With Solar – A Book Review

Solar by Ian McEwan isn't the most remarkable book. It follows the life of the fictional Nobel-prize-winning physicist Michael Beard from the end of his fifth marriage, to the beginning of his sixth and seventh. Yes... Sixth and seventh simultaneously.  

It is apparent from the beginning that Beard isn't the most balanced of people. Even though he came up with the Beard-Einstein-Convergence he is a slave to his cravings, a compulsive eater and a pathological womanizer.

Despite the overwhelming amount of research that went into this book, Ian failed to convince me that the protagonist is all that smart. The manner in which the book passes over the research and effort required to come up with a theory in physics as if it is a peripheral, secondary part of Beard's life, and the way the author just throws random "big important scientific words" into the text put me off. However the story did make some really interesting arguments about global warming and gender inequality that I couldn't help but make notes about.

The book is also unnecessarily long. There are parts where the plot just stops progressing. So at times it was painful to read. I don't think I will be reading it again. 

The ending is also pretty lacking, as we don't get the catharsis we expect.