A review of Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

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Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

A personal note-both my parents had "Top Secret" clearances, my mother used her mathematics skills working under contract to the AEC; my father was an intelligence analyst. What they actually did I have no clue. But that is the background that I carried in reading this book.

The story is in the first person by a Serena Frome (rhymes with plume) telling the story of her work with MI5 40 years earlier. Since the service is top secret she cannot tell anyone what she does. At first she is relegated to secretarial drudge work- filing and typing as are the other women MI5 has condescended to hire.

Serena got a 3rd (is that a B- or C+?) from Cambridge in her degree in mathematics. Math was not her choice but her mother insisted our of fear that her smart daughter would be a slightly more educated housewife than normal.- her first live was literature. (I can relate to this- I have moderate skills in math, but my first love has always been fiction.) So when a chance to use her innate skills at literature is offered she jumps at it.

Serena is the daughter of an Anglican bishop who was always a bit distant to his 2 daughters. Both girls wanted his attention but it seems he was unable to give it. Serena has a tendency to seek male approval through each man she comes to know. There are not many but in all it seems she is seeking something that she can't quite get from them.

Because of her role as a covert agent for MI5 she is unable to communicate with one man she comes to love- he is the writer that she was assigned to in the Sweet Tooth operation. Sweet Tooth secretly funds young authors who would write pieces supporting the official anti-communist line.

The ending has quite a twist- but I was thinking there was something was slightly off in Serena's narration. It is definitely her story, but not, and that's all I will say about that.

I recommend this book to readers who enjoy character development. There is not a huge amount of action but McEwan really gets Serena. I would rate this 4.5 stars out of 5.