There are few heretics before the Church of Ian McEwan, but Thomas Jones’ uses his review of Solar in the London Review of Books to make two points.
Monomania is a feature of English writing – think motherhood to Mrs Bennett, hypochondria to Mr Wodehouse or climate change to James Delingpole. McEwan is unusual in that many of his protagonists are monomaniacs. Jones argues that this robs them of their humanity. Henry Perowne, the neurosurgeon in Saturday, is an extreme example. He perceives everything from the perspective of his profession. Occasionally that drives the plot – notably when confronted by a threatening and neurologically unhinged man in the street – but Perowne’s single dimension deprives him of the four other senses – his relationship with his wife was, is and ever shall be predicated on the doctor patient relationship that first united them.
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