Title: The shock of recognition
Review: Not a fan of literary fiction, I enjoyed this book because I found in it a verisimilitude that other reviewers say it lacks. You could describe the sections written from the points of view of children as unrealistic because of their advanced vocabulary. You could also look at them as using language to allow the reader to experience the consciousness of someone who could not themselves articulate it in precisely those words. This is what I enjoyed throughout this novel: St. Aubyn's ability to translate, or almost transcribe, wordless moments and the burble of consciousness (and self-consciousness) into finely turned sentences. Also, I would say that reviewers underestimate the linguistic abilities of young children. I found Thomas's speech to be extremely accurate in its combination of mimicry, wordplay, and unbounded originality. I know a three-year-old who talks almost exactly like him, and it was a pleasurable shock to read the words set down by someone half a world away.
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