Solar (McEwan)

Book Reviews
Vivacious and sprawling, a beautifully and compellingly written novel.... [His] achievement is the brilliant creation of a flawed, larger than life character who all but walks off the page to shake your hand.
Times (London)


Despite the book's somber, scientific backdrop (and global warming here is little but that), Solar is Mr. McEwan's funniest novel yet—a novel that in tone and affect often reads more like something by Zoe Heller or David Lodge.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times


McEwan writes sentences of such witty elegance that the loss of John Updike seems a little easier to bear.... [He] comes to this [climate change] debate with considerable sophistication.
Washington Post


Artistically ambitious [and] seriously entertaining... In Solar [McEwan has] elegantly discovered a terrible truth: that comedy is the only possible way to deal with the searing specter stalking the planet.
Wall Street Journal


Deft... McEwan’s background research is so seamlessly displayed that scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technoloy might wonder if he’s nicked their notes. But where Solar really succeeds—beyond the dark comedy—is the author’s ability to reveal the nature of the climate conundrum in the very human life of his protagonist.
Time


Beard is a fascinatingly repulsive protagonist, but he can't sustain a novel broken.... The scientific material is absorbing, but the interpersonal portions are much less so—troublesome, since McEwan seems to prefer the latter—making for an inconsistent novel that one finishes feeling unpleasantly glacial.
Publishers Weekly


[The] writing is beautiful and precise but [the] plot is encumbered by the details of Beard's self-absorbed, narcissistic life. Recommended only for inclusive collections, to satisfy demand for British fiction, and where McEwan does well. —Sandy Glover, Camas P.L., WA
Library Journal


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.
Bookmarks Magazine


Customarily, McEwan’s novels spring from a catastrophic incident in someone’s life, either a calamity that causes physical distress or a psychological trespass that causes emotional instability.... In his new novel, McEwan outdoes himself in terms of catastrophic occurrences.... [R]readers are taxed to even care about these crises. This draggy novel stands in stark contrast to its many beautiful predecessors.
Kirkus Reviews