In McEwan's Latest, The 'Machine' Is Too Much Like You
There are certain authors I read no matter what they write. Ian McEwan is one of them. Over the course of more than 40 years and some dozen and a half books — including Amsterdam, Atonement, and The Children Act — his generally realist, propulsive work reveals an abiding preoccupation with both the repercussions of deceit and how life can change in an instant.
His most recent novel, (2016), a clever twist on narrated by a near-full-term baby still in uteropushed the borders of possibility. Now, with his latest, he ventures into science fiction and alternate history territory to explore the moral ramifications of AI and the creation of machines that can outsmart humans. His story involves a man "cuckolded by an artefact," which leads to a newfangled ménage-à-trois.
