Solar
By Ian McEwan
Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-39924-3
Hard Cover
285 pages
Fiction/Satire

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Solar. My initial thought is “Don’t expect a literary review with comparisons to Ian McEwan’s other critically acclaimed works.” First, I haven’t read any of them, and, second, a book like Solar can be over-thought. You see, McEwan has written a dark, satirical novel about the problem of Global Warming/Climate Change as seen through the eyes of just one person. And while there’s plenty of fodder for a highbrow criticism, I prefer to focus on the story as entertainment, rather than a lofty piece of literature.

Michael Beard is an aging, bald, overweight, narcissistic, Nobel prize-winning physicist who has spent most of his adult life trading in on his one accomplishment. Corporations want him on their boards, scientific institutions want his name on their letterheads, he’s in demand on the lecture circuit and the government has literally thrown money at him to make quick advancements in the field of global warming. This is a man who has had the opportunity to be great. Instead, he is a slave to his wants: food, drink, dalliances, comfort and any short-term goal that captures his fancy. One could argue Michael Beard represents the excesses of the very problem he’s attempting to solve: as he wantonly cuts a swath through his life without thinking of the consequences, one automatically thinks of mankind’s rapacious consumption of Earth’s bounty. Thus, we are, or should be, prepared for his brilliant work in photosynthesis to blow up in his face—just as his life and reputation will be ruined when his shortsightedness catches up with him.

Solar is a sluggish read. The story spans a period of 9 years, all seen through the eyes of an unlikeable person. We are forced to sit inside his abused body and inward looking mind. Clench your fists as he breaks the hearts of a string of beautiful and caring women—because he doesn’t know how to love and doesn’t care to learn. Pound your table with those fists as his narcissism single handedly destroys his greatest accomplishment, and at the very end leaves him with nothing but the love of a child and, to his very great surprise, his love for her.

Interesting as an inside look at the world of scientific research and as a study of a despicable protagonist, Solar is not your typical Sunday afternoon read.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye.