My Real Children (Walton)
Jan. 14th, 2025 10:20 pm4/5. When ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ase found out I was writing about multiple universes for Yuletide, she asked if I'd read this. I had not, though I knew vaguely that it was about dual universes. I got it out from the library, not super planning to read it right away, and immediately fell head-first into it. I can't really even tell you why it was so compelling -- the first chapter is from the point of view of a woman, Patricia, who has worsening dementia in the year 2015, which I feel like shouldn't be compelling me to read it! And yet it was immensely compelling and I couldn't stop. I think that some other of Walton's books that I've read -- looking at you, The Just City and Lent -- have this aura of "idea-book" to me, where Walton is cheerfully working out a specific idea -- and don't get me wrong! I love those! But sometimes they can feel to me like they are all about the idea, whereas this one felt very real and moving and grounded to me, and because of that I think is my favorite Walton I've read.
The book traces her journey from a kid (born in 1926) to the point (as a young woman) where she makes a choice, whether or not to marry Mark, a rather disagreeable young man whom she nevertheless thinks she's in love with. The universe in which she does marry him and the universe in which she does not splits herself into two, and then follows the two versions of herself through their lives in alternating chapters. (They helpfully call themselves Pat and Trish -- I was amused that I independently had come up with the same necessity for having different names in the two timelines.)
( I guess mild spoilers? )
I found all of this fascinating and emotional and sometimes heartbreaking, both the personal stories (and not just the differences between their lives, but the quite different people that Pat and Trish become) and the slowly accelerating changes in both universes, although to be honest I flagged a little near the end of the book where I had some trouble keeping all the children and grandchildren straight. But maybe that was thematic, because that's the point at which Pat and Trish both start getting dementia. (Not a spoiler, as we know this from the first chapter.)
( spoilers )
ase found out I was writing about multiple universes for Yuletide, she asked if I'd read this. I had not, though I knew vaguely that it was about dual universes. I got it out from the library, not super planning to read it right away, and immediately fell head-first into it. I can't really even tell you why it was so compelling -- the first chapter is from the point of view of a woman, Patricia, who has worsening dementia in the year 2015, which I feel like shouldn't be compelling me to read it! And yet it was immensely compelling and I couldn't stop. I think that some other of Walton's books that I've read -- looking at you, The Just City and Lent -- have this aura of "idea-book" to me, where Walton is cheerfully working out a specific idea -- and don't get me wrong! I love those! But sometimes they can feel to me like they are all about the idea, whereas this one felt very real and moving and grounded to me, and because of that I think is my favorite Walton I've read. The book traces her journey from a kid (born in 1926) to the point (as a young woman) where she makes a choice, whether or not to marry Mark, a rather disagreeable young man whom she nevertheless thinks she's in love with. The universe in which she does marry him and the universe in which she does not splits herself into two, and then follows the two versions of herself through their lives in alternating chapters. (They helpfully call themselves Pat and Trish -- I was amused that I independently had come up with the same necessity for having different names in the two timelines.)
( I guess mild spoilers? )
I found all of this fascinating and emotional and sometimes heartbreaking, both the personal stories (and not just the differences between their lives, but the quite different people that Pat and Trish become) and the slowly accelerating changes in both universes, although to be honest I flagged a little near the end of the book where I had some trouble keeping all the children and grandchildren straight. But maybe that was thematic, because that's the point at which Pat and Trish both start getting dementia. (Not a spoiler, as we know this from the first chapter.)
( spoilers )
