Ian McEwan

Britain, 1972. Operation Sweet Tooth: Serena Frome, a bishop's daughter now turned spy, is sent on a secret mission to charm Tom Haley, a promising young writer. First she loves his stories, then she begins to love the man. Can she maintian the fiction of her undercover life? Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage... Trust no one. -- Cover.

Sweet Tooth

Beatrix

…and when he called after me, I increased my pace, fleeing not only the mess of his emotions but my own unreasonable guilt.

…ultimately reality is social, it’s among others that we have to live and their judgements matter. Even, or especially, when we’re dead.

life of Sebastian Morel ‘a teacher of French’

He marvels at how irrelevant knowledge of rudimentary French is to the lives of these kids. 

He wanted to like them, but he was repelled by their ignorance and aggression and the way they jeered at and bullied any of their number who dared to show an interest in learning. In this way they kept themselves down.

 Nearly all of them will leave school as soon as they can and get unskilled jobs or get pregnant or make do with unemployment benefit. He wants to help them. Sometimes he pities them, sometimes he struggles to suppress his contempt.

heleen de boever

About 80 pages to the end I finally had the courage to chuck this out the window. For such a promising premise - young beautiful girl who loves novels gets involved in the Cold War conflict and all its tangled politics - this was an atrocity of a book. It would've been better, I think, if McEwan switched focalisation points more often instead of relating the entire story through the eyes of Miss Serena Frome. Her character lacked the raw humanity I find so engaging in for example Coetzee's characters (granted, I am biased when it concerns him). Serena's narrative, her passions, her opinions, her love affairs, never transcend triteness. I don't know, I just would've loved that McEwan played around with different narrative strategies more. An exact transcription of the stories by T.H. Haley for example would've offered a nice change in voice, instead of hearing about them through Serena's perspective. If it was McEwan's goal to make her seem as bland as the heroines of the domestic novels she so enjoyed reading at uni, well done - but what a fucking waste of his writing talent to spend a good 300 pages on a character so painfully uninspiring.

Arjo Gupto

Most of what I wanted and expected. Least of what I thought it was. The best part? Comes full circle in helping me prove to myself that intelligent fiction is one the greatest forms of intelligence. Thank you Mr McEwan, again.

John Elbing

As a McEwan fan, this one is not at the top of the list, but still a compelling read.

The year is 1972, the Cold War is far from over and Serena Frome, in her final year at Cambridge, is being groomed for MI5. Sent on Operation Sweet Tooth – a highly secret undercover mission – she meets Tom Haley, a promising young writer. First she loves his stories, then she begins to love the man. Can she maintain the fiction of her undercover life? And who is inventing whom? To answer these questions, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage – trust no one.

Sheila

A clear waste of writing talent on this completely mediocre book. I hated everyone in it, and I kind of hate Ian McEwan for writing this too.

Mary Baldwin

I'm ashamed to say that this is my first Ian McEwan book, but pleased to say it won't be my last.

I adored it, so much so that the reasons I couldn't put it down feel far too complicated to write down. I feel like starting to describe what I loved about the book would just be an endless essay. I have another book waiting so no time for that!

I was told that the leading lady, Serena, came across as annoying. But I didn't find that to be the case at all. I loved the brief history of her early years and the way her character developed through her decisions and demeanour, not through laboured adjectives and examples. I found myself rooting for her.

What a skill the author has for inserting books into books, and making it seamless and relevant.

The story was complete, no lingering in pointless prose but enough detail to carry everything through. It was so well written I feel like my review should be some sort of masterpiece. Quite honestly, don't even read what I've written, just pick up the book.

There's romance, deception, intrigue, intellect and termoil.

Just read it.

Starts slow....almost put it aside and didn't finish....about the middle of the book it picks up and I wanted to finish. I did not enjoy this book as much as Atonement and would not highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a lot of time to read.

a novel

Sweet tooth

Melody Izard

Damn, I missed the deft and witty part of this novel.

Jade Flynn

A page-turning espionage novel that McEwan could've done so much more with.

Magdalene Lim

I can't help but think of Blake Lively who plays Serena in Gossip Girl when I picture Serena Frome. I still can't pronounce her surname properly but I could identify with her and her (initial) choice of stories. Ha ha. I didn't enjoy the military/history bits in the book because I got confused or simply disinterested in it but there were still bits that drew me in. My favourite part of the story was Tom's letter to Serena. SO SWEET! Some of Tom's stories (story-inception) were quite good too. Weird but interesting.

Sweet Tooth

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