The distinguished author (
The Child in Time,
On Chesil Beach,
Atonement: we don’t talk any more about his 1978 debut novel
The Cement Garden which was possibly just a wee bit plagiarised from, sorry, inspired by Julian Gloag’s 1966 novel
Our Mother’s House: I had read the
latter and when I read the former I thought, hang on a minute, mate. . .)
says, apropos his new novel
Solar which is about climate change:
I am quite tempted sometimes to be a calamatist. There is something intellectually delicious about all that super-pessimism.
The publisher
says, unexpectedly, of the book:
It shows a fresh side to Ian McEwan’s work, that he’s a comic writer of genius.
The distinguished author (The Child in Time, On Chesil Beach, Atonement: we don’t talk any more about his 1978 debut novel The Cement Garden which was possibly just a wee bit plagiarised from, sorry, inspired by Julian Gloag’s 1966 novel Our Mother’s House: I had read the latter and when I read the former I thought, hang on a minute, mate. . .) says, apropos his new novel Solar which is about climate change:
Isn't the point - as some of the more honest reviews of Solar have pointed out (see Thomas Jones in the LRB, for one) - that McEwan has pursued a niche for pseudo-intellectual, self-consciously wry and topical tosh, which is about as much "comic [writing] of genius as it is "science", "literature" or genuine engagement with the human condition?
ReplyDeleteI can't, myself, read The Child in Time, On Chesil Beach, Amsterdam, Saturday and so forth without wincing (and can only plead masochistic curiosity for having continued to try) - the earnest emphasis on significance, the poignant reflections (see Jones above) of the burdens of true intellect, the adolescent plotting. I can only imagine that their large audiences have some need for what might seem worthy, dangerous and clever - but is actually about as mad, bad and dangerous to know as a airport schlockbuster.