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nataliamar's review against another edition
2.0
Prepare-se para ler o bebê mais inteligente e prepotente da história da humanidade.
Ele debate sobre sistemas econômicos, problemas da humanidade, uvas e roupas. Sabe o que é azul e verde sem nunca ter enxergado. Me poupe, licença poética tem limites.
Ele debate sobre sistemas econômicos, problemas da humanidade, uvas e roupas. Sabe o que é azul e verde sem nunca ter enxergado. Me poupe, licença poética tem limites.
heybalestoo's review against another edition
3.0
This book definitely takes an interesting perspective on storytelling -- told from the view of the child, in utero. The writing is beautiful but I wasn't ever able to fully embrace the story or feel deeply for the characters, for whatever reason. It may have been because the only character that I was able to feel compassion for was the unborn child and he was powerless. Or, perhaps it was because I never felt hopeful for any of the characters.
laurenreadsoccasionally's review against another edition
2.0
I generally love Ian McEwan, but I just could not get on board with the concept.
kerinl's review against another edition
2.0
A very strange little book narrated by an unborn baby. The writing is greats. The story, weird.
katykelly's review against another edition
5.0
Quite a read, when pregnant! I'm now wondering just what my unborn child can hear...
The narrator of this story is a rather unusual one. He spends the entirety of the book in his mother's womb, growing and listening, telling us the story of what is going on just centimetres from his listening ears.
And it's a corker of a family plot, could be a Hitchcock play (if someone could work out how to stage a 'womb'!).
The baby (we never do of course, know his name), is nearing full term, and has been sentient for quite a while, learning about the world through his mother's conversations, through her audiobooks and television habits, amassing quite an impressive collection of Shakespeare quotations and facts about the outside world.
He is also well aware of his mother's affair. With her brother in law - his own uncle (shades of Hamlet here). And he is also horrified to hear of their plotting to kill his own father...
We 'see' this through the womb, our own eyes and ears discover only what the baby knows, with his filters and opinions.
He's a bright one though, he makes a very verbose (and mature!) teller of tales with a sense of morality and love.
Some scenes are uncomfortable - experiencing sex INSIDE the womb. And it gets tense as the lovers' plan to poison the father comes to a head - will it go ahead?
McEwan is an excellent writer and excels himself here with a very readable (and short) novel that isn't too literary and highbrow, contains some very dark humour and themes (just what will happen to this baby when he's born?!), and a most unusual plot.
It ends on a rather open note and I wanted just a few more pages to see just where this baby will be. But it wasn't 'to be'.
Clever. Possibly not a good idea to read while pregnant! Though I do wonder if a foetus can 'hear' what a mother listens to through earphones!
A good choice for a book group discussion.
The narrator of this story is a rather unusual one. He spends the entirety of the book in his mother's womb, growing and listening, telling us the story of what is going on just centimetres from his listening ears.
And it's a corker of a family plot, could be a Hitchcock play (if someone could work out how to stage a 'womb'!).
The baby (we never do of course, know his name), is nearing full term, and has been sentient for quite a while, learning about the world through his mother's conversations, through her audiobooks and television habits, amassing quite an impressive collection of Shakespeare quotations and facts about the outside world.
He is also well aware of his mother's affair. With her brother in law - his own uncle (shades of Hamlet here). And he is also horrified to hear of their plotting to kill his own father...
We 'see' this through the womb, our own eyes and ears discover only what the baby knows, with his filters and opinions.
He's a bright one though, he makes a very verbose (and mature!) teller of tales with a sense of morality and love.
Some scenes are uncomfortable - experiencing sex INSIDE the womb. And it gets tense as the lovers' plan to poison the father comes to a head - will it go ahead?
McEwan is an excellent writer and excels himself here with a very readable (and short) novel that isn't too literary and highbrow, contains some very dark humour and themes (just what will happen to this baby when he's born?!), and a most unusual plot.
It ends on a rather open note and I wanted just a few more pages to see just where this baby will be. But it wasn't 'to be'.
Clever. Possibly not a good idea to read while pregnant! Though I do wonder if a foetus can 'hear' what a mother listens to through earphones!
