![]() ![]() If this novel were set in the present, he would likely be, down there, bare. One is that Adam, the robot, arrives with “copious” dark pubic hair. There are ways you can tell we’re still in the 1980s. “Machines Like Me” is about what happens when Charlie, a London man in his early 30s, uses money left to him after his mother’s death to buy a first-generation robot named Adam. In those books, as in McEwan’s new one, proper narrative and believable characters seem to have been added almost as an afterthought. These were primarily repositories for the author’s essayistic thinking. This book can remind one of certain of John Updike’s novels, such as “Roger’s Version” (1986), which was about God and computer science. McEwan’s writing about the creation of a robot’s personality allows him to speculate on the nature of personality, and thus humanity, in general. “Machines Like Me” is a sharply intelligent novel of ideas. I’ll hit you so hard your ancestors will die.”ĭo I get to pick which pet’s head he nails to the table? ![]() I’ll come to your house and I’ll nail your pet’s head to a coffee table. ![]() Who can forget Harlan Ellison’s obituary last year in this newspaper, in which he was quoted as saying: “Call me a science fiction writer. Ditto Kazuo Ishiguro, with the fantasy crowd. Curtis Sittenfeld took a beating, for similar reasons, from romance writing enthusiasts. Isabel Allende was once forced to apologize after she was seen as minimizing the talent of mystery writers. ![]()
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