Customer Reviews

Solar

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(31)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

Solar tells the story of Michael Beard, an overweight and aging physicist who won the Nobel prize twenty years ago and hasn't had an interesting idea since. He plays on his fame and drifts between speaking engagements and sinecures, his private life is a disastrous series of failed marriages.

That all changes when a freak accident leaves him in possession of a file full of brilliant ideas from a young post-grad, and claiming the work as his own, Beard sets out to build a new technology that will single-handedly solve the world's energy crisis and stop climate change.

I won't spoil it for you by saying any more about the story - not that there is much of a story. Like the protagonist, Solar sort of bumbles along, following Beard to the Arctic and back, to conferences, lectures, bored nights in motel rooms, until it suddenly picks up at the end as Beard's various mistakes all suddenly begin to catch up with him all at once.

Michael Beard is such a thoroughly unlikeable character that I nearly gave up halfway through, but there are enough flashes of humour or interesting observations about human nature to make it worth persevering. It's not a great book - the reviewers panning it here have a point. Much of the book is mundane, well written but rather empty and moping. Nothing of any real interest happens until a good third of the way in, and the ending is somewhat contrived. Nevertheless, it's a satire and McEwan is attempting something rather bold - exploring climate change through the lens of human nature. Read that way, I think McEwan pulls it off, although I do wonder what his established fans will make of it.

Not all that original in terms of plot (older man steals younger man's ideas and capitalises on his death) and with one of the least prepossessing protagonists ever invented, this is not going to turn into one of my favourite McEwan books, even in retrospect. It's strange but I find that almost all of his books become better in the memory than they are in the moment of reading. Is this why, I ask myself, I have read his book The Child In Time three times and The Cement Garden twice? Or that I've re-read the first part of Atonement at least twice? I don't think I'll read Solar again.

However, this is Ian McEwan trying for a Zadie Smith-like rollicking social comedy and tripping up before he's halfway up his own orifice. It starts off well. There is some wryness in his thoughts on the boot room as a metaphor for man's so far disastrous reaction to climate change, or in recounting a discomforting tale to end a conference speech, only to find it is GT (Good Thief) and twice as old as time to the rest of the world. But Michael Beard is a TW and how he manages to attract five wives and wind up as he does, with two women ready to scrap over him is frankly just incredible. This is a short tub of lard with commitment-phobia, yet women are crazy for him. The `murder' that isn't, is probably his cleverest moment, and that's counting the physics.

Not funny, but still some faultless writing. Not every book has to be about beautiful people, but this one sells it's real subject (global warming) short and leaves one shaking one's head. Isn't the mid-life male crisis novel dead yet?

Only a hundred pages into the latest novel from perhaps the greatest living British writer do you begin to grasp the conflict at the core of Solar. As with the vast majority of McEwan's fiction, the narrative turns on a single, earth-shattering event that rips out the rug from under its protagonist. In Solar, the game-changer occurs upon sometime Nobel laureate Michael Beard's return from a week observing first-hand the effects of climate change in the Arctic circle - which is to say, drinking copious quantities of wine and inventing amusing anecdotes to recount at a later date.

Eager for the comforts of hearth and home, Beard returns to London on an early flight only to find one of his research students in his luxurious apartment, naked but for Beard's own dressing gown. The philandering physicist isn't surprised to find his fifth - count 'em - wife with another man, but when Beard confronts the intruder, an already precarious situation develops into a farce of tragic proportions.

Beard is perhaps McEwan's most repellent protagonist to date, and considering the murderers, paedophiles and pimply teenagers who have narrated some of his previous tales, that's saying something. Beard is old, fat and full of himself; he eats, cheats and greets. He is "scalded by public disgrace... corrupted by a whiff of failure [and] consumed by his cranky affair with sunbeams". His inner monologue invariably borders on the unspeakable, by turns racist, lecherous and homophobic.

But Beard's greatest sin is surely his appetite - and I don't merely mean his enduring love for salt and vinegar crisps, though you get the sense that habit alone will see him in an early grave. From the outset, he consumes. He has consumed five wives, the latest of whom outright detests him. He consumes headlines, opinions, science, gossip. In fact, he has made his name in quantum physics by consuming and regurgitating Einstein for his hypothesis, the Beard-Einstein Conflation, earning the Nobel prize that is Beard's only real success by riding on the theoretical coattails of that scientist's breakthroughs. He is a compulsive consumer, and it's a credit to McEwan that Solar remains compelling in spite of its protagonist's unapologetic repugnance.

In large part, that's thanks to the black and brilliantly British sense of humour that pervades the narrative. From the discovery of "an ancient rasher of bacon doubling as a bookmark" between the pages of a valuable first edition to Beard's dreadful scheme to trick his fifth wife into thinking he is entertaining attractive company; and from a packet of salt and vinegar crisps shared (or not quite) on a train ride to an inconvenient call of nature during his weeklong expedition to the Arctic circle, there are frequent moments of dark slapstick more befitting The Mighty Boosh than the latest novel from the great nation's most esteemed author.

