matthewmincher reviewed What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Weird read
3 stars
I enjoyed the premise of this book - being set 100 years in the future in which we are history being studied.
It was difficult to read, being split into two parts. It covers themes of how much can we really expect to know about each other, and history. Even our memories day to day are unreliable and affected by emotion and preconceptions.
The stand out message for me was how well do we really understand those we would claim to. How have we misread others and how will we be misread outselves.
It's quite a slow book in my opinion, and you would need to be OK with not having every question answered (indeed, that's probably the point)
I enjoyed the premise of this book - being set 100 years in the future in which we are history being studied.
It was difficult to read, being split into two parts. It covers themes of how much can we really expect to know about each other, and history. Even our memories day to day are unreliable and affected by emotion and preconceptions.
The stand out message for me was how well do we really understand those we would claim to. How have we misread others and how will we be misread outselves.
It's quite a slow book in my opinion, and you would need to be OK with not having every question answered (indeed, that's probably the point)