“They liked to drink: it was their hobby, or—said one of us—maybe a form of worship. They drank wine and beer and whiskey and gin. Also tequila, rum, and vodka. At midday they called it the hair of the dog. It seemed to keep them contented. Or going, at least."

 

Being stalked by a pademelon. Pilchers Hill, Geilston Bay. March 2021.

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

After a slow start, I found myself relaxing into this rather beguiling and disturbing tale. It moves at a languid pace and sleepwalks into an ever-growing disaster. Like the collective elders in the book, it progresses as if in an alcohol or drug-induced fog.

As the name suggests, there's some heavily allegorical work driving the narrative as we have echoes of Biblical text through an increasingly dystopic scenario. While the intergenerational tensions are played in a rather heavy-handed way, the global inaction on climate change does render the recourse to heavy caricature for the 'adults' and the decision to make the children and young people preternaturally wise and capable in the novel understandable.

As ever, I find the American fixation on the upper and middle-class ennui and the absence of any poor or diverse voices depressing, but somehow it seems appropriate. As history has shown us, the wealthy are only too happy to leave the poor to fend for themselves in these situations.

Yes, the dialogue reads as unreal, but when the whole storyline is hallucinatory in tone, this somehow matters less. This isn't a book for every reader, and it didn't really click for me until about a quarter of the way through. I can certainly see why some might not make it that far.

Still, I enjoyed it despite the heavy hand of the author. Subtly is unlikely to lead us out of this present mess.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