This book was my pick for the bookclub I run in my village. There were some very mixed reviews but personally I loved it.
A creative
retelling of the Shakespeare play, Hamlet written from the perspective of a
foetus, Nutshell by Ian McEwan is the artfully written tale of the
uncle and mother conspiring to kill the father of the unborn baby.
To enjoy the book
you must first suspend your disbelief at the baby’s intelligence – he has an
awareness of the family’s situation going on outside his ‘walls’ because he can
hear conversation and he seems to be acutely aware of his mother’s inner-most feelings
even if it isn’t what it being portrayed on the outside. He also absorbs
knowledge of world events through the radio and podcasts that his mother leaves
on at night, which allows for some interesting social commentary, apparently a
common element of McEwan’s novels (this was my first).
Some bookclub
members found this aspect of the novel hard to digest which sadly hindered
their enjoyment of it. For me though, I just found the foetus-narration an
interesting literary device. In an interview on the author’s
website, he says that this element of fantasy was quite freeing as writer,
and this is certainly apparent. I find the novel very playfully written and
amusing in parts, especially the parts where the unborn baby talks about his
taste in fine wines thanks to his mother’s (rather concerning) drinking habits
whilst pregnant… I seem to remember Sancerre is a favourite of his. I think for
me the humour broke up the more serious social and political musings.
In some ways the
plot was almost secondary to the philosophical narrative. That being said,
sometimes when I was reading this on my commute I wanted something a bit more
fast-paced and less complex and so I skipped through some parts.
Before bookclub, I’d
have absolutely recommended this book to anyone but on reflection, I think I’d
have to be a bit more careful. For me it was solid 4/5.
