Machines like me

Hurray, a new novel by Ian McEwan! And one that I read a review of in the paper on Saturday, and then the next Saturday actually came across in the bookstore, so I could throw down the novel I was planning to read (sorry, John Williams) to dive into the magnificence that is a fresh new story by Ian McEwan. Literary bliss. Or so one would hope. But the review I read wasn't entirely positive, and the subject matter didn't feel very McEwanesque, so I started with some caution. Not enough caution, as it turned out.

The novel centres around Charlie and Miranda, two neighbours. Charlie comes into some money when his mom dies, and decides to invest in one of the new robots that have just been released to the market; Adam. There are only 25 of these robots (12 Adams and 13 Eves), so how he manages to get his hands on one, while otherwise being one of the most indecisive, incompetent and inactive characters I've ever read is not explained.
But wait a minute, robots? Is this science fiction?
Well, yes and no. The story takes place the 80s, but in an alternative reality. Alan Turing is a prominent figure, and his research into computers and robotics has brought the world great things. There are other differences (the Brits lose the Falkland war) but otherwise things look a lot like our universe. By which I mean; our time. The Internet has been created, there are electric cars, a lot of the developments we went through in the past 40 years have taken place earlier here. So what is the point of setting this story in the 80s, if you're going to keep things basically the same otherwise? If you needed a big British defeat, you could have invented a war. It is science fiction after all. So was it just for the small references and puns that pop up every now and then?
Anyway, back to the story; Charlie buys Adam, together they program his personality, and then he 'comes to life' and becomes part of their lives. Charlie and Miranda also start a relationship, while Adam claims to be in love with Miranda as well. This would have been a nice time to go in depth into the whole 'can consciousness be created' debate, but Charlie sometimes mentions that they talk about it, without them actually talking about it. The whole novel spans several months, the only McEwan novel I know to span more than a couple of days apart from Solar (his attempt at a comical novel which I also didn't like) and Sweet Tooth (another one I didn't like).
I say 'Charlie mentions' because the novel is written in the first person, from Charlie's point of view. This is the second McEwan novel I can think of to use first-person narration, the other one being Nutshell in which it all works out really well. Here, not so much. Miranda is practically a flat character despite having a violently interesting back story, so is Adam, while both Charlie's personality as his feelings are ambiguous at best. What is supposed to be the 'big reveal' at the end, something to do with morals and consciousness, feels forced and at the same time unsurprising.

Oh, sure, there are some really great parts in this novel. Not plotwise (the plot is predictable and uneventful) or characterwise (see above, there is zero character development), but languagewise there are some very nice McEwanesque phrases. Some bits flow really nicely, even though the grand subjects of ethics and interpersonal relationships are not gotten into. The ending, predictable and forced as it is, is beautifully written, almost heartbreaking in its style. It felt like a cheap ripoff of a McEwan novel, in which someone took his writing style but not his brilliance at crafting stories or characters, and threw them together in a strange and pointless universe. It is almost as if McEwan wants to show that science fiction can never be literary (although Philip K. Dick proved different quite some time ago), not even by him.
All in all, this novel made me sad. Why not stick to what you do best; small novels, centred on a couple of characters, spanning a couple of days, focusing on emotions, philosophies, thoughts, and character development? Why go out of your way to create something this big and bombastic if that is not your style at all? I can only hope that there was some kind of hidden purpose, and that it isn't because he is losing his writing touch...

PS: I've written something about Sweet Tooth earlier (7 years! How time flies!) and there I am afraid McEwan is losing his touch. After The Children Act and Nutshell, I'm pretty sure he can still write beautiful novels, he just sometimes goes off to do something completely bizarre...