RavenCantRead’s review of What We Can Know > Likes and Comments
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Thank you. Your review has saved me wasting time and money on this book. Seriously. Thank you.
Yes I agree. Why is this author treated like a god? Clever and soulless.
the first part bored me to tears...it was like McEwan telling the readers "See how much I know and how clever I am and what a good writer I am"... (I did like Atonement and Saturday, so I do/did appreciate some of McEwan's ouvre.
Appreciate your review. McEwan as a writer is really coming across as a pretentious , insulated, privileged and very English white man. Yes just like Tom. I just started part two and am still sooo bored. I just don’t care about these people. I heard it’s good to get into this part of the book, that it’s quite a ride, but the sexism was already apparent in the first part. So what is this book trying to say? That we just can’t really know? Lots and lots of dense prose to just say something we already know.
Having a female character presented in an unflattering light does not make the author a misogynist.
@gaetano I never said it did, I said that this book specifically reads very sexist. It’s not that the female characters are just written in an “unflattering” light, it’s that the entire narrative revolves around the evils of women and the men who are better than them (even though they behave the same, if not worse). Have you read the book?
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Nathan
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Sep 14, 2025 01:37PM
Thank you. Your review has saved me wasting time and money on this book. Seriously. Thank you.
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Yes I agree. Why is this author treated like a god? Clever and soulless.
the first part bored me to tears...it was like McEwan telling the readers "See how much I know and how clever I am and what a good writer I am"... (I did like Atonement and Saturday, so I do/did appreciate some of McEwan's ouvre.
Appreciate your review. McEwan as a writer is really coming across as a pretentious , insulated, privileged and very English white man. Yes just like Tom. I just started part two and am still sooo bored. I just don’t care about these people. I heard it’s good to get into this part of the book, that it’s quite a ride, but the sexism was already apparent in the first part. So what is this book trying to say? That we just can’t really know? Lots and lots of dense prose to just say something we already know.
Having a female character presented in an unflattering light does not make the author a misogynist.
@gaetano I never said it did, I said that this book specifically reads very sexist. It’s not that the female characters are just written in an “unflattering” light, it’s that the entire narrative revolves around the evils of women and the men who are better than them (even though they behave the same, if not worse). Have you read the book?
