Staff Pick
Ian McEwan's Cold War-era spy tale is not what it appears to be. After suffering through a couple of bad love affairs, Serena, a beautiful 20-something university graduate, stumbles into a job with MI5 and is thrilled...until she realizes women only hold clerical positions. Still suffering the effects of a demoralizing breakup, she takes the job anyway. And soon, she does get an undercover assignment. "Sweet Tooth" is the code name for a loosely reasoned plan to financially back struggling artists by giving them a stipend and letting them produce art, with the proviso that the funding is coming from another source. (Having MI5 pay a writer to influence others seems too close to buying public opinion.) Serena's job is to give this welcoming news to a struggling writer, Tom Healey, who is trapped by the drudgery of a full-time job as a university professor. Yes, she falls for Tom, and yes, she keeps her identity and the source of his new funding from him. It seems clear where the novel will go, but I guess I was fooled once again by the amazing mind of Ian McEwan.
His ability to crawl into a character and expose every flaw, rationalization, and weakness, yet at the same time expose her vulnerability and insecurity, is just flat-out astonishing. He doesn't tell the story so much as let you live inside it. His setting, his characters, and his tale feel as if they are your own, so perfectly do they dovetail with your world. After reading my eighth Ian McEwan novel, I'm convinced that he just gets better and better. The man is at the absolute top of his game. Ian McEwan is the greatest living writer. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com