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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
I put myself in McEwan's hands as I couldn't understand nor really like the protagonist Serena. It was totally worth it as all by the end of the book. If you are looking for a well written, clever story this one is a good investment of time.
I was fully prepared to give this book 3 stars the entire time I was reading it, but then I got to the end and I loved the end so much that I think it deserves 4 starts. I'm not going to ruin the end, but I will give a few thoughts on the book overall.
I didn't love the main character. I'm all about reading books with flawed characters (who wants to read about someone perfect, right?), but I have problems with characters who take no responsibility for their own actions, which is how I saw Serena. She even says, at one point (and I'm paraphrasing), that things just happen to her, she doesn't make decisions, which drives me crazy.
The prose in the book is very Ian McEwan and there were definitely some very descriptive parts that I found myself glossing over. I also had mixed feelings about Tom's stories that were included in part or in full. I found myself enjoying some and no others and I don't really know if they were necessary to include.
But it is a very interesting, if maybe improbable story, that I would recommend overall, but especially for the ending.
I didn't love the main character. I'm all about reading books with flawed characters (who wants to read about someone perfect, right?), but I have problems with characters who take no responsibility for their own actions, which is how I saw Serena. She even says, at one point (and I'm paraphrasing), that things just happen to her, she doesn't make decisions, which drives me crazy.
The prose in the book is very Ian McEwan and there were definitely some very descriptive parts that I found myself glossing over. I also had mixed feelings about Tom's stories that were included in part or in full. I found myself enjoying some and no others and I don't really know if they were necessary to include.
But it is a very interesting, if maybe improbable story, that I would recommend overall, but especially for the ending.
Even though i have a terrible habit of speed reading books (as I did with this one) like Serena Frome, I enjoyed this book and the fatal, satisfying little twist at the end. To be honest, if the novel wasnt set in the Cold War era, which intrigues me oddly enough, i would have put Sweet Tooth down a few chapters in. The high detail can be a bit dull at times and sort of ruined the plot for me in places, and I would have given this book 5 stars if not for that. I would recommend this book.
A book that has more to do with writing and the literary world than about spying and MI5. I think I liked this more than I liked Atonement.
It's hard to review this book. Crazy. A bit boggling. I usually don't like books that so neatly tie up all the loose ends in the conclusion, but this one needs to in order to make it work. And it does. Brilliant.
All the Cold War, British subterfuge politics made my head spin and I know I didn't grasp a lot of it, but it still makes the book interesting and different. Great writing all along. Certainly one in which you should not read the last chapter first. Why ruin a good book?
All the Cold War, British subterfuge politics made my head spin and I know I didn't grasp a lot of it, but it still makes the book interesting and different. Great writing all along. Certainly one in which you should not read the last chapter first. Why ruin a good book?
Serena Frome (no relation to Wharton’s Ethan) is the female protagonist of the revered Ian McEwan’s latest novel. Serena, along with her younger sister, is raised by their Anglican bishop father whose “belief in God was muted and reasonable” and a mother who was the “parody of a vicar’s wife.” Serena’s early years are unremarkable: “Nothing strange or terrible happened to me during my first 18 years” in the 1950s and ‘60s, “and that is why I’ll skip them.” Although Serena enjoys popular literature (“Valley of the Dolls” and “Octopussy”) her mother persuades her to “fulfill her duty as a woman and go to Cambridge to study maths” where she promptly learns “what a mediocrity I was in mathematics.”
While at Cambridge, Serena embarks on an affair with an older, married man who recruits her for Britain’s M15 intelligence agency and prepares her with a course of serious literature, English history and current events. Although the affair ends badly and abruptly, Serena lands the job with M15 where she is offered a disappointing lowly secretarial position, the lot of women in the service who are treated as a lower caste. After getting some “order and purpose in my life” with the numbing routine, Serena is offered an unremarkable mission, code name Sweet Tooth, to financially support a young writer who has shown flashes of anti-communism. The comely Serena and the writer, Thomas Haley (who is almost indistinguishable from McEwan himself), promptly embark on an affair and, as they fall in love, Serena frets that the relationship will be destroyed if Tom were to become aware of her deception.
McEwan writes a literary spy novel that lacks the John le Carre-style intrigue. There is no clandestine meetings with Soviet moles. Instead, McEwan, through Serena, ruminates on writers, writing, and the power of stories. We read over Serena’s shoulder as she reads the short stories penned by her target. In elegant prose, McEwan captures the jittery Cold War London of the early 1970's with its economic woes, worries about I.R.A. bombings, oil shortages and a general unraveling of the social fabric. Yet, McEwan’s writing cannot compensate for a light weight, trivial plot. While the third act is a bit of a surprise, it fails to compensate for a sadly inert and unremarkable piece of fiction.
While at Cambridge, Serena embarks on an affair with an older, married man who recruits her for Britain’s M15 intelligence agency and prepares her with a course of serious literature, English history and current events. Although the affair ends badly and abruptly, Serena lands the job with M15 where she is offered a disappointing lowly secretarial position, the lot of women in the service who are treated as a lower caste. After getting some “order and purpose in my life” with the numbing routine, Serena is offered an unremarkable mission, code name Sweet Tooth, to financially support a young writer who has shown flashes of anti-communism. The comely Serena and the writer, Thomas Haley (who is almost indistinguishable from McEwan himself), promptly embark on an affair and, as they fall in love, Serena frets that the relationship will be destroyed if Tom were to become aware of her deception.
McEwan writes a literary spy novel that lacks the John le Carre-style intrigue. There is no clandestine meetings with Soviet moles. Instead, McEwan, through Serena, ruminates on writers, writing, and the power of stories. We read over Serena’s shoulder as she reads the short stories penned by her target. In elegant prose, McEwan captures the jittery Cold War London of the early 1970's with its economic woes, worries about I.R.A. bombings, oil shortages and a general unraveling of the social fabric. Yet, McEwan’s writing cannot compensate for a light weight, trivial plot. While the third act is a bit of a surprise, it fails to compensate for a sadly inert and unremarkable piece of fiction.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
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
I will admit, this book was a little irritating. I get the point of it, and it's simultaneously clever and stupid at the same time. It feels like the book only ended the way it did as a "gotcha" to the reader, and I'm not sure if that was actually a good idea, but I still ended up being surprised, and I feel like I've missed out on half of this book by not knowing the end up front. In the end, I liked some aspects of its cleverness, I feel like it did explain other things I noticed throughout the book, but I still question the overall necessity of it.
Me encantó!! Como muchos (si no la mayoría) de libros que agrego, este tuve que leerlo para la facultad y realmente lo disfruté un montón. El giro del final es magnífico, prácticamente impredecible si no se está muuy atento durante la lectura. Me gustó la construcción de los personajes y la apertura a interpretación que nos deja el final. Recomiendo!!