Suikertand

This is only the second McEwan novel I've read. The first was Atonement, which I enjoyed very much. Sadly, I did not like this novel. I found that it dragged. I realized that I was three-quarters of the way through it and wondered when it was going to get good. I got tired of the narrator, of her voice. I found the portrayal of her moral dilemma to be shallow and inconsequential. All of it got old: her vanity, her cluelessness, the casual sexism, both from other characters and internalized by Serena, and even the setting during what was apparently the most boring period of espionage during the Cold War. ***SPOILER ALERT*** Now that I've finished it, instead of finding the big twist to be clever and exculpatory, I find it a let down. It doesn't make me like it better now that I know that it was all one long inside joke, them getting off on picking at each others' weaknesses in long-form prose. Coming after Atonment, it felt like a gimmick. I will give McEwan credit: I didn't see the twist ending coming.