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Sweet Tooth Ian Mcewan 9780224097376 Books

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Sweet Tooth Ian Mcewan 9780224097376 Books

The setting for Ian McEwan's latest novel is 1972 London. Cambridge student Serena Frome takes a degree in mathematics but actually wanted to study literature. She lands a position in MI5, the British Intelligence Service, thanks to a recommendation by her tutor and lover, Tony Canning. However, unlike the MI5 on TV's PBS, you won't find any characters like Harry, Ruth, Adam or Ros.
A scheme is concocted and Serena is chosen as an undercover agent, posing as a literary group's representative. She meets Tom Haley, a promising young writer, and convinces him to accept a stipend with no strings attached. The premise is that he'll write something to further Britain's global political aims. Serena falling in love with Tom is not part of the scheme but how can a young, attractive and impressionable young woman resist the charms of such an exciting novelist?
This book is an excellent reading experience but the downside is having to get through the first one hundred or so pages. But persistence will pay off. As Tom Haley's writing career succeeds beyond his wildest imagination and he is more in the public eye, Serena frets about her situation; should she tell him who she really works for and lose him and her job or "kick the can ahead" to another day.
The truth eventually comes out, of course, with glaring headlines and incriminating photos in the London newspapers. But the ending is perhaps not what you'd expect. I'm not giving it away here but it will give you, as a reader and qualified judge, the power to decide what happens next. It also reinforces the old adage about never confiding intimacies to a writer unless you care to read about yourself later.


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Sweet Tooth Ian Mcewan 9780224097376 Books Reviews

Sweet Tooth was a return to the kind of novel that got me interested in the work of Ian McEwan in the first place subtle, clever, involving and literate. His plot of a young British girl who becomes a low-level operative in MI5 during a low point in Britain's post war political scene drew me in with the uniqueness of its unfamiliar setting (both in place and in time), the reality of its characters and the originality of its story.

Young Serena, by virtue of her romantic involvement with an older MI5 agent, finds herself with a job as an entry-level worker in Britain's internal security organization. Her prospects for advancement in a male dominated profession in pre-feminist London are dim--that is until she's recruited to play a part in an odd scheme to fund young authors who have the "right" political outlook. Her superior's calculation is that in a war of ideologies, the government has a role to play in secretly supporting intellectuals who have the power to influence people who might be on the fence about Communism. Serena's role is to play the role of an agent of a literary foundation that has decided to fund struggling author Tom Haley. MI5 plotters think that Haley will churn out the kind of novels that make Western democratic capitalism seem like the best alternative to Communism. It's a stretch but far stranger plots were certainly hatched by the American CIA during the Cold War. Serena inevitably become romantically involved with her unwitting dupe with a series of interesting consequences.

This is a good novel. The plot allows Serena to explore themes of passion (in her emotional support for her young author/lover), loyalty (to her MI5 superiors and colleagues) and betrayal (in her inability to tell Tom who's really funding him and why).

There's a big BUT here, however. There's a significant twist that comes in the closing pages of Sweet Tooth. A twist that had I never seen it used before would have been stunning, providing a satisfying end to the novel. There's just one problem it's a twist that McEwan has famously used before! For a novel that was so on track up to that point, I was amazed both that McEwan would use it again and that his editors would allow it. I can't say much more than that without ruining it for others, but I admit to feeling let down. Then again, for those who aren't familiar with this particular plot twist from one of his most notable earlier novels, it probably will serve as a satisfying ending. For those of us who have seen it before, I felt just a little cheated. Having said all of that, I can only take one star off for what was otherwise a very enjoyable book.
My book group chose this book, and I determined to read it, even
though I'm not generally a fan of "postmodern" British fiction. I was
not entirely convinced by McEwan's portrayal of Serena as a young
woman of the 1970s -- her inner life seemed lacking, as she had few
genuine interests and pleasures. No woman in our culture truly thinks
she's "very pretty", without qualifications and exceptions! Her
motivations in choosing men remained a bit opaque to me. And for
an attractive young woman she was remarkably unpursued at a time when
men should have been coming on to her constantly.

I like the way the British class thing was made abundantly clear, as I
often find it mystifying to try to "read" what class characters are
meant to be, and what that means to them and to the other characters.
Here that is laid out nicely. The whole secret spy theme was very
much of its time, in the early 70's, when spy stories, movies, and TV
shows were a very common thing. It is a great metaphor for the
secretiveness and deceptiveness of so many human relationships. In
general I didn't feel that McEwan gave me a strong sense of early
1970's swinging London.

As other reviews have indicated, there's an amazing zinger at the end,
that seemed to change the entire book for me, as I had the dizzying
feeling that I hadn't been reading the book I thought I was reading.
This is apparently a typical element in postmodern "metafictive"
works, as is the book's being about writing. The book has given me
an interest in McEwan's other works.

It's not a quick or easy read, although it isn't dense or long. It
took me about a week, but I was glad I had lingered over it.
The setting for Ian McEwan's latest novel is 1972 London. Cambridge student Serena Frome takes a degree in mathematics but actually wanted to study literature. She lands a position in MI5, the British Intelligence Service, thanks to a recommendation by her tutor and lover, Tony Canning. However, unlike the MI5 on TV's PBS, you won't find any characters like Harry, Ruth, Adam or Ros.
A scheme is concocted and Serena is chosen as an undercover agent, posing as a literary group's representative. She meets Tom Haley, a promising young writer, and convinces him to accept a stipend with no strings attached. The premise is that he'll write something to further Britain's global political aims. Serena falling in love with Tom is not part of the scheme but how can a young, attractive and impressionable young woman resist the charms of such an exciting novelist?
This book is an excellent reading experience but the downside is having to get through the first one hundred or so pages. But persistence will pay off. As Tom Haley's writing career succeeds beyond his wildest imagination and he is more in the public eye, Serena frets about her situation; should she tell him who she really works for and lose him and her job or "kick the can ahead" to another day.
The truth eventually comes out, of course, with glaring headlines and incriminating photos in the London newspapers. But the ending is perhaps not what you'd expect. I'm not giving it away here but it will give you, as a reader and qualified judge, the power to decide what happens next. It also reinforces the old adage about never confiding intimacies to a writer unless you care to read about yourself later.