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The Child Buyer: A Novel Kindle Edition

by John Hersey (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 28 ratings
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An imaginary, utterly absorbing record of the investigations of the Committee on Education, Welfare, and Public Morality of an unnamed state senate into the activities of Mr. Wissey Jones, who has come to the town of Pequot on what he says is urgent defense business.   
 
The hearings develop the suspense of a bizarre trial. It soon becomes clear that Mr. Jones buys for his corporation children of a certain sort, and that he is eager to acquire a ten-year-old named Barry Rudd, who manifests the breathtaking, prickly, sometimes obnoxious, but also deeply moving precocity of a potential genius. The dramatic conflicts exposed during the hearing revolve around the questions of exactly why Mr. Jones’s company buys children, and whether he will succeed in buying Barry. 
            The Child Buyeris a biting commentary on some aspects of American education, on the uses of high intelligence, and on the means of defending democracy. Mr. Hersey makes fine use of the classical weapons of satire—humor and high spirits, sweet dream and nightmare, grotesqueness in the heart of normalcy—to attack not any single theory of education, but the notions that education can be an exact science; that superior minds can be set free by a national crash program; that children can be regarded as weapons; and that talent can be processed and stored for profit and defense. 
            Although these extraordinary hearings end in a kind of horror, involving the slide into corruption or rascality or apathy of almost everyone connected with them, nevertheless the book leaves in the reader’s mind a powerful affirmation—a case for individuality, freedom of thought, integrity, faith in the young, and, above all, a better understanding of human needs in a darkling world.
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  1. Print length
    267 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Vintage
  5. Publication date
    September 4, 2019
  6. File size
    1417 KB
  7. Page Flip
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Editorial Reviews

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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07V111WD3
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (September 4, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 4, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1417 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 267 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0343154188
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 28 ratings

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John Hersey

John Hersey

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
28 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

D. MADRIGAL
5.0 out of 5 stars A Perceptive View into Education, Children, and the Art of the Deal.
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2015
Verified Purchase
A classic on the education system, children caught in mediocre systems, how to make deals, and a great book for those who enjoyed Catcher in The Rye.
4 people found this helpful
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Eric F.
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2023
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Everything arrived on time and as advertised
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BR
3.0 out of 5 stars GOOD PREMISE, POOR ADD-ONS, not his best book, but better than a lot of other fiction out there.
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
I'm a fan of Hersey's HIROSHIMA and THE WALL, which are very gripping. This novel, while worth reading, has some unnecessary side-bits that try to sensationalize what could already be a horrific story, without much getting into the grit of the reasons behind anything: the boy's own thoughts, the buyer's real reasons, etc etc. The sensational add-ons, such as the buyer's daughter's drug habit, and some other irrelevancies, are like cardboard.
3 people found this helpful
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Habitué
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-constructed satire of politics, education, psychology, ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2018
I've read this book several times and it's one of my favorites. Other people have summarized the plot so I won't. Like all good satires it's well constructed and has stories going on at several levels, poking fun while staying serious at its heart. Since it's written as the transcripts of a hearing (among senators of varying degrees of intelligence) it's a good take on politicians and cold war mentality. People from the town have all different opinions about the "fat little genius" at the center of it all but most are against the child buying. One by one they're cleverly manipulated and turned to the Child Buyer's side. Along the way we get skewering of education, the military-industrial complex, intelligence testing, and psychology in general ("If he's not a good follower, he must be a good leader"). Watching the interplay of personalities with different motives, winding toward the story's resolution, is what makes this book worth reading. It was written a good while ago but it's aged surprisingly well.
4 people found this helpful
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Bomojaz
4.0 out of 5 stars Sharp satire
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2005
This is a biting satire of the educational system. A man (Wissey Jones) is being investigated for wanting to buy a child. He owns a company that, through drugs and surgery, turns kids into emotionless thinking machines. Local school officials are lampooned as they investigate Jones and his scheme. When the book was written (1960), American educators were in a frenzy over Sputnik and the thought that the Russians had gained the upper hand in the Space (read "Brain") Race, and more effort was needed to go into educating children. Hersey was questioning at what expense, and to what extreme, all this would go. (Ten years later, of course, and education was going in the opposite direction to a lessening of standards and rigor.) At times the book comes across as overly didactic, being told in the form of "Hearings." But overall it's an interesting story, well told.
2 people found this helpful
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Michelle Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars Written in 1960, but Still Very Relevant Today
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2013
Thirty years ago, when I read this book back in high school, I focused only on the horror of the sinister stranger, Wissey Jones, who wanted to buy Barry Rudd. As an adult, however, I see a deeper horror at work.

