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Jun 29, 2010

brian rated it:

ian mcewan hates you, dear reader.
have no illusions.
the guy flings more shit and pukes more bile in solar than g.g. allin ever dared dream.

check it: mcewan dazzles in select passages, but the sum ain't always more than its parts -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing. those perfect books with clearly defined themes, succinct, streamlined… yuk. you can have 'em. we like the meandering messes, shot to shit with all the baggage. but at the end of the slop… we've gotta fee More...

34 comments like (48 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2010

Jessica rated it:

So I imagine young novelists are a promiscuous bunch. Writers play around and flirt with all manner of novels: date one genre for a few months before finding it oppressive.... move in too quickly with a voice that turns out to be all wrong for them.... have one-night stands with forms that are way too experimental. And I'm sure it's great fun for awhile, but it's not what they're ultimately after. No novelist wants to play the field forever! And some do find that special novel early, while for o More...

2 comments like (26 people liked it)

Apr 23, 2011

Kemper rated it:

The main character in Solar can’t control his appetites. He eats like Jabba the Hut at a casino buffet, drinks like an alcoholic fish, and chases women every chance he gets. He’s also an unorganized slob who would rather just travel or stay somewhere else rather than clean up his own living space. On top of being greedy, opportunistic, selfish and lazy, he has no regard for the future. He can rationalize any potential warning signs of health issues or unpleasant business he’d rather not deal More...

16 comments like (23 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2010

Mike rated it:

I'm still wiggling on the fence between a hug or an enthusiastic wet kiss. Loved passages and some few hundred of McEwan's sentences, appreciated its whole-hearted embrace of its central cad, smitten by its over-arching conceit (see below), but felt slightly let down by the way that conceit constrains the working of plot so that the novel, by Act Three, chugs less energetically toward its pre-destined conclusion.

But that conceit--whoa. So let's say you're horrifed by the threat o More...

15 comments like (21 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2011

Mal rated it:

I was reading in bed last night--I was a little more than half-way through--and it hit me: it is taking way too long to read this thing. Why? Not because it's a big book, or particularly difficult to understand, but because it is so boring. I dread opening it each day so I put it off. I read anything else. I closed it and tossed it aside. I'm done. I'll go find a new one tomorrow at the library.

It's really disappointing too, because when I read the premise, it sounded great! But McEwa More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 14, 2010

Cynthia rated it:

A Nobel winning physicist is approaching the descending side of his life. Michael Beard’s had five wives with each marriage leaving a bigger pile of emotional junk in its wake. He can’t or won’t grow up. He just stays in motion hoping it will all sort itself out. It doesn’t. It gets worse. By the end of the book there are sweltering piles of personal and professional cacao threatening to fall on him.

In classic McEwen style there is a pivot incident that changes or enhances the More...

18 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2010

David rated it:

Nobel Laureate in Physics Michael Beard is a truly revolting piece of work: a slave to his appetites, whose progress through the novel is just one orgiastic frenzy of wenching, gourmandizing self-indulgence because, after all, curbing his sybaritic excess would just be too .... inconvenient. If you think it's a stroke of genius by Ian McEwan to use this troglodyte as a heavy-handed symbol of the kind of behavior that's causing global warming, then good for you. Let me know if you still feel that More...

5 comments like (12 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2010

DJ TweakyClean rated it:

I admit that I probably should not have picked this book up after reading "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." I was halfway through this novel, when all I could think about was how much I wanted to start "The Girl Who Played With Fire." The issue ultimately though, I realized when I finished this was that, where McEwan has created characters in the past for whom I find to be reprehensible (Atonement) or just plain idiotic (Amsterdam), I still find myself compelled and even e More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

patxi rated it:

Descacharrante, cínica, divertidísima... y sin embargo triste novela, en la que, entre bromas y veras, se nos muestran los amargos momentos que vive una persona en declive permanente, pese a un aparente triunfo profesional.
El marco económico, social y político muestra de manera descarnada nuestra situación actual, en la que las distintas tendencias intentan imponerse a las demás sin limitaciones éticas ni morales, primando los intereses particulares disfrazados de ideologías populistas (in More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Marc added it

This is Ian McEwan’s latest novel. It is by far the funniest of his writings, and some of the scenes he vividly paints literally had me laughing out aloud. I won’t spoil the surprise by revealing any of these miniature masterpieces, but they combine an acute awareness of human nature, double-entrendre and irony that have long been the hallmarks of authors such as Michael Frayn.

The “hero” of the novel is an inherently unlikeable person, rich in the unattractive traits of a certain type of self-i More...

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Aug 06, 2011

Charlotte added it

Very disappointing. I am a huge McEwan fan but like many others, agree this is probably one of the worst books he's written. For a start, it's taken me months of reading, putting down and forgetting about, and reading again to actually finish the book. I never felt entirely engaged from the start, unlike many of my favourites of his such as Enduring Love and Saturday. The plot itself is one major fault: dealing with the themes of solar energy and global warming and making these issues interestin More...

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May 03, 2011

Project rated it:

I may just be slow, but it took a little while for the pattern to emerge here.[return][return]Michael Beard had one good idea a long time ago and he's been living off it ever since. That one good idea might have some practical application to the problem of how we are going to power our civilisation once all the oil runs out, and there is the basis for the story.[return][return]The pattern is that Beard makes all the wrong decisions. Every single time he has to make a choice, he turns a situation More...

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Jun 16, 2010

Bookmarks Magazine rated it:

Critics expressed decidedly mixed opinions about McEwan's latest work--and perhaps it's no surprise that he was better-reviewed on his UK home front. While most critics on either side of the pond praised the author's intelligent plot (especially his command of science) and ample storytelling gifts, the majority agreed that Solar is not his best novel to date. A few commented that the several narrative strands, which take place over more than a decade, do not cohere; Beard's jaunt to the North Po More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

Rididill rated it:

His central character is a masterful portrayal of male privilege in action - grasping for power/prestige, so terrified of humiliation/embarassment that he will pursue the wrong path to the detriment of everybody else just to save face, NEVER questions whether he is the right person for the job - always twisting himself to see whether he can use the opportunity, and of course, a complete user of everyone and every thing he can get his hands on and entirely short-sighted. He is a once-successful p More...

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Nov 14, 2011

Seth rated it:

Ian McEwan is one of my favorite authors--reading the words he writes is a real pleasure. He has an incredible command of the language, and he is able to describe things in concise, engaging, and humorous ways. Solar was no different--it's very easy to fall into the world of Michael Beard and understand what makes him tick as he goes through the misadventures of his life. Some parts got a little bogged down in technical details, but McEwan knows his stuff and makes his presentation enjoyable eve More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 20, 2011

Ryandake rated it:

mixed feelings on this book... the main character, in whose head we are stuck throughout the book, is a fairly loathsome, greedy serial adulterer whose sole ambition (at the outset) is just to be admired and get laid. later he develops a more noble goal, but for anti-noble reasons.

reviewers have trashed on this book for being contrived, for falling flat. i actually didn't find it contrived (well, not until the end), but that could be due to reading it in one 7-hour binge. i confess i More...

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Sep 09, 2011

Federica rated it:

After reading this book you would think that those you addressed Ian McEwan the nickname "Ian Macabre" were completely wrong!

This work of comic fiction is absolutely enjoyable and valuable as its tones are always balanced so that the comic will never drop into a trivial laugh situation but it will be followed by the cynical and sardonic attitude of Prof Beard towards life resulting in a very well built ironic reading.
The book alternates between the funniest episodes tha More...

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Aug 04, 2011

Kees rated it:

A Comedy?

Solar is not McEwan' best book. It doesn't enthrall you like Atonement did, or surprise you with a twist at the end like that book did. Neither does it make you want to get 'in' the story and council the protagonist towards a happy, or at least happier, end like I wanted to do with the couple in On Chesil Beach.

The reason that I wasn't as involved in the story might be that McEwan directed his fabulous writing talent partially towards describing technology, science More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Agnes rated it:

This book was amazing. It is a dark satire about modern man, the environment, intellectual property etc. The main character embodies the worst of human traits, but the reader can recognize smidges of character traits which in their exaggeration become funny. For example, when he goes through customs and gets an agent who is going to go by the book and the impatience and Why Me? attitude of main character. Or his promises to diet. (forgotten his name) He is the most selfish, narcissistic, gu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2011

Ian added it

I have not been a fan of some of McEwan’s recent books, but this one has received very strong reviews. I think this is justified. McEwan has created a repulsive but fascinating central character, an aging scientist whose creative years are long behind him and who is now coasting based on his past success. The novel follows him over a number of years as his life spirals gradually out of control and eventually disintegrates. There are some very funny scenes, as his scientific career, relations More...

