Nutshell by Ian McEwan (2016)

A poet's wife and brother, lovers, scheme against him, observed only by the poet's unborn son.

Book Review: Nutshell is a brilliant 197 pages. Ian McEwan is brilliant. Sure, there's some showing off, but when you can hurl lightning bolts, why wouldn't you? Here McEwan doesn't hold back and creates a tour de force, swings for the fences, goes on the high wire. Yes, it's a fetus telling the story: a knowledgeable, thoughtful, opinionated, philosophical unborn; if you can't get past that, why do you read? Verisimilitude is not the point here (see The Lovely Bones). For a bit I felt that I was reading a first novel, a young writer pouring a lifetime of experience onto the pages, with the daring of youth, trying to pack in every shred of talent he can. But as the story continued the elegiac tone led me in the other direction, and it seemed more like a last novel, a seasoned master of the form demonstrating his virtuoso skill, trying to say everything that ever needed to be said. Added to the compelling and concerning plot, literally, there are discourses on the topics of the day from climate change to immigration to terrorism. The writing is exceptional, clever, full of wordplay and observations: "God said, Let there be pain. And there was poetry. Eventually." At times the language had a touch of Dylan Thomas, reminding of "if my head hurt a hair's foot." You've probably already picked up on the Shakespearean plot (see the book's epigram), but there's also MacBeth, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury," substituting "fetus" for idiot, but this fetus is no idiot (and adding a cat-killing Lady MacBeth). Nutshell seems almost like a play, all the action taking place on the single stage of one (large) house with only a few players. Most of the book is a monologue told by our unconventional narrator, unafraid to imagine those elements he cannot witness due to the confines of his perch. There is so much more I could say about Nutshell, a compelling thriller, mystery, meditation, commentary, but a better choice, if you're daring enough, is just to read it. As I finished, my first thought was to read it again, which is rare for me. But I will. [4.5 Stars]