The story, told in the format of a court transcript, is a quick, easy read. However, the themes - the shortcomings of the educational system of the US, television's corruption of society, and peoples' blind belief in the need for national security - will stick with me for a long time. The tragedy is not just that Mr. Jones wants to buy a child; it's that he has the support of so many people. Barry - the precious ten-year-old - is stuck in the middle, left without a voice or a choice in the matter.

The character development in this book is fascinating. Decent characters become indecent while sketchy characters show a strong core. Also, despite the fact that this book was written in 1960, it has a great deal to say about 2013. In fact, I was amazed (and saddened) by the similarities of politics now and then.

On its surface, this book is simple, but it goes much, much deeper. I highly recommend this classic.
7 people found this helpful
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Patrick Shepherd
5.0 out of 5 stars For Sale: One Town's Humanity
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2002
Hersey was justly acclaimed for his fine journalist's eye that was so evident in his Hiroshima and A Bell for Adano. But his scathing social commentary of White Lotus and this book probably have not received the attention they deserve, perhaps because of the fantastic, science-fictional feel of their portrayed worlds.
Told strictly as the minutes of a state congressional hearing, this book details the events that follow when Mr. Wissy Jones, from United Lymphomiloid, arrives in the town of Peqoud and presents an offer to outright purchase an exceptional child, Barry Rudd, who is blessed with an extreme intelligence and a maturity beyond his years, for some unspecified project that will 'aid the national defense'.
As we proceed through the hearings, we are treated to some fine characterization of the witnesses, from the sharply opinionated and articulate principal of the school Barry attends to Barry's mumbling, street-wise but not too intelligent blue-collar friend. But the hearings also expose the first of Hersey's sharply satirical looks at our society as we see the conduct of the various senators running the hearing, obviously meant to remind the reader of the McCarthy hearings, with their forcible cutting off of any testimony that does not fit the pre-defined expectation of what the outcome of the hearing should be, denigration of witnesses' lifestyles, and panel members who clearly do not have the intelligence to even understand what testimony is given.
More horrifying, though, is the picture of the educational system presented, from the ivory-tower intellectual theories that have no relation to the classroom, to the constant attempts to make all students fit one pre-determined mold, to the administrative power struggles, to the bizarre web of psychological testing, to the clueless PTA, to the rigid and hypocritical moral code that schools use to bludgeon non-conforming students. Where in this morass is the place for the truly gifted child, or for that matter one who is intellectually challenged? Hersey's points strike like daggers, for even though this book was written more than forty years ago, our schools still have every problem that is shown here.
And what of the moral outrage that should adhere to the concept of selling a child? Once more, Hersey's pen is savage, showing how easily Barry's parents sell out for a few material goods, how the senators are converted by the mere statement that it's for the 'national defense', how the general township is so easily convinced to get rid of this 'different' kid, and, most poignantly, how even Barry, with full knowledge of what the program entails, reacts to the concept.
A very moralistic tale, told sharply and with defining moments of humanity, bringing a near surrealistic concept into the all-too-possible realm of reality.
30 people found this helpful
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john cafone
1.0 out of 5 stars A Mess.
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2016
Based on the sample: the kindle version of this excellent novel is a garbled mess. It needs to be withdrawn and done right. I am sick of Amazon's casual attitude towards quality control.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

A. Moore
4.0 out of 5 stars I first read this after hearing the BBC radio version ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2015
Verified Purchase
I first read this after hearing the BBC radio version in the late '50s. It is still a frightening and sobering comment on the power of propaganda, persuasion and self delusion.
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