Time and Trauma in The Child in Time

*Winner of the Silberger Prize from the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

In a provocative interview some years ago with Adam Begley, Ian McEwan narrated an anecdote that ended with a question most of his readers at the time would have readily asked as well:

In 1986 I was at the Adelaide literary festival where I read the scene from The Child in Time in which the little girl is stolen from a supermarket […] As soon as I was done, Robert Stone got to his feet and delivered a most passionate speech. It really seemed to come from the heart. He said, “Why do we do this? Why do writers do this, and why do readers want it? Why do we reach into ourselves to find the worst thing that can be thought? (Begley, 2002)1

Known already for a host of fictions depicting perverse and traumatic scenes that shocked his readers, McEwan himself attempted an answer to this intriguing question:

I still don't have a clear answer. I fall back on the notion of the test or investigation of character, and of our moral nature. As [Henry] James famously asked, What is incident but the illustration of character? Perhaps we use these worst cases to gauge our own moral reach. And perhaps we need to play out our fears within the safe confines of the imaginary, as a form of hopeful exorcism. (Begley, 2002, emphasis added)2