Oh dear. And I’m usually such a fan of Ian McEwan’s work… What We Can Know was a real let-down. From my perspective, fundamentally flawed (and spoiler alert…)
Setting the book in the middle of the twenty-second century: what was that all about? Not only completely unbelievable but distracting and unnecessary. The premise of the novel – a missing manuscript was fine – but the writing seemed at times pedestrian, uninspired. I didn’t care at all (in either a positive or negative way) about the main characters; just like the futuristic location and the waterlogged archipelago ‘landscape’ of the UK, I simply didn’t believe in them.
If the book had been written by someone other than McEwan I would have given up well before half-way, but I plugged on just to see if it could be redeemed somehow… Sadly, not really.
Please read McEwan – but don’t start with What We Can Know…
Ian Gouge - Writer 