The humour is sharp-edged, of course; a fine satirical blade held tightly against the throat of a world procrastinating on its not-quite-fears of climate change. A long and wonderfully cutting lecture Beard gives midway through Solar forms the basis of McEwan's framing of the arguments for and against, but these concerns are not the crux of this novel: Solar doesn't preach in the fashion of Saturday. It is a character study at its heart, a startling triptych of the movements - both literal and metaphorical - of a physically and morally unpleasant man the whims of fate have placed in a position of power. In that, as in its every other purpose, Solar is a tremendous success.

Packed full of observations both sacred and profane and characters who will challenge your understanding of any number of issues, Solar is far from the dry tale of the end-times many feared it might be. Rather, McEwan's novel is an alarming parable of man and movement; the movements man should make, that is, set against those he selfishly does. Shocking, hilarious and unashamedly English, Solar will surely take its place alongside the very best of this breathtaking author's back-catalogue. Let it be said, Ian McEwan is a very clever monkey indeed.

I have read most of Ian McEwan's books and love most of them. However this proved to be a major disappointment. I could not find anything to like at all in the character Michael Beard, and most of all found it hard to understand what all those women in his life in the book could have seen in him either. It was not very believable. The subject matter did not grip me either, but that is a personal thing. The storyline never really gets going, and I kept waiting for real developments. They did not come. I was relieved to finish it to be honest!

Reading Solar was easy. It is as well written as anything ever has been. It is very funny in places, especially the account of the arctic trip.

However the vitally important job of deciding how many Amazon stars you should give it isn't easy at all. Here's the problem. Within the faultless prose, there are too many difficult contradictions to make the story "real". How could the unattractive main character be so attractive to so many attractive women? Would a short, drunk, fat, uncreative physicist - even one with a 20-year-old Nobel prize - continue to command sufficient respect in his peer group to be appointed head of a politically sensitive think tank?

You scratch your head and wonder about these things after the beautiful writing has swept you along to its conclusion. You feel cheated somehow. Then, on reflection, the reading process itself reminds you of some real-life cheating that has gone on in the last ten years: the events and behaviours leading up to our current banking and fiscal crises, for example, or the shameful spin doctoring preceding the invasion of Iraq. Suddenly you find yourself seeing the book in a new and slightly insane light: an ingeniously crafted illustration of the triumph of form over substance that characterised western society for the first decade of the 21st century. The chief character may be repulsive, but he is also a man whose dusty Nobel prize ticked some mindless bureaucratic box to let him loose where he should not have been, while his failed marriages somehow qualifed him for serial wedlock to women who are too confused to make sound character judgements. The core weakness of the main character is enabled by an unusally powerful intellect, unencumbered (as is the world in which he operates) by moral compass. Even when this weakness is "exposed" by the tabloid press - in past times a guaranteed ticket to obscurity - his career is hardly affected.

Conclusion: McEwan is a master of illustrating the collective social and emotional topography of our times. He has written a diamond of a book, whose flaws simply reflect the times it portrays.

If you compare the professional reviews of "Solar" with the more realistic views expressed my many Amazon reviewers here, it's fair to say that this isn't a great book in the opinion of many. And I would have to agree. "Solar" is quite a short novel by today's standards, but it reads like a very long one indeed. McEwan presents us with a detailed and ultimately pointless story of Michael Beard, a Noble Prize-winning scientist who over the duration of the book (2000, 2005, 2009) continues a journey of self-destructive abuse, juggling career and personal disasters in equal measure. Indeed it reads more like 3 linked short stories about the same unlikeable man than as a novel.

It's done with the usual McEwan attention to detail and sharp writing. But apparently this time (according to some) we also get humour. If that's the case then it certainly completely eluded my reading of the book. Sure, there were over-laboured attempts and being funny, but that's not the same as effortless humour. This is something that McEwan doesn't bring to his books, any lightness of touch or self-depracation is lost in the po-faced, technical writing that outlines his characters and the dilemmas they find themselves in.

Usually, McEwan gets his books off to interesting, tantalising starts and then loses interest and ends them with weak conclusions. This time, he seems to start off as he means to continue: with a turgid and uninteresting story about an unlikeable main character that tells us much about greed and avarice and the backbiting, snippy world of science, but it just doesn't go anywhere. Anyone else penning such stuff would find it hard to get published. That McEwan has managed to garner such lavish praise for such mediocre work tells you much about the gulf that exists between what readers really think, and what paid reviewers in the newspapers want you to believe.

A really dreary book that I was relieved to finish.

Just glancing at the star ratings for this book and I can see why the reception is so mixed. It's no spoiler to say the book ends on a huge cliff hanger and that is massively frustrating for the reader. However I can't agree with people saying that the fundamental problem lies in the dislike-ability of the protagonist. Yes he's an ass, in the style of a Martin Amis character, but this does not make the novel any less readable. A very weird read but certainly one worth persevering with; I personally did not get bored half way through. I rarely have time to finish a book these days but I finished this.
I should add that for those of you who are fans of Atonement, do not expect the same treatment here. This is a very modern novel in the vein of David Lodge or Martin Amis as opposed to the slightly sepia-toned atmosphere of McEwan's other works.