A good choice for a book group discussion.
alexandramallia's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
lawagener's review against another edition
2.0
Didn't get a lot out of it. Commentary on our world today through the eyes of the fetus whose mother killed his father.
suvata's review against another edition
5.0
John Cairncross is unhappy. His wife is cheating on him. She has kicked him out of their home. She has plans ... devious plans ... deadly plans — all of it observed and narrated by her fetus. Yep. You heard me right! An amazingly brilliant mystery.
raquelbb's review against another edition
Liked the premise of the book but turns out I didn’t enjoy being outsmarted by an unborn fetus. A unique pov that I would have enjoyed more if I didn’t have to Google every other word! Ha!
madmooney's review against another edition
5.0
"Mother, you have my father much offended."
-Shakespeare
An unborn, unnamed in-utero protagonist leads this story, providing us the eyes from his amniotic podium, sharing his own sensations and perceptions (as well has his mother's) with the audience.
"I like to share a glass with my mother. Yopu may never have experienced, of you will have forgotten, a good burgandy decanted trhough a healthy placenta. I feel it on my face like the caress of a summer breeze, sets me turning and tumbling across my secret sea, reeling off the walls of the bouncy castle that is my home."
-MacEwan
But ho, his mother has found a new lover in his father's brother, and the secret of the cuckolding is only shared between Trudy (his mother), Claude (his uncle) and himself. Cuckoldtry soon leads to conspiracy, and so our narrator becomes a silent protestor to the events as they unfurl.
"O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!"
-Shakespeare
For yes, this is Hamlet being re-enacted upon a new stage, with our prenatal prince's inaction coming in the form that he has not yet been born. His fatal flaw of being able to make mouths of the corrupt events around him, but not being able to take part of protecting and then avenging his father (as in Nutshell, he is present as Trudy and Claude are planning the potent poisoning).
“Revenge may be exacted a hundred times over in one sleepless night. The impulse, the dreaming intention, is human, normal, and we should forgive ourselves. But the raised hand, the actual violent enactment, is cursed. The maths says so. There’ll be no reversion to the status quo ante, no balm, no sweet relief, or none that lasts. Only a second crime. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches a civilisation. It’s a reversion to constant, visceral fear.”
-MacEwan
The plot turns a bit MacBeth in the final act, as the repercussions of lustily planning a murder take the main stage (regret, guilt, and a turn with the authorities).
"Wretched queen, adieu."
-Shakespeare
Definitely a quick an satisfying read!
"The rest is chaos"
-MacEwan
-Shakespeare
An unborn, unnamed in-utero protagonist leads this story, providing us the eyes from his amniotic podium, sharing his own sensations and perceptions (as well has his mother's) with the audience.
"I like to share a glass with my mother. Yopu may never have experienced, of you will have forgotten, a good burgandy decanted trhough a healthy placenta. I feel it on my face like the caress of a summer breeze, sets me turning and tumbling across my secret sea, reeling off the walls of the bouncy castle that is my home."
-MacEwan
But ho, his mother has found a new lover in his father's brother, and the secret of the cuckolding is only shared between Trudy (his mother), Claude (his uncle) and himself. Cuckoldtry soon leads to conspiracy, and so our narrator becomes a silent protestor to the events as they unfurl.
"O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!"
-Shakespeare
For yes, this is Hamlet being re-enacted upon a new stage, with our prenatal prince's inaction coming in the form that he has not yet been born. His fatal flaw of being able to make mouths of the corrupt events around him, but not being able to take part of protecting and then avenging his father (as in Nutshell, he is present as Trudy and Claude are planning the potent poisoning).
“Revenge may be exacted a hundred times over in one sleepless night. The impulse, the dreaming intention, is human, normal, and we should forgive ourselves. But the raised hand, the actual violent enactment, is cursed. The maths says so. There’ll be no reversion to the status quo ante, no balm, no sweet relief, or none that lasts. Only a second crime. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches a civilisation. It’s a reversion to constant, visceral fear.”
-MacEwan
The plot turns a bit MacBeth in the final act, as the repercussions of lustily planning a murder take the main stage (regret, guilt, and a turn with the authorities).
"Wretched queen, adieu."
-Shakespeare
Definitely a quick an satisfying read!
"The rest is chaos"
-MacEwan