Machines Like Me: A Novel

By Ian McEwan
2019
352 pages / 11 hours 24 minutes
Fiction

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Ian McEwan is my favorite British novelist. If I hadn’t decided to do only one book per author, McEwan would have five on this list: Atonement (2001), Saturday (2005), The Children Act (2014), Nutshell (2016), and Machines Like Me (2019). They are all well worth the time it takes to read them (which, by the way, is not that much). Before we get much further, I will freely admit I’m not reviewing his best book. Atonement is certainly the best, but I’m inclined to think more people will be familiar with that one because of the movie.

McEwan’s three latest books present an interesting variety. The Children Act is about a judge trying to decide whether a 17-year-old should be able to refuse life-saving treatment for religious reasons.

The incredibly inventive Nutshell is narrated by a fetus. That’s right. A fetus, who, among other things, fills us in on what it feels like when his mother has a few drinks. The fetus is also aware that his mother is plotting the murder of his father. It is an absolute page-turner. I was hooked immediately.

But today I wish to sell you on McEwan’s latest book, Machines Like Me. The plot is complex with lots of twists and turns, but here is the basic layout with no spoilers. It is an alternative history where the British Empire lost the Falklands War and, rather than killing himself, Alan Turing helped create the perfect robot. Well, maybe not quite perfect.

The lead character Charlie, who is quite the slacker, uses his inheritance to buy one of the “Adams” and, with the help of his love interest Miranda, puts in the basic programming.

Adam then proceeds to fall in love with Miranda. Quite the trio we have going here. Adam also warns Charlie that Miranda may be a dangerous liar and also makes Charlie lots of money by day trading since he can process so much information so efficiently.

What is actually going on with Miranda presents a complex ethical dilemma, and many complicated plots eventually come together in a most head-scratching conclusion.

One of the main things that McEwan wishes to explore is what happens if we create robots that have a higher sense of morality than we have. It turns out that’s pretty hard on the robots and the people.

There is also the problem of what responsibility human beings have to their creation when that creation clearly has something like consciousness. Do we have the same responsibilities to these robots as we would have to other human beings?

Despite their great variety, all of McEwan’s novels have one thing in common: they always have to do with human frailty and failure. When you start a McEwan novel you can be pretty sure the last line isn’t going to be, “And they lived happily ever after.”

I have some confidence that if you read each of these five novels you will be glad you did. There’s not a clunker in this bunch.