"Adam's Utopia masked a nightmare,
as utopias generally do"
In Ian McEwan's most recent novel Nutshell (2016) he experimented with a unusual narrator, an unborn child, telling his Hamlet like story from the womb. Whilst we're on more familiar narrative turf in new novel Machines Like Me don't be fooled by the setting for McEwan's 1980s London is a re-imagined city where Londoners bump into 'synthetic humans' walking their dogs in the park.
McEwan's protagonist is Charlie Friend, a thirty-something currency trader who invests the proceeds from selling his mother's house on one of the first commercially available AI robots on the market. Though he initially wanted to buy an 'Eve' he settles for an 'Adam' when the female model ends up being out of stock. But it is the backdrop to the story that really defines this retro Sci-Fi novel.
It's the early 1980s and Margaret Thatcher clings to power following defeat in the Falklands, The Beatles (recently reformed) receive a panning from the critics for their latest album and Alan Turing (having chose prison over chemical castration) drives an open top car around Soho as an ageing and flamboyant Elon Musk type character.
It is in this twisted reality that Charlie finds himself tangled in a love triangle with his new girlfriend Miranda and Adam the empathetic robot. Needless to say, this most modern menage a trois was never going to be plain sailing but when Miranda is ultimately seduced by Adam's synthetic charms (she invites him to stay over and "recharge") Charlie is left reflecting on the stark reality of android sentience; 'Adam's Utopia masked a nightmare, as utopias generally do.'
In Machines Like Me McEwan embraces familiar sci-fi tropes from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) to Isaac Asimov's I Robot (1950) yet does so with real humour and humanity. Unlike Frankenstein's Creature, Adam is a haiku writing figure of pragmatic optimism rather than tragedy but think twice before taking him to bed.
McEwan's protagonist is Charlie Friend, a thirty-something currency trader who invests the proceeds from selling his mother's house on one of the first commercially available AI robots on the market. Though he initially wanted to buy an 'Eve' he settles for an 'Adam' when the female model ends up being out of stock. But it is the backdrop to the story that really defines this retro Sci-Fi novel.
It's the early 1980s and Margaret Thatcher clings to power following defeat in the Falklands, The Beatles (recently reformed) receive a panning from the critics for their latest album and Alan Turing (having chose prison over chemical castration) drives an open top car around Soho as an ageing and flamboyant Elon Musk type character.
It is in this twisted reality that Charlie finds himself tangled in a love triangle with his new girlfriend Miranda and Adam the empathetic robot. Needless to say, this most modern menage a trois was never going to be plain sailing but when Miranda is ultimately seduced by Adam's synthetic charms (she invites him to stay over and "recharge") Charlie is left reflecting on the stark reality of android sentience; 'Adam's Utopia masked a nightmare, as utopias generally do.'
In Machines Like Me McEwan embraces familiar sci-fi tropes from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) to Isaac Asimov's I Robot (1950) yet does so with real humour and humanity. Unlike Frankenstein's Creature, Adam is a haiku writing figure of pragmatic optimism rather than tragedy but think twice before taking him to bed.
One of McEwan's best. 4.5
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan published by Jonathan Cape 320 pages
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