Children's LiteratureIt is tempting to see the two syllables that comprise the title of Jeanette Winterson's first full-length children's novel as emblematic of the book itself. A tangle, in places, it certainly is, and a detailed critical examination might well diagnose the symptoms, here and there, of a stylistic and narrative wreck.
Implicit in such a view, however, there are also indications of the book's attractions. Inventiveness, imagination, erudition and a desire to raise provoking questions about political and societal priorities are everywhere in evidence; the pity is that they are presented in such a dizzyingly headlong manner that keeping fully abreast of them demands a very considerable effort.
Eleven-year-old Silver Rivers, an orphan, lives with Mrs Rokabye, an unpleasant and tetchy aunt, in the north of England in a large house known as Tanglewreck. (Readers of Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit will recognise echoes in the relationship between aunt and niece of that between mother and daughter in the earlier novel). In the wider world, and principally in London, imminent chaos threatens, as Time has started to show signs of running dangerously out of control. In a metaphor employed several times in the novel, Time's fabric is beginning to tear: it stands still and it jerks forwards, developments which allow Winterson the scope to present some quite chilling images of disturbance and disintegration.
Hidden - somewhere - is the timepiece known as "the Timekeeper", for centuries a Rivers family heirloom, which, if found, may well be the only means by which stability can be restored. It falls to Silver to assume the central role in the search for this device and it is this quest which provides Winterson with her narrative framework. Predictably, perhaps, the child's adventures through Time - past, present and future, often ingeniously conjoined - involve a sequence of encounters with an apparently never-ending list of new acquaintances, some of them disposed to be friendly and loyal, some to be inimical and treacherous. Much of the interest in this particular respect lies in the counterpointing of the contemporary and the historical as we watch some of these characters pass over from one epoch to another - and back again.
Read as a fable, Winterson's novel is essentially about power and control. Time, we learn early on, "is the most mysterious force in the Universe, and the most powerful, oh yes, and whoever controls Time will control the Universe". As we follow the various contenders in pursuit of this control, the principal struggle comes to be one between the claims of science and those of magic. It is a fascinating dialectic, even if, like much else in this engaging (and frequently irritating) novel, it is ultimately lost in its own entanglements.
Robert Dunbar is a commentator on children's books and reading
Tanglewreck By Jeanette Winterson Bloomsbury, 415pp. €9.99