Nutshell

Cybil recommended this after I finished What We Can Know. Our narrator is a fetus whose observations are entirely too canny, acidic and clever while his mother and her lover plot to kill the estranged father. Now that I think about it this should be narrated by Seth MacFarlane in Stewie’s voice.

NOW, TO MY FATHER, John Cairncross, a big man, my genome’s other half, whose helical twists of fate concern me greatly. It’s in me alone that my parents forever mingle, sweetly, sourly, along separate sugar-phosphate backbones, the recipe for my essential self. I also blend John and Trudy in my daydreams – like every child of estranged parents, I long to remarry them, this base pair, and so unite my circumstances to my genome.

Another novel that features poetry along with dark human behavior, both nestled in clever prose. Just to be clear, I really enjoyed both this and What We Can Know, so now I will be on the look out for more McEwan.