Prompt Proofing Book Review - Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

    VANCOUVER, BC, July 26, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Sweet Tooth refers to the code name for a supposed MI5 operation where writers were courted, and presented with generous 'pensions', in the hope that they would write something supportive of the government's political views - a kind of paid propaganda.

There was, strictly speaking, no compulsion for the authors to write on any particular subject and they were left in ignorance as to the source of their funding, believing it to be a private foundation.

As a lowly new recruit to MI5, Serena Frome is delighted to be given a Sweet Tooth assignment, until she finds herself falling in love with the author whose services she has secured and is faced with the dilemma of betraying her employers or lying to her lover.

A comparatively naive character, Serena encounters deception and betrayals on both personal and professional levels throughout the novel.

Ian McEwan rarely disappoints; he has an eye for detail and a sharp understanding of human nature and human frailty. This is an excellently crafted novel that explores many pertinent issues. It also paints an accurate and truly evocative picture of life in London in the early 70s. Sweet Tooth is set in the Cold War - a period when MI5 machinations were perhaps at their most intriguing as the nation faced the 'bogeys' of the time - the Provisional IRA and Russia. Additionally, the country was enduring severe political and economic crises.

However, the political events that dominate the novel are now more than forty years out of date and it is difficult for the twenty-first century reader, even one who lived through them, to fully appreciate their relevance. The novel is written in the first person, giving us only Serena's point of view - a view that is necessarily somewhat selfish and makes it difficult, at times, to empathize with her. Additionally, the blurb on the back of the book strongly suggests that this is a novel about espionage. In fact, the opening paragraph suggests that we are about to read of a dangerous undercover assignment behind the Iron Curtain, something along the lines of a John Le Carre novel:

"My name is Serena Frome (rhymes with plume) and almost forty years ago I was sent on a secret mission for the British security service. I didn't return safely."

I was, therefore, disappointed to read a far tamer story of two love affairs and of deceptions that were of a personal or emotional nature rather than international; however, this may be my error, or perhaps an intended irony on McEwan's part. Taken at face value, and without the potentially misleading blurb and opening, this is a novel that explores many issues including: marital infidelity, friendship, the glass ceiling, feminism and self sacrifice.

What it is not, except in the very broadest sense, is a novel about espionage.

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