Library membership..

I mentioned that I went to the local library last weekend, I picked out the Martian Child to read, loosely based on other bits of writing I had seen of David Gerrold. Some brief thoughts on the book are below.

The Martian Child - David Gerrold

As I think about this book, I wonder if evangelicals would look at the book and focus on the fact that a homosexual man could adopt a child. Perhaps we should focus on this, but we should also see what lessons this teaches us. A child ignored by the world, a child maybe seen as too difficult, too damaged, and too challenging. A child needs a father, but more than a father a child needs love needs to be treated with compassion, concern and charity.

I don’t read this book as a morality tale, it is not telling me how I should live, it is not telling me to change the way I think, but it has raised the issues. Gerrold is communicating to me the story of how he raised his child. How he was able to adopt his son. It’s a realistic appraisal of his joys and struggles as he raised his Martian Child. The book is a delicate balance between autobiography and fiction.

The story recounts the emotional reactions of David as he goes through the process of adoption, how he falls in love with a picture of a child, and then as he adopts it realistically shows experiences between father and son, with an almost tender realism. Highlights are the moments where David talks with his son about adoption, the manner in which Dennis learns about jokes (particularly jokes about pickled mongoose).

The book has influenced me a touch, in a world with too many orphans, in a world with too many abused children, too many unwanted, unloved children, is it entirely appropriate to deny children a loving father. Perhaps this is a topic for another post?

I found the book an interesting read; while I am not sure that I agree with the foundations of the book, and that is a small issue. As I’ve read elsewhere, what we read, watch and listen too, do influence the manner in which we see the world. While this book has not changed what I feel, it certainly has challenged the way that I look at this.

Another point of interest was when David publicly disciplines his son in the store, and agro-grandmother appears … the concluding words a great lesson; “you have no right to interfere where you don’t know what’s going on…” I’m not so sure about interfering even where you do know what’s going on; but you would have to be sure, fairly sure, what is going on, to even consider interfering.

It is a good read, a challenging read, and a tender read. The story and characters are real, and for these reasons I do recommend, in spite of the differences of belief we may or may not have, it is a parable of fatherhood from which we should all be able to take lessons from.

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