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Solar / Ian McEwan

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Michael Beard is a Nobel-Laureate in physics who peaked far too soon. It seems he used up all his genius early in life and this novel follows him as he tries to parlay his Nobel honor, and no further innovative work or thinking, into a lifelong career. He can’t give physics too much attention since he is caught up in his own self-absorption, can’t seem to stay faithful or married (five marriages and counting), and has no self-discipline when it comes to eating and exercise, or anything else for that matter. To stay afloat he becomes involved in several unscrupulous actions, including concealing a suspicious death, framing an innocent man for it, and stealing the poor dead man’s intellectual property.

This novel has moments of greatness, but it is much too plodding, too preachy, too satirical, and too scientific in places, and the characters (other than Michael Beard) are just too flat.

I love Ian McEwan, but I didn’t find Solar up to his usual standard.

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