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Jul 16, 2011

Noce rated it:

Non posso dire che non mi sia piaciuto, ma non sto nemmeno stappando lo champagne.

Andiamo per ordine.

McEwan stilisticamente parlando è a dir poco brillante.
Anche se parlasse della passeggiata col suo cane, riuscirebbe a far resuscitare i morti con quelle sue frasi che sembrano buttate così a caso, come quando di getto si tira giù la lista della spesa, ma che sono dissacranti, taglienti e ironiche, e a maggior ragione illuminanti. E vi assicuro, che raggiungere qu More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2011

Roberta rated it:

Narcissistic philanderer Michael Beard is on his way to trashing his 5th marriage. Yet the sex addict, glutton and high-functioning alcoholic with a skewed moral compass is somehow still attractive to women. Must be his Nobel Prize: It's not his rapier wit or empathy or even his self-awareness, because he's lacking in all those things. In this funny social satire, McEwan weaves the many threads in his hero's life into a big tangled knot with so much negative energy it's a nuclear explosion wai More...

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May 10, 2011

Steven rated it:

Not a bad read but it was a bit sluggish at times.

-from pg 172-173
They kissed again, as tenderly as before. Perhaps it would not be so difficult after all to set the evening on its proper course.
Then she gazed at him in wonder and laughed. 'You idiot. I love you. I said I'm pregnant'
'Ah . . .'
His mind had softly whited out, the manly equivalent of a neurasthenic faint onto the sofa behind him. Pregnant. He struggled with this ripely swelling word - familiar en More...

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May 08, 2011

Seana rated it:

Every once in awhile you come across a book that 'speaks to your condition'. The last time this happened for me was when reading Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. It's hard to explain the phenomenon if you haven't experienced it. In both cases I had read more than one of the author's previous work with a certain degree of neutrality and a feeling that I didn't quite get what all the buzz was about. But with these two works, I experienced a kind of mind meld. It's a slightly uncanny experience. It More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 03, 2011

Daniel rated it:

Physicists in fiction are generally depicted as autistic action heroes, with mighty, infallible intellects. Dr. Beard, the protagonist of ""Solar", is anything but and a breath of fresh air. He's self-centered, incapable of love, insecure and vain, and he walks the fine line between pity and brilliance.

"Solar" is, at its core, a satire on climate change. McEwan's theme seems to be that if humanity is to be saved from the effects of climate change, it will not be through More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2011

Yvann rated it:

Summary: Michael Beard, Nobel Laureate physicist, is suffering from a slide into middle-aged mediocrity, academic impotence and marital strife. The fight against climate change starts to consume his academic life, but his private life stays pretty messy.

There was a phenomenal amount of chat about this in the blogosphere – so much so that at least one blogger commented that it was quite off-putting to have everyone talking about one book simultaneously. There were pretty mixed feelings More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2011

Ian rated it:

England's greatest living writer. I think so.

This is comedy at an epic level. Micheal Beard is a man living on past glories - he is not painted in a great light but I loved him. Used to paint a picture of the human races apetities and consumptions - he is a middle aged fat bloke with five ex-wives, a love of red wine, salt and vinegar crisps and lives of his past glories as a nobel prize scientist stealing the idea from much younger Phd students.

He is one hell of a cha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 23, 2011

Daniel rated it:

This book was recommended to me twice, first through a listing of books that I've generally liked, and then by our local librarian who has very similar tastes as I do. Unfortunately, this book completely failed to capture my attention.

Michael Beard was an unsympathetic character. Somehow, this nerdy scientist, who is never described as particularly attractive, has women falling all over him and each time he gets married, he's off having an affair. His latest wife has an affair of More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 19, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Before you're lured by the cover, McEwan's reputation and the appeal of the novel's positioning as 'comic', I'd advise one thing: if you've not read McEwan before, don't start here. Stop reading this review now, and head for 'Atonement', 'Enduring Love' or one of his earlier novels. You'll be greatly rewarded.

I won't recount the plot given other reviewers have done so fully already, so let's start with the positives. As an author myself, I'm humbled by the breadth of McEwan's vocabu More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 15, 2011

Beth rated it:

Although the two reviews of SOLAR that I read would put off a less die-hard
McEwan fan, I found it to be, first, a comical view of the irony of
global-warming and environmental activism, later, still ironic but a more serious consideration of this subject.

The first part of SOLAR shows the ironic life of a nobel-prize-winning scientist. He is the head of a center bent on exploring some politically correct discovery involving wind turbines even if they know it is useless. But More...

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