Sophia C. reviewed on + 289 more book reviews
Solar is another quintessential McEwan offering of a morally questionable character cast in an elegant but harsh light. This time the protagonist is Michael Beard, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who lets himself go to seed in numerous ways. When we meet him, Beard, coasting on his prize from Stockholm, has not done any serious scientific work for years and his fifth marriage is starting to fail as he is cuckolded by a younger wife whom he still desires. Set in three acts each about five years apart, Beard begins to work on artificial photosynthesis as a clean energy source, allowing Beard to sustain illusions of grandeur and McEwan to comment on climate change and human nature. McEwan's prose is elegant, understated, and biting as always, and he brings the story to a good climax. However, to stick with Beard's indulgences and somewhat repulsive nature for ~300 pages might not be everyone's cup of tea.
