As
swift as a lethal bullet and as timely as current headlines, McEwan's
Booker Prize-winning novel is a mordantly clever?but ultimately too
clever for its own good?exploration of ethical issues. Two longtime
friends meet at the cremation of the woman they shared, beautiful
restaurant critic and photographer Molly Lane. Clive Linley, a
celebrated composer, and Vernon Halliday, the editor of a financially
troubled London tabloid, could never understand Molly's third
liaison?with conservative Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony, who is
angling to be prime minister, or her marriage to dour but rich publisher
George Lane. Mourning the manner of Molly's agonizing death, which left
her mad and helpless at the end, each man pledges to dispatch the other
by euthanasia should he be similarly afflicted. Immediately afterwards,
both Clive and Vernon are enmeshed in a crisis: Clive must finish his
commissioned Millennium Symphony so it can premiere in Amsterdam, and
Vernon must grapple with the moral issue of publishing photos of Julian
Garmony in drag that George has discovered with Molly's effects. The
clash between whether the demands of pure art are more valid than
political accountability and financial solvency soon assumes a larger
dimension that turns Clive and Vernon into bitter enemies and inspires
each of them to seek revenge by the same means. McEwan spins these plot
developments with smooth alacrity and with acidulous wit, especially
focused on the way shallow and mediocre people can occupy positions of
power and esteem: "In his profession, Vernon was revered as a
nonentity." His ability to sculpt a scene with such arresting visual
detail that it assumes a physical dimension for the reader (most
memorably in the opening of Enduring Love but also evident here as Clive
observes a woman being accosted by a rapist, and as Vernon watches a TV
interview that signals the end of his career) are undiminished. But
when, in the last third of the book, McEwan manipulates the plot to
achieve a less than credible symmetry, it is obvious that, despite the
Booker recognition, this is far from McEwan's best novel. That said,
however, it will undoubtedly hit the bestseller charts, for McEwan, even
when not quite at the top of his form, is a writer of compelling gifts.
Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
