I’d thought there would be more to this book than its interesting foundation of an idea; however, McEwan failed to build a sturdy structure on top of that foundation, leaving me confused and regretful about what I’d read. I’d pass.

When I started reading this book and found that it is narrated by a fetus, I wasn't sure but I ended up liking this book a great deal. It is funny, mysteriouss, a real page turner

Wow! I was totally blown away by this book. I read and listened to to his book so the fetuses narration really came to life (no pun intended). Beautifully written. A Shakespearean tale unfolding in an account by a very precious and sophisticated unborn child. Truly a gem of a book!

WOW!! Why hasn't anyone done this before. This was pure genius...just wow!!

Finally, a Hamlet whose inaction we cannot but excuse. Meet our narrator, a fetus in the womb who overhears his mother's plot with his uncle to kill his father. A copious diet of podcasts and talk radio allow him to have firm opinions about wine (best filtered through a placenta), politics, and poetry. In this quirky, experimental, and erudite novel, Ian McEwan mischievously makes rules just to break them. Despite the obvious Shakespearean influence ("This too solid stench"), the story is very much of the now. It is a post-Brexit, pre-Trump world. Perhaps the most pointed passage is when the unnamed narrator skewers the left's authoritarian insistence on outside validation of chosen identities or else. On the sentence level, I can find no fault. The lead-in to the character Elodie is masterfully done. Humor abounds: "But she knows that her eyes are nothing ''like the Galway turf.'" If there is a fault it is that it is hard to truly care about an improbable, soliloquizing fetus. Patrons more interested in character than ideas, humor, or fantastic writing might be less intrigued. Strongly recommended.