As the author of more than ten novels, Ian McEwan is no stranger to mixed reactions from the massed ranks of professional critics: The winner of two Man Booker prizes, some claim his 1998 novel Amsterdam was one of the weakest ever winners – with a few even suggesting the award was only handed over as some sort of apology for the fact his extremely popular Enduring Love failed to make the shortlist the previous year.
Then, in 2007, many argued his commercially successful On Chesil Beach, consisting of little more than sixty thousand words (so arguably a novella rather than a novel), should never have even been eligible, let alone shortlisted.
Now, after a three year wait, they’ve got their hands on Solar, his first novel since On Chesil Beach
So What is Ian McEwan’s Solar about?
A much chunkier 304 pages (it looks bigger than that on the shelf) Solar tells the story of Michael Beard, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who has lost his way in his professional life and is a pig of a man on a personal level – married five times, gluttonous, dishonest; the very embodiment of unsympathetic.
Given one of the Golden Rules of Literature is to Make Your Protagonist Sympathetic, how Have Critics Reviewed Solar?
Anyone taking a quick glance at Solar's Amazon.com page would think they’ve treated it kindly: The shout-lines extracted from full-page reviews in The Sunday Times, Time, The Financial Times,The Spectator, and The Mail On Sunday, are made up of snippets such as these:
“A comedy every bit as brilliant as its title might suggest...”
“But where Solar really succeeds – beyond the dark comedy...”
“A stunningly accomplished work, possibly [McEwan’s] best yet.”
“Beard is as robust and full-fleshed and ebullient a character as McEwan has come up with.”
So McEwan’s Solar is a Stunning Success Then?
It certainly seems to be based on the above, and the list contains many more glowing references for McEwan’s writing: But, in fact, many of these refer to On Chesil Beach, not Solar, and the full review for Solar in The Mail On Sunday – by Roger Lewis – ends with the following line:
"The novel simply stops dead. We don’t even know if the cherished solar panel technology works or not. Managing to eclipse itself, Solar remains a minor, frivilous book.”
The only complete professional review posted at Amazon.com, from Brad Hooper of The Booklist, doesn’t contain any truly positive sound-bites, and ends on this less than encouraging note:
"This draggy novel stands in stark contrast to its many beautiful predecessors, but McEwan is regarded as a major contemporary British novelist, so expect demand on that basis.”
So What is the Wider View of Solar by Ian McEwan?
Elsewhere, Hooper’s suggestion of readers indulging McEwan because of his history seems to be echoed by Ron Charles, fiction editor of Book World, in his review for The Washington Post. He starts off on a positive note and claims the novel’s funniest scene occurs when Beard tries to pee in the Arctic and ends up with a frostbitten penis (a scene Lewis, in his full Mail On Sunday review, describes as a “poor set-piece sequence”), but complains the rest of the novel is flaccid in comparison:
“McEwan's detractors -- they're a weirdly aggressive group -- won't be surprised by this tepid novel. But if, like me, you think he's one of England's very best writers, just let Solar pass and wait for his next book to eclipse it.”
William Sutcliffe, however, in his review for The Financial Times, believes the angst is aimed at McEwan rather than Solar. He opens with this:
“Nothing annoys the British quite so much as success, and few writers have had as much of it in recent years as Ian McEwan.”
And finishes with this:
“In the light of Solar and On Chesil Beach, those who accused McEwan of playing it safe should retract. As with Philip Roth in the 1990s, the evidence points to a late-period flowering for McEwan. The backlashers will have to put away their knives and wait for the next book.”
Whatever the critics make of it, don’t bet against Solar making an appearance when the 2010 Booker long-list is made public this July.
And don’t be surprised if McEwan’s ‘weirdly aggressive detractors’ – not to mention the critics – have plenty to say about that.
Solar by Ian McEwan
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (18 Mar 2010)
ISBN-10: 0224090496
ISBN-13: 978-0224090490
Daniel Clay - My debut novel, Broken, was published in the Uk, US and Canada and shortlisted for The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2009 and ...
