Book Log 2012 #31: Solar by Ian McEwen

Michael Beard is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is past his prime. He's been coasting on his award, and has landed at an organization trying to find a way to prevent climate change. He's cynical about their chances at success - really, he's cynical about everything - and his disagreeable nature infects all aspects of his life. Beard is pretty much going to run out the clock - until a chance encounter with another scientist from his organization changes his life. This novel chronicles the decade of his life following the encounter, as seen in three periods over that span.


I can't say I was a huge fan of the book. I didn't hate it, but it felt uneven to me. It might have been the broken chronology, which required enough exposition that the book may as well have been written in straight chronological order. There's also a portion of the book where Beard goes on a trip to the Arctic, which is based on a trip that McEwen took. I can see why he'd want to use the trip in his work, but I don't know if it really fit this story.

Not sure if it's worth a look or not. It doesn't make me want to run out and read more of McEwen's stuff, but it doesn't make me want to avoid him altogether.