![]() ![]() “Finds herself” being the operative term - Serena is no super spy but a woman of average intelligence (a third in maths enthusiasm for “The Valley of The Dolls”) and apparently little agency. Their affair is didactic and abortive, and not long after he dumps her by the side of the road she finds herself working as a glorified secretary for England’s famous spy agency. ![]() Quite the girl about campus, Serena rarely meets a man she doesn’t want to sleep with - no matter how unattractive, aged or gay - and Professor Canning is no exception. His protagonist is Serena Frome, a “really quite gorgeous” 23-year-old Cambridge math student who is recruited to join MI5 via an older history professor from the “great and good” mold. It is, after all, a ‘70s-era British spy novel in the mode of John le Carré, a cigarette-hazed world of secret backrooms and Cold War intrigue. ![]() The subject of “Sweet Tooth,” McEwan’s latest novel, would seem at first to be the perfect vehicle for this kind of storytelling. Ian McEwan’s storytelling at its best is a slow burn with a deliciously unexpected grand conflagration - taking the quiet life of a somewhat-flawed protagonist and throwing it into violent disarray with a few bad decisions and sadistic twists. ![]()
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