Sweet Tooth

By: Ian McEwan

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson

Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of such prestigious honors as the Booker Prize and Whitbread Award, Ian McEwan is justifiably regarded as a modern master. Set in 1972, Sweet Tooth follows Cambridge student Serena Frome, whose intelligence and beauty land her a job with England's intelligence agency, MI5. In an attempt to monitor writers' politics, MI5 tasks Serena with infiltrating the literary circle of author Tom Healy. But soon matters of trust and identity subvert the operation.

©2012 Ian McEwan (P)2012 Random House Audiobooks

Fabulous: Stories within a story, within a story

Where does Sweet Tooth rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Marvelous layers of detail, each one interesting on its own, work together for a fantastic read. I highly recommend it.

wonderful story and characters

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

yes. The characters wend their way into your heart, the story is engrossing, and worthwhile insights come along steadily.

What other book might you compare Sweet Tooth to and why?

Saturday by Ian McEwan. The rhythm and pacing are similar, and the characters reveal themselves as events unfold.

What does Juliet Stevenson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The main characters voice and tone are quite vivid. I'm not certain I would hear this as clearly in my head while reading the written word.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A Lie Made True

Any additional comments?

Ultimately, this is a novel about love, deceit, and truth.

Underwhelmed by this one.

Would you try another book from Ian McEwan and/or Juliet Stevenson?

I have read other McEwan's books and enjoyed them much more.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Found the book just dragged along and now, about a week later, can't even remember the ending.

Who is using whom

After finishing, I feel manipulated and slimy. I need a shower. Juliet
Stevenson is a brilliant reader. The best part of the experience.

Amazing!

It is rare that I read a book twice, but this one I had to. The first time around, the book took revealed new "truths" at every turn, especially the ending that I could never have guessed.

Then I read it months later. Enough to have forgotten many of the details but still remembering how it ended. This allowed me to understand the novel from an entirely different perspective, which was about as delightful as a book of psychological suspense can be.

A paradox

Would you consider the audio edition of Sweet Tooth to be better than the print version?

N/A - did not read print, only listened to audio

What did you like best about this story?

That it turned out much better than it began.

Have you listened to any of Juliet Stevenson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no, so N/A

If you could take any character from Sweet Tooth out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Shirley Shilling; she was an interesting adjunct character, and I thought had a lot to offer. She would be intriguing to hold a conversation with.

Any additional comments?

This book started out in a very slow and somewhat annoying (to me) manner, but built to a really amazing ending. It has an Alice Through the Looking Glass quality that is the reason I gave it the rating I did.

Did I miss something?

I kept waiting for something to happen. Some big twist. Some big Ah Ha moment. Mostly it’s a ho hum story of a girl who sleeps with every man she meets and, though she works for a big time Spy Agency, does little more than file papers and encourage an author. So much missed potential with this story.

Not Ever Fond of Stuffy Stevenson as a Narrator

This wasn't McEwan's best novel, but it's always a pleasure to read anything written by him because you know it's going to be intelligent unlike most of what's floating around out there.

Brilliant

Always a pleasure to fall in love wirh another Ian McEwan novel. It is not often that female characters are portrayed well by male authors. I felt momentarily alarmed that the novel might be devolving into a series of stories, in the vein of John Irving's A Widow for One Year, which frankly, was an abomination. Perfectly read, and the female voice did not grate on my ears, as it sometimes does with voice actors.

I like Ian macewan but . . .

I did not find his main character, Serena Frome, very believable or sympathetic. It is not clear why the main male character is so smitten with her, nor she with him. By the end u learn that the whole story has been a rather elaborate conceit, which makes for a clever twist on the part of the author--but doesn't make me care any more about the characters.

The setting in MI-5 sounds more intriguing than it turns out to be. I would consider that perhaps MacEwan is resting on his laurels, altho I read that this and ATONEMENT are his personal favorites among his novels thus far. I also read that it is being made into a movie--this may be one of those stories that can come to life on the screen in a way that it did not in print.

This audio version also suffered from an uninspired performance by the narrator.
The NPR reviewer, Maureen Corrigan, did a short review on the program Fresh Air that aptly articulated for me my problems with this novel and I recommend it to anyone considering this book.