plan to take the cattle from the outsiders to preserve their own existence at the expense of those who reared the herd, Dwight decides to take action - and tries to persuade both Bill and his daughter, Ophelia, to join in.

SIMON

The final part is set fifty-five years after the nuclear explosion. Those in the bunker have realised they cannot survive as they have been. They need to look for other places to live and Simon ends up injured and outside, where his white skin cannot cope with the heat of the sun and the blinding UV rays.

He is taken in by a young woman called Laura and introduced to the community of the outsiders, where things are efficient and the race is thriving. However, the radiation from the bomb and the need to adapt to the climate change has created a mutant brand of albino humans with light fur and psychic powers. Can Simon fit in to this new world, being the different one in this strange society?

FOR CHILDREN?

This novel is supposed to be a book for teenagers. You would certainly assume so by its length and that Sarah is fifteen. There is only one minor swear word in the book, but many of the themes of the novel are necessarily adult. Nuclear fall-out and radiation sickness cause long, slow, painful deaths.

I would certainly say the book isn't suitable for under-twelve's, but whether you would want to let your own teenagers read this is up to you. It is obviously a frightening and depressing subject, probably one which you may not want your children to think about. However, in our increasingly scary world, our children are learning many things we may have wished they had remained innocent of for a while longer. (I had to explain what a suicide bomber was to my kids on Thursday and when they asked WHY someone would kill themselves in that way, what is the answer?)

Anyway, the book certainly doesn't seem to be 'dumbed down' for kids and as an adult, I didn't find it too young or patronising in any way. While it was certainly much shorter than my usual read, it didn't feel like I was reading a "children's" book.

TONE

Near the start of the book, I mistakenly read "A kestrel hoovered" which gave me a laugh, as I imagined a bird of prey tacking the housework. It was the only laugh I got out of the whole book. This is NOT a cheery read! It is bleak and harrowing, but that doesn't mean you should avoid the book.

It is a story that makes you think throughout. Much of it is set in the south-west near where I live too, so that made it feel even more real and close to home. The novel is very clever, in that it introduces many themes which can be interpreted at various levels, depending on the individual reader.

THEMES

The novel throws up many interesting moral issues and covers many themes. The idea of religion and turning to God in times of crisis is mentioned many times. In fact they made this atheist somewhat uncomfortable, as it sounded in places almost 'preachy' as though the reader was SUPPOSED to turn to God as the answer.

However, later on, I decided that this was simply to illustrate how our present society would react, as the second and third chapters have characters whose ideas have evolved and religion is no longer seen as the answer. However, the new world of the future could also be interpreted as the way Jehovah's Witnesses see things, aiming for the Promised Land of the Chosen Few.

The novel certainly seems to promote pacifism, as it is proven that the military way of thinking would not ensure survival. The new society bans weapons as evil - unsurprisingly, considering the same technology destroyed the world of their predecessors.

The 'outsiders' construct a world that can be seen as the communist ideal. It is equal, with each person working in the area of which they have some skill. People are pleased to give, without expecting anything in return and everything is shared. There is no money and no capitalism, no aggression and no weapons. Life is fair, people work when they can and are looked after, if they are old or ill.

This contrasts starkly with the 'old order' of those in the bunker, where their totalitarian regime does not work as they had hoped it would. The hierarchy and militaristic system continues from the old world, as they see the 'outsiders' as being inferior to them, feeling it is their right to steal from them and treat them as subservient.

Evolution is also covered here, with interesting and largely feasible ideas on how future humans would change to cope with the new climate. Although I found the idea of psychic powers slightly far-fetched and heading for the realms of science fiction, the evolutionary theories seemed realistic and believable.

The environmental themes examined here are also thought-provoking. The society evolving from the 'outsiders' does not harm the planet, because it is illogical to "bite the hand that feeds you". In some ways, their society compares with medieval society and in my case, it reminded me of what I have learnt of my family history in the early 1900s.

Farming is the main industry, out of necessity, and crops are harvested to feed the population. Animals are used both for milk, eggs and dairy produce then for their meat and skin.

Animals, in fact, play a large part in the novel. In the first part, the family dog Buster is left out of the shelter, because Veronica reasons that they won't be able to feed and water him. In fact, the dog food is fed to the children instead. While I could understand the reasoning behind this, I am fairly sure I would take our dog into the shelter with us and not leave her to suffer outside.

The idea of eating animals is not one I embrace for myself, having been vegetarian for eighteen years and bringing up my own children as vegetarians since birth. But it did make me wonder if I would eat meat in a future post-holocaust world as described in the book. While I would still prefer not to, it made sense in the story, because eating is for survival. Animals are treated well and used as foodstuffs eventually. They are not factory-farmed and pumped full of chemicals. Again, which society is right?

Another common theme is that of the family. Each chapter brings up the question of family relationships and how you treat your kin. After the bomb goes off, some things which are seen as 'wrong' or undesirable now become accepted, because they are practical. The society inside the bunker encourages adults who are old enough to procreate to do so, so that couples marry for practical reasons and not for love.

The future society of the 'outsiders' practices euthanasia, when someone is too ill to survive, whether young or old. It also allows a fourteen-year-old to marry a much older man, to ensure the continuation of the human race.

The idea of 'the family' becomes much less defined, with the wider community becoming closer and working together. (This reminded me of Eyam in the novel I previously read - Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.) In these days where we barely know our neighbours, the contrast again makes us think. When was life better?

MY OPINION

I have mixed feelings about the book on the whole, although mostly positive ones. The first chapter is worth reading as a stand alone short story and I found it bleak and harrowing, but the best part of the novel. However it does go downhill somewhat afterwards. I found the second part interesting, but not as gripping. The third part made me consider more issues, but was the weakest part of the actual story.

The three chapters are inter-linked in a clever way that doesn't feel too forced and the tale of society's struggle to survive is a fascinating one. It is a deep, intense and serious read, rather than a light, enjoyable one, but it does have many moments of optimism and hope for the future.

I especially related to the first chapter and how Veronica coped as a mum trying to look after and protect her children. As it went along though, I found myself more detached from the story and less able to relate, as the plot moved further and further away from today's society.

The book is one you want to keep reading, to know what happens, who survives and how. For a children's book, it is also rare as it has no 'safety net' - any of the characters could die (and regularly do). This leads to an unsettling and nervous read.

While I found the whole novel slightly disappointing as it continued, it is definitely worth a read. It will make you think and consider many issues and themes which are often forgotten in our modern lives. It also makes you wonder about our world now - is advancement being able to blow up the world or being able to heal a bad wound with a handful of leaves?

CHILDREN OF THE DUST by Louise Lawrence
ISBN 0-09-943342-7
www.kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk
Cover price £4.99
Currently available at www.amazon.co.uk

 

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