Climate change is accepted as a given in this book: ideas for dealing wtih it drive the novel. McEwan describes beautifully. Situations in the book have the reader laughing out loud or cringing. Very, very interesting novel.

Although the two reviews of SOLAR that I read would put off a less die-hard McEwan fan, I found it to be, first, a comical view of the irony of global-warming and environmental activism, later, still ironic but a more serious consideration of this subject.

The first part of SOLAR shows the ironic life of a nobel-prize-winning scientist. He is the head of a center bent on exploring some politically correct discovery involving wind turbines even if they know it is useless. But he doesn't really run the place, and he doesn't really care, anyway.
Besides, he has more urgent matters to attend to such as his fifth marriage to a gorgeous woman who is running around on him. Although he's had several affairs, he cares when the tables are turned.

Suddenly, the scientist comes home to his wife's lover, someone the scientist hadn't expected, someone who has a theory that may truly impact energy conservation and global warming. And so ends the first part of SOLAR.

The second part of SOLAR skips ahead a few years. The scientist is a convert to the environmental movement. His fifth wife is gone, he vows never to marry again, and he lives a disgusting life while he gives speeches to would-be investors in his new-found technology that will save the world.

I love Ian McEwen's writing. He writes beautiful sentences. And I'll always want to buy his books as soon as they're available as a result.

But a page turner this is not. I felt like I had to read it slowly because he was implying something. I never was sure of what it was, though. So I read more reviews of SOLAR, hoping to find a reviewer who would give me some insight. No luck.