Short version:
Buy it, read it, enjoy it. Just beware that 50-60 pages or so are plot duds.

Longer version:
Michael Beard, combining professional failure with a Nobel Prize (some feat!) has many problems in his life, not least marital. Being a scholar myself (though admittedly a lowly social scientist) I thoroughly enjoyed the parts about academic rivalry and backstabbing, though my seat of learning seems comparatively mellow in this respect. The drama of Beard's home life rings fewer bells, but Beard's dysfunctional social skills make for a good read. There are many, many paragraphs that I re-read to savour Beard's egocentric wit. Line by line, the black comedy is great, and this is why you should fork up that tenner to buy the book. The problem is the plotting. First, there are whole chunks that are set-pieced that can be, and possibly should have been, ripped out. A long section details Beard's trip to the Arctic and the many misfortunes and incidents he suffers in the (very) sub-zero conditions. Brilliant stuff I thought as I followed Beard trying to go for a pee outdoors, and eventually having to pour brandy on his penis to extract it from the zipper where it had frozen in place. The problem is that this mini-story has no function beyond plain comedy. Or has it? I happened upon an interview where McEwan explained that he himself had been on just such an expedition, and that this is what got him going on what would eventually become Solar. To me, then, this is a darling that McEwan wouldn't kill for nostalgic reasons, nor was able to turn into an integral part of the story.

I submit that such set pieces are worrying enough, but what snatched off one or even two stars from my rating is the end. McEwan sweats and heaves to have the by now sprawling sub-plots converge and be resolved at, or very close to, a culminating event where Beard's future life will be determined. Nothing in these pages is remotely credible. Just one example: if you had a massive business project together with a (Nobel laureate) scientist, and was at some point - years down the road - hit by legal action challenging his awarded patents (as based on very flimsy reasoning too), would you immediately crumble and tell your long-term business partner and friend that the collaboration was over and that you hated him? Or... would you believe your friend (the Nobel laureate) who states that this is patent BS, and take comfort from the fact that litigation will take decades? Or let me put this to you (this is not a spoiler in the normal sense): say that you read about a character that, from page one, hated peas. Over and over you learn about how he is mentally wired to detest even things that remind him of peas; how he is happy to hear of misfortunes in industries even vaguely associated with the production of peas. Then, ON THE FINAL PAGE, when the character finds himself in a what amounts to a crisis, a single green pea rolls towards him, glistening with freshness and allure... and he finds that he loves it (and by extension has a chance at redemption). Credible? I think not.

Should you buy it?
Sure. Most of it is a good read, and you are likely to laugh out loud on many occasions. Indeed it is its unfulfilled potential that is so annoying - why did McEwan have to mar it with such an imbecilic end?

Politics,physics and environmentalism are unlikely comedy bed partners but it is testimony to McEwan's ability that he has woven all three into an hilarious and dark satire which conveys an equally serious message about the mentality of humankind. Michael Beard is a convincingly real figure uncomfortably familiar to the reader at times,the personification of Humankind,self indulgent,unable to control his self destructive visceral urges,unable to save himself let alone the World.'Solar' is a powerful indictment of modern consumerism in which Beard lives for the moment, a sybarite seeking the short cut to success and hapiness,an amoral shadow of his former self.

Fans of McEwan should be warned that 'Solar' represents a very different read to some of his other work eg 'Amsterdam', Saturday' or 'On Chesil Beach'. The authentic and well researched science might not be to the taste of all readers although non scientists should persevere as they will enjoy the arts v science theme developed hilariously within.What it does contain however are many examples of McEwan's familiar talent in the art of the simile alongside a previously less demonstrated ability to deliver comic one liners with panache- none better than the dead polar bears quip.

Justice is seen to be done in the denouement with Beard's hubris and self delusion unravelling with comic results-will we also have time to experience a similar ephiphany with respect to global warming?Beard's inevitable demise is deliciously ironic coming as it will from his beloved solar photons.In the flawed humanity of Michael Beard 'Solar' asks how can we save the world when we can't even look after ourselves?

Strange book this, I've read all of McEwen's previous novels and its unlike anything he's produced before. Its more humourous and light-weight and the Physicist Micheal Beard is as self absorbed and as unsympathetic as they come. The storyline pops along just fine but I struggled to care about it or anyone in it. I'm not sure what he's trying to say here - there are some interesting insights into climate change but because the overall ambience is jokey I was never sure how seriously to take them. Mid-life crisis? climate change? escaping or not the consequences of our actions? its all there, but for me it felt shallow and trite, not something I ever thought I'd say about McEwen - and had his name not been on the cover I'd have sworn blind it wasn't his. Its as well written as you'd expect, but in my opinion, its not a good place to start with McEwen if you are new to him. I'd recommend The Child in Time, The Comfort of Strangers or Cement Garden or more recently Saturday/Atonement.