pettifog.net...
I finished reading The Children's Hospital about a week ago and am eager to discuss it! I really enjoyed it. I read it in parts, over a month or so. Since this was different from my usual all-at-once immersion in a novel, and also since there were several big narrative-shifting events, it reminded me of the experience of following a story unfolding week-by-week on a tv show or miniseries.
Upon finishing the book, the questions I'm most interested in are about the four angels -- who was narrating when, which was which? We were told that it takes four angels to oversee an apocalypse: one to preserve, one to record, one to accuse, one to destroy.
Do the four chapter-heading pictograms correspond to the four angels? While reading, I had thought only one or two did: the feather pens for the recording angel and the knives for the destroying angel (who I'd thought was Ishmael? but I suppose Ishmael is the accuser, and Calvin the destroyer...) Then there is the pictogram of fishes, which headed the chapters that made up the bulk of the book and presented a mostly third-person narrative of daily life in the floating hospital. And the fourth pictogram was a square grid, which headed the 'flashbacks' to Jemma's childhood. Perhaps these pictograms were not meant to correspond with specific angelic voices -- but since there were four pictograms (and kinds of chapters) and four angels, doesn't it seem intended that they should?
Also, Calvin as angel at the end refers to "sisters", which confused me, because only the preserving angel seemed to be female. (I tended to assume the voice of the recording angel was female, but a few times it identified itself as male, I think.)
Anyone have answers for me? Thoughts?
Author: mcass « Reply #1 on: Today at 08:14:01 AM »