Beautiful and satisfying.

McEwan represents complexity and ambiguities with eloquence. There are interesting thematic links between authority and childhood and time and the act of creation and...life and death. The sense of completeness upon reaching the conclusion of this novel was kind too amazing for me to come up with an adequate review. McEwan is excellent.

There are probably weaknesses in plotting/tone, but I'm too impressed by the overall effect to care much at the moment. Maybe I'll feel compelled to update this upon further reflection?

Also: I like the connection between the prime minister and the last sentence. And the balance of life/death, lost and found. Excellent.

UPDATE: I found something about this that irked me! Gender! It didn't bother me too much, particularly because it was handled well. But there were definitely gendered reactions to loss and "female" versus "male" approaches to the world which kind of grated on my all-gender-is-performance/feministy leanings. And the way that the beginning of humanity depends so thoroughly on gender-definition. And the whole anti-abortion thing. (I'm trying not to give too much away because these are kind of essential bits of the plot that come up late in the book...but really most of the joy in reading McEwan's work is in relishing the words themselves and not so much in the nitty-gritty of the plot soooo I don't feel too bad if I've ruined anything.)