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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
En su género (novela narrada por un feto desde el vientre de su madre) es una novela perfecta. Que el feto sea tan culto que cita a Ulises de memoria, se me hace más gracioso que inverosímil y esa es la magia en la que te envuelve Ian McEwan. Al final la novela te atrapa tanto que no puedes dejar de leerla. Literalmente terminé de leerla a las 4 am porque no podía dormirme sin saber cómo terminaba. Hay que aceptar la premisa, hay que aceptar lo tonto de los implicados y lo paradójico que el feto desde su espacio reducido parece ser el único omnisciente y el único inteligente en un enredo que, como todos los enredos amorosos, es estúpido. Las reminiscencias a Hamlet y el Ulises son claras, pero no es un libro pomposo o erudito. Es como los Simpsons, si entiendes las referencias te ríes, pero si no las entiendes igual te la pasas muy bien leyendo.
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I didn't have a problem accepting the fact that this book was told from the perspective of a foetus. However I did have a problem with the fact that said foetus spoke like a pretentious old man. It felt like nearly every sentence had been combed over with a thesaurus in order to make as many words as large as possible. It's an interesting concept, once you wade your way through the palaver, but an averagely executed one.
Not entirely sold on the premise. Plus I felt the ending was a little rushed
Fun short book by McEwan, not nearly as weighty as a lot of his other books. It dragged a bit at the beginning, almost to the point where I was going to put it down, but suddenly the plot started going and it wasn't just musings of the fetus narrator and along things went and I knocked down the second hundred pages in an hour. Funny jokes, neat little literary references and even kind of a twist.
Spoiler
-- more Macbeth though the story more or less follows Hamlet --
Really such a strange book. Told from the perspective of an infant in utero. The infant is witness to the seedy affair that his mother is having with her estranged husband’s brother, and their plot to kill the estranged husband.
The infant, trapped by his circumstances, experiences an internal struggle as he seeks ways to thwart the efforts to kill his father, while simultaneously dealing with his conflicted feelings of love, co-dependency and abhorrence for his mother.
The infant is insulated and powerless in his amniotic sac, but simultaneously vulnerable and exposed to everything his mother ingests: food, alchohol, and disturbing podcasts about the state of the world.
The infant experiences an existential crisis of sorts, as he feels that he has the power to choose between a life of dangerous freedom or one of protected but captive incarceration.
It seems to be a metaphor for humanity: the ways that we remain protected by our governments and world orders as events spiral around us, beyond our locus of control. We struggle to maintain our love for our motherland even as it behaves in bloodthirsty, greedy, lustful and corrupt ways.
The infant, trapped by his circumstances, experiences an internal struggle as he seeks ways to thwart the efforts to kill his father, while simultaneously dealing with his conflicted feelings of love, co-dependency and abhorrence for his mother.
The infant is insulated and powerless in his amniotic sac, but simultaneously vulnerable and exposed to everything his mother ingests: food, alchohol, and disturbing podcasts about the state of the world.
The infant experiences an existential crisis of sorts, as he feels that he has the power to choose between a life of dangerous freedom or one of protected but captive incarceration.
It seems to be a metaphor for humanity: the ways that we remain protected by our governments and world orders as events spiral around us, beyond our locus of control. We struggle to maintain our love for our motherland even as it behaves in bloodthirsty, greedy, lustful and corrupt ways.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Interesting concept for a book. Nice and concise. Definitely going to read more of Ian McEwans stuff.
This is such a clever book, narrated by a 9 month foetus.
Nutshell is a story of adultery and murder told from a very unique perspective, a baby's from inside his mother's womb. The baby's mother and her lover (who also happens to be the baby's uncle) plan to murder the baby's father. The baby hears all the plans and tries to figure out a way to disrupt them. I found the book witty and the concept fascinating. I've already recommended it to my friends!