Solar – Ian McEwan (2010)

WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION

Michael Beard is a Nobel-Prize winner, whose done FA for years, just living on his past glories. A short, overweight, ageing, serial philanderer whose fifth marriage to the beautiful Patrice is disintegrating.  Yep, he's a real catch.

Told in three parts over nine years Solar deals specifically with the selfishness and fallibility of human nature - with climate change as its backdrop.

Purely because other incomes are not feeding his lavish lifestyle, Beard accepts a position at a British government facility researching possible renewable energy sources. It is here he meets young physics prodigy Tom Aldous and his unpolished, and unpublished theory.

A freak event involving Aldous that Beard deals with ruthlessly and clinically changes the whole complexion of the book in an instant. Beard is suddenly revealed as a man of conscience so threadbare it becomes almost sickening. The repugnant and selfish protagonist shows no remorse in framing his wife’s paramour and plagiarising the work of his former colleague.

The book’s comic highlight comes when the unfortunate Beard is caught short on a trip to the Arctic Circle. The womanizer faces the ultimate irony when his penis succumbs to frostbite, convinced it has fallen off!

The story comes to ahead nine years after chapter 1 in New Mexico with misdemeanour’s past and present hurtling towards him.  Just as Beard is about to get his comeuppance though, the book comes to a rather abrupt end.

Solar is a darkly comical novel, and surprisingly it is McEwan’s first foray into the world of comedy.  Michael Beard encapsulates the weaknesses of the human condition: greed, narcissism and selfishness. Though critics might find the novel a little preachy, Solar’s strength lies in the blending of the serious subject matter into a black comedy that is both satirical and ironic.

“… he felt unusually warm toward humankind. He even thought that it could warm to him. Everyone, all of us, individually facing oblivion as a matter of course, and no one complaining much. As a species, not the best imaginable, but certainly the best, no, the most interesting there was.”

Hollywood - Charles Bukowski (1989)

“The credits rolled. Then there was my name. I was part of Hollywood, if only for a small moment. I was guilty.”

Hollywood is the fictional account of Charles Bukowski’s involvement in writing the film Barfly as told through his alter ego Henry “Hank” Chinaski. Hollywood gives a fascinating insight into the darker side of the movie business.  Who better to tell such a story than the master of grot?

The book Begins with the newly married Chinaski being asked to write a screenplay – which eventually becomes The Dance Of Jim Beam. The story follows the setbacks, the wine, the oddballs and the gamblers all the way though to way to the première.

To those familiar with previous works it becomes clear that marriage has mellowed the usually temperamental Chinaski, but his romance with booze and horse racing remains passionate. Finally “enjoying” success he feels in danger of losing his identity, just like, he says, the actors around him have lost their's by spending careers pretending to be someone they’re not.

“Now, after decades, I was a writer with a desk. Yes I felt the fear, the fear of becoming like them.”

Really this book is best read by those who are familiar with Bukowski’s earlier prose and not the ideal place for novices to start. Ham On Rye, Post Office and Factotum in particular offer more insight into the real Bukowski/Chinaski world, where Bukowski's true Hollywood is East Hollywood, rather than the locale of the movie industry,  where he details the escapades of American low-life.

While Hollywood somewhat betrays Bukoswki’s gritty reputation, he still manages to retain his sardonic, nihilistic, misanthropic charm and is just as self-deprecating and indeed humorous as ever.