March 20, 2015
As of a few short hours ago, my spring break officially began. I need it! It's been a particularly stressful week at work, and nine days of reading, running, and just relaxing is just what I need right now.
So the only other McEwan work I've read is the acclaimed Atonement, though he's written an extensive body of work. I found it strange that readers on Goodreads would automatically compare that one to this one. Except that there's actually one huge similarity at the end, though the ending to this book is kind of happy. And highly unsatisfying.
I was into this book for the most part, but was confused about why Tony thought Serena would have a good career at MI5 (Britain's version of the CIA) in the first place. I can only think he was blinded by her beauty into seeing her "average intelligence" as more than it was. What I mean is, she's smart, but kind of average as well. I see myself the same way, in fact. I think I have above average intelligence, but when it comes down to it I'm rather unextraordinary. Serena is very good at math, but can barely get her math degree at Cambridge...and probably only gained acceptance as the token chick in the late '60s. She's a voracious reader, but she's kind of shallow in her tastes. She would have made a good accountant or something. But because she wrote some articles expressing anti-Communist views, Tony thought she'd be good for MI5...even though he may or may not have been a double agent. His motive behind promoting her was never ever clear.
I'd say the middle part of the novel was the most interesting. Women in the agency are underlings, but she's given a part in a minor mission called Sweet Tooth. This involved various agents pretending to represent a foundation offering stipends to authors with anti-Communist views, to get them to write what they write best, producing pro-capitalist propaganda without the writers being fully aware of what they were doing. They wanted Serena to recruit Tom, a fiction writer, imagining that he'd write the next 1984 or something. She gets him to take the "foundation's" support, but they also eventually fall in love.
I most enjoyed the summaries of Tom's previous writings; I'd read a collection of those actual short stories. However, I feel a little differently about it now that I've read the "twist" at the end. I'll put it this way: the book was interesting throughout, but the ending sucked. Serena has kind of stumbled into these situations, and she's much more guileless than you would expect a secret agent to be. Yet her job as a whole isn't all that thrilling. That's a big plus for the story, actually! Her affair with Tom, but the conflict of interest at work (including Max's petty jealousy) were interesting. The ending could have been much better.
There are probably better McEwan books out there. This one just happens to be one of the more recent, and it was very recently added to the ebooks in my library. I think it's pretty lame that McEwan used the same ploy in this as in his most famous novel, but I won't take him off my reading list forever. This is still a decent story, just a big let down at the end.
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