Karolina

If you want to understand why societies are getting so polarised, why people holding beliefs that harm them can be so immune to evidence, or what industries do to undermine science, read this book.

A bitter depiction of life in communist Poland, yet not devoid of a sense of humour. An incredibly Kafkesque story written in a somewhat Chekhovian style of mixing comedy and drama.

It's 1,5 stars.

For the first 300 pages I thought I didn't like this book. And I still find the first 20 of the 22 chapters dull, McEwan's style not engaging, and the story not worth a novel at all. It was only in chapter 21 when I got somewhat attached to the characters and became curious of their fate, but in the final 22 I was thrilled. The ending is a pretty clever twist to an otherwise boring story.

I would go for 2,5 stars if I could, with the additional half star being a sign of my appreciation of McEwan's truly comprehensible explanation of the Monty Hall problem.

Witty and frivolous. Had Ovid lived in the 21st century, this would have been a blog post titled “Tips for successful flirting or how to suck at relationships.”