5 ms·

Lacking the shame to avoid asking for recommendations from time to time¹. Imagining you're the type of person that really wanted to like Machines Like Me for i

by JNRowe 4y ago

Lacking the shame to avoid asking for recommendations from time to time¹. Imagining you're the type of person that really wanted to like Machines Like Me for its concept but found the exposition truly painful, are other McEwan books worth a read? Basically was Machines Like Me an outlier or standard McEwan? [Edit: Worded harshly, but without too much malintent; books are art, and appreciation is personal.] ¹ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22418898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22418898

kevmarsden 4y ago
I haven't read Machines Like Me, but Atonement is one of my all-time favorite novels. To give you an idea of my general tastes, I'm drawn towards late 19th and early 20th century writers. McEwan's style reminds me of English writers in that period, such as Maugham and Greene.
- JNRowe 4y ago
  Graham Greene's wikipedia article is a wonderful rabbit hole of weirdness and apparent coincidence¹. Famous spies, well-known con artists, involvement in huge moments in history, etc. ¹ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Greene https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Greene
  - lioeters 4y ago
    Some of the tasty nuggets from his biography.. > In 1941, the travels led to his being recruited into MI6 by his sister, Elisabeth, who worked for the agency. Accordingly, he was posted to Sierra Leone during the Second World War. Kim Philby, who would later be revealed as a Soviet agent, was Greene's supervisor and friend at MI6. Greene resigned from MI6 in 1944. > ..In 1953, the Holy Office informed Greene that The Power and the Glory was damaging to the reputation of the priesthood; but later, in a private audience with Greene, Pope Paul VI told him that, although parts of his novels would offend some Catholics, he should ignore the criticism. > ..In the late 1950s, as inspiration for his novel, A Burnt-Out Case (1960), Greene spent time travelling around Africa visiting a number of leper colonies in the Congo Basin and in what were then the British Cameroons. > In 1957, just months after Fidel Castro began his final revolutionary assault on the Batista regime in Cuba, Greene played a small role in helping the revolutionaries, as a secret courier transporting warm clothing for Castro's rebels hiding in the hills during the Cuban winter.
shakabrah 4y ago
I really enjoyed Nutshell. Although it is narrated by an unborn fetus (really) it is still pretty verbose, if that’s what you meant by painful exposition. I’ve only read parts of Amsterdam and it just seems to be his way.
- JNRowe 4y ago
  I can't quite put my finger on what felt wrong to me. I think it was partly the verbosity, but in the end I talked myself in to being annoyed at having to get to the end which was never going to help. As for Nutshell, it looks like exactly the type of story I'd love to enjoy. I'm going to pick it up, then move on to kevmarsden and teh_klev's tips if it pans out. Thanks peeps!
teh_klev 4y ago
> Lacking the shame Never be ashamed. Sweet Tooth[0] is an interesting novel. It's about how the (British) MI5 involves itself with artists to promote anti-communism in the 70's. The novel opens itself up to to discovering Francis Stonor Saunders' "Who Paid the Piper"[1] which is a book about how the CIA used literature as a cultural weapon against the Soviet Union, also very interesting. Ian McEwen can take us to all sorts of strange places. I'm not a big reader of McEwan, but the next thing on my shelf is "Solar" which looks quite interesting. If you want to expand your reading outside of McEwan then dip into his pal Martin Amis and his earlier works such as Dead Babies, or even The Rachel Papers (ignore the film). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Tooth_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Tooth_(novel) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%3F
jakubmazanec 4y ago
Atonement is one of the best novels ever, and I would also recommend On Chesil Beach.

by JNRowe 4y ago

kevmarsden 4y ago

I haven't read Machines Like Me, but Atonement is one of my all-time favorite novels. To give you an idea of my general tastes, I'm drawn towards late 19th and early 20th century writers. McEwan's style reminds me of English writers in that period, such as Maugham and Greene.

JNRowe 4y ago
Graham Greene's wikipedia article is a wonderful rabbit hole of weirdness and apparent coincidence¹. Famous spies, well-known con artists, involvement in huge moments in history, etc. ¹ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Greene https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Greene
- lioeters 4y ago
  Some of the tasty nuggets from his biography.. > In 1941, the travels led to his being recruited into MI6 by his sister, Elisabeth, who worked for the agency. Accordingly, he was posted to Sierra Leone during the Second World War. Kim Philby, who would later be revealed as a Soviet agent, was Greene's supervisor and friend at MI6. Greene resigned from MI6 in 1944. > ..In 1953, the Holy Office informed Greene that The Power and the Glory was damaging to the reputation of the priesthood; but later, in a private audience with Greene, Pope Paul VI told him that, although parts of his novels would offend some Catholics, he should ignore the criticism. > ..In the late 1950s, as inspiration for his novel, A Burnt-Out Case (1960), Greene spent time travelling around Africa visiting a number of leper colonies in the Congo Basin and in what were then the British Cameroons. > In 1957, just months after Fidel Castro began his final revolutionary assault on the Batista regime in Cuba, Greene played a small role in helping the revolutionaries, as a secret courier transporting warm clothing for Castro's rebels hiding in the hills during the Cuban winter.

shakabrah 4y ago

I really enjoyed Nutshell. Although it is narrated by an unborn fetus (really) it is still pretty verbose, if that’s what you meant by painful exposition. I’ve only read parts of Amsterdam and it just seems to be his way.

JNRowe 4y ago
I can't quite put my finger on what felt wrong to me. I think it was partly the verbosity, but in the end I talked myself in to being annoyed at having to get to the end which was never going to help. As for Nutshell, it looks like exactly the type of story I'd love to enjoy. I'm going to pick it up, then move on to kevmarsden and teh_klev's tips if it pans out. Thanks peeps!

teh_klev 4y ago

> Lacking the shame Never be ashamed. Sweet Tooth[0] is an interesting novel. It's about how the (British) MI5 involves itself with artists to promote anti-communism in the 70's. The novel opens itself up to to discovering Francis Stonor Saunders' "Who Paid the Piper"[1] which is a book about how the CIA used literature as a cultural weapon against the Soviet Union, also very interesting. Ian McEwen can take us to all sorts of strange places. I'm not a big reader of McEwan, but the next thing on my shelf is "Solar" which looks quite interesting. If you want to expand your reading outside of McEwan then dip into his pal Martin Amis and his earlier works such as Dead Babies, or even The Rachel Papers (ignore the film). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Tooth_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Tooth_(novel) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%3F

jakubmazanec 4y ago

Atonement is one of the best novels ever, and I would also recommend On Chesil Beach.