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Loved each piece, not sure about the whole The only other McEwan I've read is Atonement, and my feelings are similar. I absolutely love McEwan's precise and beautiful language for describing minutiae. I loved the main character's ambivalence on the war, his ambivalence on his ambivalence, his discovery that he becomes a dove in the presence of a hawk, but then stridently takes the other side with his liberal daughter. Unlike others here, I also really liked the squash game. McEwan lovingly captures the attractions of discomforts of competition. You think about winning all week; you greet your dear friend before the game begins, and halfway through you realize that your dear friend is actually a whiny, simpering cheater, and you are an incompetent nincompoop. Then the game ends, and it is miraculously remembered as "one of our best games." I guess McEwan has given us a list of place in which we feel we've transcended our ordinary reactions: when the world is asleep and we are awake; when we alone witness a terrible accident; in the operating room, when we swim, when we compete, when we listen to music, when we are threatened, even we are cooking. He also details the rules of engagement we operate with: in a car accident, with the mentally deficient, the rules of the road, when we compete, when we argue with loved ones, when we use violence. So I loved each section of the book. I did feel that the family was too pretty and too perfect. I can see the argument that McEwan did this to show that even the most perfect lives can be pierced, but it seemed a little off to me. Finally, as with Atonement, I feel the McEwan decided to a twisty, showy, contrived ending. I don't know why he does this. I felt everything after the second showdown with Baxter was strained, and I found it incredibly hard to believe that Perone would be capable of such forgiveness after what his daughter had been through. So, as entitled: I love each piece McEwan writes, but the glue between them needs improvement.