Nutshell by Ian McEwan
Clever, certainly, and the main is a master of language, but the book felt like all head and no heart. Sardonic observations on mankind’s failings–and a conceit that lasts the book and (of course, in retrospect, ends with birth).
It was well executed, and certainly a challenging goal, but not one I really care for. Maybe this is just a natural stage in his evolution but I hope he comes back around to the humanity of Saturday and Atonement.
I don’t know that it would be possible to get real, deep humanity out of that type of artificial observer, with all the distance, with the externally dictated drama. It’s a neat little nugget of a book but it left me a bit cold.
Amy P. Knight 