Review: Solar by Ian McEwan

Michael Beard is a Nobel prize winning physicist who has been coasting ever since his "Beard Conflation" enlarged on Einstein's theory. He hasn't kept up with current research or even done any himself since that breakthrough, simply lending his name to boards and scientific institutions and slouching through his life. When the novel opens, his fifth marriage is failing and he is so pre-occupied with the affair his wife is having (after he's had countless of his own) that he ignores the young men, dubbed "the ponytails", working under him, swatting at one in particular, who pesters him about the sustainability of solar power as being the future over the wind power Beard himself had off-handedly once mentioned and is now the focus of a large governmental institution as a result. The surprising way in which Beard comes around to accepting the importance of solar power through the years after the open of the novel, whose shoulders he stands on, whom he tramples, and how poorly he behaves in general is the central focus of this novel. But there are many divagations leading up to the not so terribly surprising denouement.

McEwan is, without a doubt, a master of the English language. And this is a technically impressive novel. But it is, ultimately, dull as dishwater. Beard, as a character is pompous, marginally unpleasant, and slightly ludicrous. Above and beyond being unlikable, which makes it hard for the reader to sympathize with him, he is also not entirely believable. It would be one thing to root for his downfall but it is quite another to think with a resigned sigh, "Just get on with it then, will you?" And I know that McEwan is capable of writing characters that stir much stronger emotions but this one just misses the mark. All of the secondary characters are flat and many of them are simply cardboard stereotypes and so the novel rises and falls with the lackluster Michael Beard.

The massive time frame jumps in the story are problematic too. Obviously filling in the gaps would have made for a bloated novel of immense proportion but this pared down version takes away the chance to show Beard as a proactive character. The form asks the reader to believe that an indolent, dismissive character who quails in the face of his wife's lover and whose solution to a major turn up is to furtively frame someone else, has actually rousted up the gumption to set in motion a major scientific undertaking, complete with private equity funding and the like. Credulity only stretches so far. Others have thoroughly thrilled to this latest of McEwan's offerings but I can't help thinking that even the mighty stumble sometimes and this is an instance for him.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy of the book.

Typically British Reading Challenge

Does it come as a surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I am a bit of an Anglophile? When funds permit, I have been known to order books from England just to satisfy my craving. So Book Chick City's Typically British Reading Challenge is totally and completely up my alley. Plus, how can you not want to have that darling button on your blog?

Challenge guidelines:

Timeline: 1st Jan 2010~ 31st Dec 2010. Only books started on January 1st count towards this challenge.


Details:

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.

2. There are four levels:

• "Put The Kettle On" – Read 2 Typically British novels.
• "Gordon Bennett" – Read 4 Typically British novels.
• "Bob's Your Uncle" – Read 6 Typically British novels.
• "Cream Crackered" – Read 8 Typically British novels.

3. Any book format counts. Must be fiction not non-fiction.

4. You don't have to select your books ahead of time, you can just add them as you go. Also if you do list them upfront then you can change them, nothing is set in stone!

5. The books you choose can crossover into other challenges.

6. If you decide to participate in this challenge please use the link I have set up below with the button to post on your sidebar, this way others can find their way back to this post and join in the fun.

7. If you decide to join this challenge be sure to create a post telling others, please make sure you add a link back to this post so others can join in.

8. There will be a place for you to link your reviews, but this is optional.

9. Obviously only British authors count!

I'm going for cream-crackered with 8 books:

1. Millie’s Fling by Jill Mansell
2. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
3. Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
4. News From Thrush Green by Miss Read
5. Good Evening Mrs. Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes
6. The Sex Life of My Aunt by Mavis Cheek
7. Solar by Ian McEwan
8. Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

Maybe if I read them all my husband will actually send me to England. Then again, he does know how heavy books can make suitcases so he might not be willing given the exchange rate and the extra baggage fees these days.

Review: Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

During a trip to Ireland, Norman Huntley, lay-clerk chorister and student organist, and his mechanic friend Henry stop in to tour a less than impressive church, as much to escape the rain as for any interest in the edifice itself. But on the tour given them by the sexton, they not only feign interest, they create out of whole cloth an elderly friend of theirs who had once been an intimate of the late, beloved vicar. Not content to throw out a made-up name (Miss Connie Hargreaves), they also endow their creation with any number of ridiculous eccentricities and oddments. The farce entertains them long after they leave the church and on a whim, they send a letter, inviting Miss Hargreaves to visit Norman in his home town of Conford, to the hotel they've decided she always removes to for that month of the year. As the entire thing is started as a lark, it is a little startling when Norman receives a telegram telling him when to expect Miss Hargreaves. It's beyond startling when Miss Hargreaves actually turns up, exactly as Norman and Henry have imagined her.

Miss Hargreaves, as she's imagined, starts to cause all sorts of stress for Norman within his family, in his job, and especially with his girlfriend. Worse yet, whenever there's a disturbance in the town, Norman can almost be assured that his Miss Hargreaves is behind it. And no one believes Norman when he tries continuously to explain that he made this strange, elderly woman up. Even Henry thinks that Norman has pulled a fast one on him. The only person who might believe Norman is his dreamy, distracted father, who seems to agree that the power of creation is enormous right before he drifts back off into his own world.

Norman is torn between being proud and slightly fond of his creation and wanting her to disappear entirely. But because he can't help but preen a bit, Miss Hargreaves feels snubbed and gaining in power, starts to create her own story, shucking off Norman's control entirely. And that is when bad things start to excelerate for Norman.

When I first read the description of this one, I was intrigued by the different sounding treatment of the Pygmalion myth and thought it was likely to be a gentle, sweet, and charming story (not that the original was either, mind you). But right from the beginning there is a sense of menace as Norman alludes to his being suspected of a crime despite there being no evidence. And as Miss Hargreaves grows and changes throughout the story, the sinister sense grows and certainly outpaces any light heartedness that tried to peek its head up. The tension builds, desperation becomes palpable, and the power of creation is acknowledged in this beautifully clad Bloomsbury Group re-issue of the 1939 novel. If I had had different expectations going into the novel, I might have liked it more than I did as it is really well written, starting out blurried and slowly coming into focus to shock the reader. I am still sorry it wasn't what I had expected but it's hardly fair to judge the book on my dashed expectations and I think that many other readers will appreciate it quite a lot.