Solar, by Ian McEwan

I picked up Ian McEwan’s Solar in an airport that had a very slim selection of reading materials. Even then, I think I made the wrong choice. The book is a satirical novel that double-features the hopeless love life of a failing scientist and his problematic attempts to solve the crisis of global warming. McEwan’s penchant for crafting non-sympathetic heros is on full display here and is no doubt the most interesting part of the novel. But the book dragged on, particularly in the second half, with repetitive descriptions of the scientist’s body, insatiable appetite to womanize, and lack of moral compass. No doubt, such topics can be highly interesting (Coetzee’s Disgrace comes to mind), but McEwan falls far short of the mark. All in all, a banal read.