So sorry to hear that you gave up on The Child in Time. I am big admirer of McEwan’s work and think TCiT is one of his most cohesive novels – both theme and plot really balance each other, in my opinion. Give it another go.

Your take on Sweet Tooth is interesting because you do bring a fresh eye to the author. My problem was that I found the novel lazy and self-indulgent, but then I have had a lot of exposure to his previous works. I do agree that this is not a spy novel, although for my money it would have been a better read if it was.

There is a temptation to think the process is irreversible although Martin Amis is giving me cause to wonder. I do think Lionel Asbo ranks with his best novels. And the death of Hitchens and Amis’ move to New York seems to have led to a less annoying public persona. Perhaps it might just be a temporary remission, but the Amis we are seeing this summer seems to be much closer to the guy I admired and appreciated decades ago.

He still has the writing ability to produce moments that are exceptional — Solar had some laugh-out-loud set pieces, this one captures descriptions of English urban landscape and class/gender tensions that are superb. Alas with the lazy/self-indulgent story line (I’d lean more to self-indulgent, but it could be either), the good bits only serve as a painful indication of what might have been accomplished.

One of the reasons that I like books more than authors is that when the author becomes a media “star” (McEwan, Amis, Byatt, Atwood, Irving and, the ultimate, Rushdie), he or she spends more time and effort working on that personality than on the craft that got them there in the first place — perhaps they are so talented that publisher-acceptable writing is just too easy. Now that I’ve checked some of the reviews in the mainstream media of this novel, I’d say that McEwan has really gone overboard on the “cute references to myself” aspects in this book — I’d have been even more annoyed with it if I had recognized them in the first place.

And despite all that, I will buy the next book. It is apparent that all the talent is still there — it just doesn’t seem to be being applied as thoroughly and consistently as it once was.