McEwan says so much with so few words. I was at an event (the machines like us book tour author talks) where he told the audience he attributed his success not

McEwan says so much with so few words. I was at an event (the machines like us book tour author talks) where he told the audience he attributed his success not so much to being good at writing as he was at not-writing, a kind of play on essentially only writing the good stuff. That miasmic ambiguity on the edge of humour, conceit, and arresting clarity all felt like experiencing a classic McEwan moment. He's become a bit of a national treasure now and I think his readers would benefit from braver editors who don't treat his stuff as so precious, but his book, The Innocent made me want to write.