Brilliant - my book of the year

This is a brilliantly constructed novel and really well narrated by Juliet Stevenson. Give yourself a treat and download it !

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7 people found this helpful

Clever mixture of spy novel and literary analysis

I loved the evocation of the 70s, with the backdrop of the 3-day week and the height of the Troubles. But the book is less about spying and more about writing. The main character's moral dilemma is both convincing in itself and a fine exploration of the nature of honesty. Excellent writing, by turns gripping, moving and philosophical.

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3 people found this helpful

Superbly crafted and exquisitely narrated.

The late sixties early seventies experienced through the lives of interesting, young, bright, well educated characters. Gripping story. The narration by Juliet Stevenson was perfect.

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3 people found this helpful

Lovely ending

Interesting credible lead character. Authors know best about being authors and that is,in part, what this novel is about. The spy aspect is kept me guessing too and references one of my favourite true spy stories of the second world war.

One of my favourite novels.

If you enjoyed Restless you might like this. They have several similarities apart from the girl in a red dress on the cover!

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1 person found this helpful

Sweet Tooth Fails to Sweeten

Serena Frome, a beautiful student of maths and an avid reader, has an affair with a college don at Cambridge University and finds herself being groomed for the intelligence services. It’s 1972. Britain is in crisis, facing a three day working week, energy supplies are low and the Cold War staggers on. Serena is given a role in Sweet Tooth, MI5’s cultural attack on communism. It sounds like a dream post: she has to pretend she works for a charitable organisation that wishes to promote young writers. Her charge is Tom Haley, a short story writer who teaches at Suffolk University. Serena promises Tom a life free of financial worries, in return for a novel, which MI5 hopes will be be Orwell-esque in its satirical attack on the Eastern Block.

We learn, in detail, about Tom’s short stories, which Serena loves. After meeting Tom, she rapidly falls in love with him too. Their courtship is gilded, glowing against the grey backdrop of economic misery: courtesy of the tax payer, they sip chablis and eat oysters every weekend. It sounds literally wonderful: a literary spy novel with two beautiful, deceptive protagonists at its heart.

Sadly Sweet Tooth is rather dull. We learn in great detail about novelists in the seventies and the state of that nation as if we are reading an Economist’s guide to the era.

The food, somewhat unseventies-like, is described in incandescent detail, in comparison to the rest of the novel’s pedestrian prose. Although the novel is assuredly written and Serena is a well-thought out character, her relationship with Tom lacks life, charm, credibility. There is no emotional heart to the novel.

There is the most fantastic twist at the end of Sweet Tooth; a twist that serves to make everything that went before seem merely an introduction. It is a novel in one act, with its solitary climax.

I listened to Sweet Tooth as an audiobook whilst I was exercising: it kept me going through numerous leg lifts and arm twirls, but had I not been multi-tasking, I doubt I would have persevered. It was wonderfully and thoughtfully-read by Juliet Stevenson, which helped.

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1 person found this helpful

Slow moving but well worth reading

I spent alot of the book wondering when we would get there but as I carried on I felt I enjoyed the journey and once you get to the end the middle bit makes more sense so dont give up on it and stay to the end

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Sweet Tooth

What made the experience of listening to Sweet Tooth the most enjoyable?

Juliet Stevenson's matter of fact story telling is wonderful. She inhabits the Serena character, sexy, intelligent, its just brilliant

What did you like best about this story?

Lots of twists , I had no idea where it was going and did not expect the ending.

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A great listen

Very good book, loved it. Excellent writing, amazing characters and historical/social background, beautifully read. I can see why many people gave it a 5. I will only give a 5 to books that completely overwhelm me but it most definitely deserves a 4.

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Excellent

Good book with a great ending. Didn't see that one coming. Throughly enjoyed this novel

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Meets expectations beautifully

Lovely story, beautifully read. Great ending.
Everything you'd expect from McEwan and Stevenson - the words and tone fit together perfectly.

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10 people found this helpful