Sweet Tooth, The Glass Room and The Daydreamer

I always look forward to reading the latest book by Ian McEwan, especially one that has received such positive reviews. Sweet Tooth takes us to the year 1972, the time of the three day week and IRA atrocities. Our narrator is Serena Frome seems a slightly frivolous girl, just out of Cambridge University but with a third. So we wonder why when she is recruited by MI5. Well, she is good looking and we get to know her love life quite well. But her menial work is incidental to the mission she is given which involves a budding writer. So the story is more about relationships than it is about spying. Or is it? McEwan has a huge literary trick up his sleeve. Serena never liked twists, so she would have hated this book. I loved it. The writing flows so silkily, it somehow encourages you to read accurately and fast. How does he do that? At one point Serena explains (but not very well) the Monty Hall problem from the American TV show Let's Make A Deal. The result is that her friend Tom, the writer, get's it all wrong when he tries to put it into words. The best explanation is in the movie "21". Check it out on YouTube.

It all started off so well. The year is 1928. A rich family in a Czech town build an ultra modern house with the help of an outstanding architect. The concept of The Glass Room by Simon Mawer is very encouraging, as we follow the house, and the family, through the upheaval of war, liberation, Soviet rule to the modern day. The only problem was that half way through, as refugees pour into the town, we have the most laughable of all co-incidences that ruins the story form there on. We also lose track of the family as new, and terribly boring, occupants of the house take over. There is also so much repetition of the characters lives and descriptions of the house itself that you wish the book could have been severely edited. I found the writing to be good, but at times it felt as cold as the house.

The Daydreamer comprises seven short stories about Peter's life as a ten year old boy. Designed to appeal to both children and adults, Ian McEwan's imagination is out in full force. Some are better than others as daydreaming Peter inhabits a funny fantasy world. An amusing diversion from real life.