Books: “Solar†by Ian McEwan
Unexpected book grief. Ian McEwan’s “Solar†is that rare thing: a wickedly funny satire about science featuring a wholly unlikeable main character. I loved every page of it. When we first meet Michael Beard he’s 53 and fat, a Nobel-prize winning physicist riding the high-fee, high-calorie lecture circuit. His (fifth!) marriage is in shambles and
(...)Half a Life by Darin Strauss
It’s no fun throwing daggers at a flawed book but I spent $22 and a few days of my vacation making my way through Darin Strauss’s slender memoir, Half a Life. A better title would be: Half a Memoir. At 18, in the last days of high school’s senior year, Strauss drives his buddies to
(...)