Solar

By: Ian McEwan

Narrated by: Roger Allam, Ian McEwan

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Universally acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest novelists, Ian McEwan is a Booker Prize-winning, best-selling literary master. He displays a fresh facet of his considerable talent in Solar, a satirical novel rife with blistering humor.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Michael Beard is fast approaching 60, a mere shell of the academic titan he once was. While his fifth marriage falls apart, Michael suddenly finds himself with an unexpected opportunity to reinvigorate his career and possibly save humankind from the growing threat of global warming.

This audio includes an exclusive interview with the author.

©2010 Ian McEwan (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"A comedy every bit as brilliant as its title might suggest....Blazing with imaginative and intellectual energy, Solar is a stellar performance." ( Sunday Times, London)

“A stunningly accomplished work, possibly [McEwan’s] best yet.” ( Financial Times)

I did not enjoy this book

I didn't find this book funny or interesting. It is a book in which nothing happens, no suspense is built, and has no likeable characters. I didn't crack a smile - maybe I just missed the whole point. I forced myself to listen to the end hoping to find something to redeem my time and credits, but found nothing.

boring and waste of money

This book was boring. It never went anywhere interesting. Funny, it was not - the main character is a pathetic, egocentric, looser that ruins women's lives is not funny. A waste of money.

Solar

The written version may have been better, but I seriously doubt it. An endless connection, or disconnection, of metaphors and painful detail about a very boring protagonist in a failed attempt at humor.

Painful listening

I tried. I really tried to like this book, but just couldn't find any redeeming characteristics. Didn't like the characters, the plot, nor the narrator. Maybe it just didn't lend itself well as an audiobook. Can't understand the rave reviews from critics. I have never deleted an audiobook before, but I finally got so fed up I just couldn't take it anymore and did just that. Felt pretty good, I must say.

Editor? Editor?

Sloooow moving story with descriptions so detailed that you forget what was being described. Who paid the professional reviewers to give this any positive comments?

Skip it - you'll be glad you did....

I don't get it

This is one of the worst audio books that I have ever listened to. I totally didn't get the comedy aspect of this book. To me it was a boring tale of a hedonistic man. I kept hoping that he would do something to redeam himself.

I could not finish this book the most boring story ever

The main character was self centered and foolish and none of the other characters were fleshed out enough I be even the slightest bit interesting. I usually make myself finish a book but just could not make myself care enough

What a disappointment

This is very slow moving book. It purports to be witty and humerus? However, the humor is juvenile and in most cases not very funny. I would recommend you save your money and buy another book.

Readers of McEwan will enjoy

And that's not to decry readers of McEwan, by any means. McEwan was earlier known as Ian McAbre because of the odd and often disturbing turns his early novels would take. Like, Rushdie, it took McEwan a few go-arounds to reach massive critical success with -Atonement-, which is an excellent work, not only for story, but for its connections to British literary history.

-Solar- was hotly anticipated as McEwan's climate change book, but those hoping for a progressive position on the issue will be disappointed. McEwan puts forth the right science, but in a boor of a protagonist. Now, there's a difference between an anti-hero, like Leopold Bloom of -Ulysses-, or Patrick Kenzie of -Gone Baby Gone-, and just plain jerks like Michael Beard, the central character of -Solar-. Anti-heros are sympathetic, because they are good, yet flawed. Beard, on the other hand, is just a jerk. That doesn't make for much of a compelling narrative, and McEwan has a lot of rather petty fun setting up Beard in silly physical comedy (think throwing up, or getting, ahem, unfortunately exposed to Arctic climates, etc). This all comes with McEwan's typical dark twist: you slip on a banana peel, or, in this case, a bear skin rug, and instead of comedically crashing, you end up, well, dead and bleeding.

The plot is basically that Beard borrows some research amid being caught up in love triangles, then, years later, benefits from said research while being finally consumed by love triangles. None of these are especially convincing, though I've never found McEwan's characters (aside from -Atonement-) very believable (Perowne from -Saturday- being the least believable).

At the end of it all, I'm not sure what the point really was. Science helps us (as McEwan argues in -Saturday-), but can be corrupted by the scientist? Good causes aren't always backed by good people? Don't steal others research? I don't know.

McEwan completists should read it, as it has all the touchstones of vintage McEwan. And they'll likely enjoy it. But the odd sensibility combined with a dull, and finally unclear narrative, boor protagonist, and unbelievable events and supporting cast left me completely unsatisfied.

Well-read, though.

Reader spoils it

This book might be funny if read in a more understated way. It makes broad fun of a fairly despicable man and a wide range of things that probably deserve some deflating. However, the reader piles on, with every (and I mean every) sentence a degree of English upperclass sarcasm that removes any degree of fun from the humor. Like pinning an ugly cat to a wall and throwing snowballs at it...I couldn't watch, so I had to stop listening after a couple of hours. Does the reader think we can't get the point without being hit over the head? Buy the book...you'll probably enjoy it more.