What We Can Now - Ian McEwan ----------------- 3.5 Stars

It's been over a decade since I last read and reviewed an Ian McEwan book (reviews here). As you can see, I thought Atonement was amazing but was disappointed with Enduring Love. But, McEwan just released What We Can Now, and it received strong ratings, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It ended up landing somewhere between the past two I reviewed.

While this book was no where was good as Atonement, I did find it quite interesting and a clever novel. While I found parts of it frustrating while reading it, it was one of those books that grew on more once I finished it. Always one to be adventurous, McEwan doesn't hold back from trying atypical form and unconventional styles. In this book, he jumps time often and never quite gives you enough information to make full meaning about what you are reading. Perhaps this is why the ending was so satisfying, and a bit of a saving grace.

For much of the novel, I found it a bit annoying and frustrating (a McEwan theme for me). Often the plot moved too slow and pages would go by with too much fluff. He's both a great writer and one that is hard to follow. Often not linear and concrete with describing actions, I do find myself having to pay a bit more attention than I do with other books. I wouldn't mind this as much if a break was given from time to time, but I find him often short on dialogue (which usually is much clearer) and heavy on convoluted prose. One other negative - I found most of the characters pretentious and hard to root for.

With that said, it's still a pretty engaging book. It starts off with a great opener and immediately draws you in as he takes his opportunity to jump into the future and share the dystopian landscape (I know, similar to so many other books at present). The novel then moves toward a bit of a Tenacious D focus (yeah, I bet not a lot of people make comparisons between Tenacious D and Ian McEwan). In this case, much of the novel centers around a poem read at a dinner party that is considered by many the greatest poem ever written. Similarly, Tenacious D has a hilarious song called Tribute (lyrics here). The joke of it is that there is a song that is well known of the greatest ever but can't be revealed or sang; I felt like it was the same bit here with this novel.

Overall, I think this book is worth the time. It's not a super long read and the ending is thought provoking. In fact, upon completion, I found much of the book thoughtful. Finishing it, you can't help but think about some important themes - how accurate are memories, how serious are the environmental challenges, what are the many forms of love, etc. If you can get past the time jumps and difficult writing style necessary for following important plot/character developments, the book is probably worth your time. 

Enduring Love -- Ian McEwan --------------------------- 2 Stars

I don't think I can ever recall a prior time that I have finished a book and been so frustrated.  I mean, really annoyed.  But somehow that managed to occur after I finished reading Ian McEwan's Enduring Love.

I'll try to do my best to explain but first some background on the selection of text.  I was in love with Ian McEwan.  I read his best book, Atonement about two years ago (review here), and more recently, the pretty good Amsterdam.  So, I thought I'd give Enduring Love a try as it had decent reviews and many considered it a very strong book of his.

The premise sounded fairly interesting, a guy out with his girl about to have a picnic witnesses a 'runaway' balloon about to hit power lines and he, along with 3 others, all run to try to save it.  As they do, someone dies in the process but the major story line is a bizarre obsession another person starts with the main character that is pervasive throughout the rest of the novel.  Obviously, its gets dramatic, there is a major climax and typical resolution.

So, back to the frustration.  I am frustrated with many aspects.   First, the story starts out in a very weird way (as described above) and never really gets momentum.  It is an odd story and not much more.  Second, the actual plot is incredibly frustrating.  I mean, I know it's a story, but it was so ridiculous the way it played out and what people decided to do.  Third, the ending is frustrating.  In typical McEwan fashion there are twists and major surprises but unlike earlier novels, the twists don't add to the story, just to my FRUSTRATION!  Sorry, I am a bit annoyed if you can't tell.  Fourth, I might be frustrated with myself for not liking it more.  By all accounts, it is fairly well liked by others and it is very well written.  It's not boring per se, but it is slow for long parts.  It lacks dialogue which bothers me.  I did appreciate alot of the various points he was raising about god vs. science and the individual vs. the community and all that stuff.  So, some of the frustration was with myself as well.

Overall, I actually recommend this book to check out as I think it may have been my various frustrations that prevented the novel from getting a higher rating.  It's a fast read and short, has some beautiful writing and well detailed scenes, and has a fairly interesting plot with good twists at the end.  If you do decide to read and do not enjoy, please do not get frustrated with me; I certainly gave you plenty of other reasons to be annoyed. 

Atonement -- Ian McEwan ------------------------ 4.5 Stars

It was incredibly strange to read a great novel with a twist for an ending after already having seen the movie, but, in an unexpected but certainly welcome surprise, it ended up making the book ever better.

I saw the movie Atonement a couple of years ago. I was going in not expecting much, I mean it didn't sound like my type of flavor: English, love story, set 60 years ago... sounds like a recipe for disaster but, alas, it was pretty good. I mean not bad. Then on a whim last week, I thought I should maybe read the book Atonement as I had heard it was a pretty good novel, and I was fairly familiar with the story. Well, I was absolutely shocked by how good it was and how much I enjoyed it.

I really couldn't put it down and read it in a week, which is the most critical element when I review a book...is it captivating?. It was a truly remarkable and probably a perfect novel. The only thing that took a way a .5 star was that I personally just didn't like the ending (bad reason to lose a .5 star, but I write the blog).

I don't feel like there is any need to go through the plot as most people have seen the movie or know in general what it's about so I'd rather just continue to gush about how much I liked the novel. First, I love the way McEwan writes. His prose is just phenomenal and a joy to read. It's almost like poetry how well it flows. He also has a knack for using some fairly obtuse vocabulary, but it seemed liked every word he used actually fit the sentence or paragraph and was never forced. Second, the characters he created seemed so real. Perhaps it was because I had seen the movie and could better picture them but they were so cleanly and fully developed it added so much to the novel to really feel like I 'knew' these people. Third, the story is so intricately and delicately developed that it really is quite genius... truly nothing is overlooked. Fourth, and though I hate to say it, it's a really nice love story. Normally not something I really find that exciting, this one was told so well that but you can't help but love it.

Overall, it really is a perfect novel and one I would recommend wholeheartedly to anyone who has not yet read it (I am a little behind as it came out like 10 years ago). For me, what added to it's enjoyability was the fact that I quasi-remembered parts of it from seeing the movie a few years ago. I remembered just enough to know who the characters were and the basic novel twists but not enough detail where I found it repetitive. Quite the opposite, because I remembered just enough of the story, I better appreciated and enjoyed seeing how it was developed through the written word.

So, if you have the choice, I would say definitely read the book right now if you saw the movie a while ago. Or you could go the route of watching the movie right now and then waiting like 3 years to read it but that takes some real patience.... the choice is yours.