Michael Rawdon rated Childhood's end: 4 stars
Childhood's end by Arthur C. Clarke (Ballantine books)
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien …
A moving autobiographical story about memory, friendship, and betrayal. The author works to reconstruct memories of her best friend from her teens and twenties, which are strangely absent since their friendship ended in their late twenties. It's eerie and evocative for people like myself who also feel their memories of their youth slipping away. Her efforts lead to her learning why her friend ended things, which I found more difficult to relate to, perhaps because of our different lived experiences, but I also felt like there was a lot of detail glossed over - perhaps not unreasonable as it's a real story and not fiction, but it undercut the impact of the narrative for me.
The book is not the graphic novel I'd expected - in the sense of words and pictures working together - so much as an illustrated text narrative. I think it's exactly what she wanted it …
