Ian McEwan - Sweet Tooth

Economist“Curiously forgettable...” The book chugs along this way until the end, when Mr McEwan delivers an unwieldy denouement and some unearned sadness. By then it is hard to feel much of anything for these heroes, who are all notions and no depth...

The Observer“Stick with this playful Russian doll of a novel...” Sweet Tooth is a comic novel and a novel of ideas, but, unlike so many of those, it also exerts a keen emotional pull...

The Telegraph“An end too long in arriving...” Disappointingly, McEwan’s customary “wilful narrative sadism” is largely missing from Sweet Tooth. In its place is the smooth contrivance at which he excels...

The Independent“A well-crafted pleasure to read...” Its smooth prose and slippery intelligence sliding down like cream. Yet one feels at the end that it is the prelude for a film script, with all the actors already cast, and its final question a foregone conclusion...

Guardian“Gripping in its own way...” No doubt it's callow to hold a writer to his word, or his implied word, but...I heard myself bleating inwardly as the book began fixating on its own reflection. What about the PLO? The cold war? Civilisation and barbarity?...

Publishers Weekly“McEwan goes for laughs in this cold war spoof...” Given the nonstop wisecracks, the book might be most satisfying if read as sheer camp. A twist confirms that the misogyny isn’t to be taken seriously, but Serena’s intellectual inferiority is a joke that takes too long to reach its punch line...

Financial Times“The novel’s structure is very impressive...” One needs some sort of map to understand it all, which is only given out at the end of the book. This could be frustrating for some readers. Others may find it a good excuse to go back to the beginning...