Sweet Tooth relates the story of Serena Frome “rhymes with plume,” (1) who devours
2-3 books a week, but she admits she rarely can recall details from what she
reads. She begins reading more closely
and taking notes. When it is time for
University, her mother pushes her into maths.
Serena would rather study English.
She barely escapes the torture with a third – probably akin to a C
average. She simply cannot get her mind
around calculus. While a student, she
begins an affair with an older man, who abandons her, then starts another with
a professor at her college. Professor
Tony Canning has some connections with MI5, the branch of British Intelligence
devoted to international affairs. He
helps her secure an entry level position in this mysterious and secretive
agency.
This novel takes
place in the early 70s, and women hired by many British Government agencies
held only positions as file clerks.
However, Serena’s voracious reading habits land her a quick promotion as
assistant desk officer. McEwan tells the
reader the first women director of MI5, was still filing documents when Serena
arrived.
I am going to come
right out and say it: I love Ian McEwan’s
writing, his stories, and his characters.
Sweet Tooth has become one of
my favorite reads this year. Serena’s
love of books and reading captivated me from the beginning. She muses, “Writers are said to have superstitions
and little rituals. Readers have them
too. Mine was to hold my bookmark curled
between my fingers and stroke it with my thumb as I read. Late at night, when the time came to put my
book away, my ritual was to touch the bookmark to my lips, and set it between
the pages before closing the book and putting it on the floor by my chair,
where I could reach for it easily next time” (63). A woman after my own heart.
Another thing which
makes me relish McEwan’s work is his vocabulary. Every time I read one of his novels, I learn
half a dozen or so new words. My
favorite occurs early on in the story.
McEwan writes, “The United Kingdom had succumbed, one letter announced,
to a frenzy of akasia—which was, Tony
reminded me, the Greek word of acting against one’s better judgment. (Had I not read Plato’s Protagoras?) A useful
word. I stored it away” (22). Stored it away indeed! I love Serena’s character.
Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth makes me want to devise a
new rating system. Some books are simply
better than … 5 stars.
--Chiron, 7/28/13
