Solar by Ian McEwan

My problem with Ian McEwan is that I know he's brilliant, but I just don't like him. I find his books incredibly intellectually engaging, and incredibly emotionally draining, and long to be done with them, even while I enjoy the actual time I spend reading them. I chose this because of my fondness for satirical novels, but I haven't read a contemporary one in a very long time. McEwan has a very peculiar, cruel sense of humour that I am not sure I can fully appreciate because I simply don't share it. This novel is characterised by an unflinchingly cynical world view, so bleak and terrible that it felt extremely uncomfortably disillusioning. Yes, it was funny, but it was also twisted and upsetting. McEwan is, of course, on a lifelong mission to upset his entire readership, and certainly no one picks up his books as escapism, so I shouldn't be complaining, seeing as I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I really can't recommend this book highly enough, and at the same time I want to protect everyone from reading it because of how depressed and hopeless it made me feel. It's incredibly clever, cold, incisive, biting and entertaining, but I don't think I'll ever be able to love it.