Set in an alternative reality in which Britain has just lost the Falklands War and the population is just as politically divided as today, McEwan addresses the problem of consciousness through a story about a humanoid robot. Thanks to the fact that Alan Thuring (who in reality died in 1954) is still alive in the novel, in the 1980s there has already been a series of big breakthroughs in AI and computer research. The protagonist, Charlie, a 32-year old who lives by playing the stock market from his home computer, has bought one of the Adams (the Eves have already been sold out) thanks to an inheritance. He lives in a small flat with in the apartment above him the 10 year younger Miranda with whom he is embarking on a relationship. Charlie decides to share Adam with her, but soon regrets his decision as he listens in to a bout of sex between her and the well-endowed, muscular humanoid who declares that he loves Miranda... Adam even starts writing haiku for her! This black humor is typical of McEwan.
Both Charlie and Miranda are morally ambiguous: Charlie has barely avoided prison for cheating the tax office (and is again cheating, for he hides his stock market profits), and Miranda has an even darker secret in her recent past which is only gradually divulged.
The deeper subject of the novel is therefore moral choice (or universalism versus particularism: should rules and laws always be applied regardless of persons and circumstances, or do we make an exception for our friends or for special circumstances?). Adam has been manufactured with a clear set of moral rules in his humanoid conscience, and he shows eventually which way his two owners have to go - although this ends in disaster for himself.
A morally complex and mischievous book, with Adam mysteriously both human and not-human (which makes us consider the nature of consciousness), a return to the best in McEwan.
The deeper subject of the novel is therefore moral choice (or universalism versus particularism: should rules and laws always be applied regardless of persons and circumstances, or do we make an exception for our friends or for special circumstances?). Adam has been manufactured with a clear set of moral rules in his humanoid conscience, and he shows eventually which way his two owners have to go - although this ends in disaster for himself.
A morally complex and mischievous book, with Adam mysteriously both human and not-human (which makes us consider the nature of consciousness), a return to the best in McEwan.
