SOLAR -- Ian McEwan

Doubleday -- hc
New York -- ©2010 -- 287pp
ISBN: 978-0-385-53341-6

Michael Beard is a Nobel prize–winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions, and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. Can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity?

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This book was recommended to me twice, first through a listing of books that I've generally liked, and then by our local librarian who has very similar tastes as I do.  Unfortunately, this book completely failed to capture my attention.

Michael Beard was an unsympathetic character.  Somehow, this nerdy scientist, who is never described as particularly attractive, has women falling all over him and each time he gets married, he's off having an affair.  His latest wife has an affair of her own, and of course he seems to want her back to himself, but it never happens.  And... we don't care.

Beard has all but given up actually doing any hard work once he's received the Nobel Prize, and ... again we don't care.  It's a wonder he was ever successful enough to actually have received the Nobel, based on what we see of him in the book.

Bits and pieces of the book were interesting, if not completely transparent.  The section of the book when he was exploring the Arctic was interesting, though I'm still not sure what it had to do with any other section of the novel.

I waited and waited for the section as described in the tag lines on Goodreads and the dustjacket: "Here is a chance for him to extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster. Can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity?"  Do I need to answer the question that's posted?  


This was a colossal waste of time.  I waited for something to happen.  Anything.  The few things that did happen came as no surprise.


I hope this isn't McEwan at his best, it sure doesn't make me eager to read any of his other works.