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Ian McEwan |
This relatively short crime novel, Nutshell operates from a conceit — that a fetus can somehow divine
the reality that exists outside the increasingly small space in the womb, and
that said fetus is also able to communicate those impressions to the reader
with the logic of a sophisticated, mature and literary mind. What his unborn
narrator “senses” leads the reader to a view of the kill.
As a fiction writer, one may do whatever one chooses. Put the Statue of Liberty in Lake Michigan if
you like. However you must convince the
reader it’s there. In this case, I wasn’t convinced right away. I read somewhere
that most people have little or no memory of what happened in their lives
before the age of five. Perhaps that is because without language to describe
our feelings and organize our thoughts, if we have them, we are at a loss to
recall. To reconstruct is to have once had a construction. For me, I have some
infant memories of a Koi pond, a swing set near a creek and my neighbor
watering his lawn. That’s about it
before five. My brother, on the other
hand, has birth memories and moments shortly thereafter. How many, though, can reminisce about their
days in the womb as it inevitably closes in around them?
If you are willing to suspend your disbelief — and McEwan’s words will seduce you, I swear — the story will flow effortlessly and humorously.
If you are willing to suspend your disbelief — and McEwan’s words will seduce you, I swear — the story will flow effortlessly and humorously.
“Compact, captivating ... The writing is lean and muscular, often relentlessly gorgeous ... McEwan is one of the most accomplished craftsmen of plot and prose,” says Siddhartha Mukherjee in The New York Times Book Review

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