tveikra

Ian McEwan does not write the easiest books to read, and this one was no exception. His main character, Michael Beard, is not exactly likeable, but I didn't dislike him entirely either. He is a complex, interesting character with many flaws. His one outstanding virtue is his intelligence and how he applied it in the field of physics and won the Nobel Prize for Physics. However, instead of building on that Nobel, Beard slides into a life of gluttony, mental laziness, and persistent cheating on whatever wife he is married to at the time. This book veered from interesting, to slightly boring, to interesting again. It was arduous at times due to some of the physics-related passages that I was neither interested in nor could comprehend. This is a character study of man's life and how he lived it, how he wasted several opportunities and took advantage of the wrong ones. This is not a quick read, nor can you skim (except in the more science-heavy passages). McEwan writes with such precision and is such a joy to read that even though this wasn't my favorite of his, and I found Beard to be a repulsive, yet somewhat sympathetic character, I still enjoyed the book. I would recommend reading one of his earlier works, perhaps Atonement first.

2022-11-14 16:09