Even though I’m a genuine fan of Ian McEwan’s novels, I felt I couldn’t be drawn to his characters’ lives.
Charlie is not particularly friendly (even his lover’s father thinks he is the robot when they visit him), Miranda’s secrets fit in a #metoo-inspired society perfectly; in fact, the most
interesting personality here is Adam, the robot bought by Charlie.
Adam is the perfect being : handsome, smart, strong and powerful, he earns money for Charlie, makes love to Miranda, feels emotions but also utterly unable to grasp the complexities of the human
mind and societies. Besides, how could a perfect mind understand the intricacies of an imperfect one?
Although Adam is right (injustice shouldn’t be used to restore justice and people should take full responsibility for their actions), Charlie and
Miranda finally neutralize him, while Alan Turing, miraculously alive in this uchronic times
subtly analyses their deed as criminal behaviour. Would you agree with the machine mind: « Of course, truth is everything »?.
For a mind-blowing in-depth work about machines and people, check out Real Humans, the Swedish series.