June Meeting, "Sweet Tooth" by Ian McEwan

At this meeting we celebrated our 200^th book with Prosecco and a divine cake decorated to look like a book.  Although we had a smaller turnout than usual, we had quite a lively discussion about Sweet Tooth. 

In the first paragraph of the book, the narrator writes, "... almost forty years ago I was sent on a secret mission for the British Security Service.  I didn’t return safely." Contrary to my expectations, this is not a spy novel.  I would call it a love story told against a background of Britain’s espionage bureaucracy in the early 1970s.  The novel is narrated by Serena Frome (“rhymes with plume”) forty years after the story’s incidents take place.  Serena, a bishop’s daughter and a Cambridge University graduate is recruited by MI5.  At first she works as a clerk but then, because of her literary acumen, she is assigned to a mission code-named Sweet Tooth.  The purpose of this program is to financially support promising liberal authors so they are free to write.  It is hoped that their fiction or journalism will somehow support the anti-Communist cause.  Serena is assigned to recruit a young author/professor, Tom Haley.  Tom is successfully recruited, lured by the stipend that will allow him to concentrate on his writing.  Eventually Serena and Tom fall into each other’s arms, and complications ensue.  This account is merely the skeleton of the plot:  there are many other characters and events.

What Serena and Tom might
have looked like in 1972

Members of the book group generally enjoyed this read and we had a great discussion.  Several people wondered why Serena “fell into bed” with every man she met.  There were really only three:  Jeremy, a fellow student who later came out as gay, Tony, an older man (and double agent) who mentored Serena and recommended her to MI5, and of course Tom.  We agreed that descriptions of Serena’s lovemaking (and the quantity of it) were a male wet dream.  Perhaps this sort of fantasizing is a danger when a male author writes a female protagonist.  With Serena, McEwan has developed a realistic character (although perhaps not an exciting one).  Her friend, Shirley is a more interesting character, although she is a minor one.

Max, Serena’s superior in the Sweet Tooth operation, is another man she falls for.  We all agreed that he is a putz; he repels her advances and later admits that he has been engaged to be married.  Then, after Serena is involved with Tom, he breaks up with his fiancée and assumes that (of course) Serena wants him back.  

A number of reviewers commented on the duplicity that goes on in Sweet Tooth.  Almost everyone lies.  Of course, it is Serena’s job to lie.  Other liars include Tony (he is a spy and he has a fatal disease), Max, who is engaged, Shirley, who at one point pretends to be a secret Communist, and Tom, who is writing a book about Serena.  Reviewers also noted the importance of literature:  reading, writing and publishing. 

In concluding, let me say that perhaps the part of the novel we liked best was the surprising and satisfying ending.  It turns out (and this was a complete surprise) that this book was actually written by Tom in Serena’s voice.  And Tom and Serena apparently live happily ever after. 

Written by Jane; posted by Donna