British Author Ian McEwan's "NUTSHELL" is an Embryo's Analytical Outlook on Life

Ian McEwan (b. UK 1948) is one of the most celebrated and contemporary creative writers.  He's been nominated for the Man Booker 6 times, winning it for "Amsterdam" ('98) & received the Sommerset Maugham Award for his short story collection "First Love, Last Rites" ('75.)  His prolific body of works vary greatly in style & substance from one to the next.  This novel has a newbie hero who is quite an intellectual,  He has a sardonic wit & sagacious insights into the world to which he has yet to enter.  And yet, he's capable of perceiving the world that envelops his mother from her womb.  He tells us "The womb, or this womb, isn't such a bad place."  But, something is rotten in the state of Denmark.  The nameless, unborn reminds me of Stewie from the TV sitcom "Family Guy."  A precocious pipsqueak who converses to us from mom's uterus.  He loves his mom & shares her taste for fine wine.  He's biding time by talking to himself & to the reader.  "I want my life first, my due, my infinitesimal slice of endless time." A "Hamlet" storyline is revealed; the mother & uncle plotting to kill his corporeal father.  This causes quite a ruckus & numerous rebellious kicks to his mother.  "Don't let your incestuous uncle & mother poison your father.  Don't waste your precious days idle and inverted.  Get born & act!"  At first, I was cynical of McEwan's clever contrivance "Nutshell."  At inception, I thought the gimmick a fickle trick.  But I grew to love the "Stewie" fetus, the fiendish Hamlet plot and found myself reading with mounting anticipation.  To thine own self be true… I say to you, McEwan hit "Nutshell" out of the ballpark.  

Phillip Roth's "DECEPTION" Proves Repeatedly His Literary Prowess

Phillip Roth (b. Amer 1933) is one of, if not the, most highly awarded living writer.  He is a consumate master of of the written word, be it fiction or nonfiction.  His writing is so deceptively clever, the barrier between fact/fiction is confusingly & cunningly fused.  Roth has received the Pulitzer Prize & mulitiple Man Booker Prizes, Nat'l Book Awards & Pen Faulkner awards & numerous multiple nominations for the echelons of the literary sphere.  DECEPTION, published in 1990, is a prime example of his genius at making art out of life by deriving out of his own life & lives of those whom he knows.  Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's doppelganger is the writer alluded to in DECEPTION as he has repeatedly alluded to in other works.  Although, perhaps never with such perplexity & guile has Roth sucessfully deluded his readers as to what is to be taken literally & what is contrived.  There are common themes in this novel which he has woven throughout many of his other books:  anti-Semitism, adultery, class barriers, cultural differences, detachment, deceit & conceit.  Roth is full of hubris for his own brilliance but he's honed his talent to write such sharp observations that his ego is earned.  DECEPTION is written in dialogue in multiple conversation formats.  A device that proves Roth's mastery of writing about the human condition.  When the unamed protagonist is pressed by one of his previous lovers regarding her  characterization in his book he responds, "What difference does that make.  I write fiction and I'm told it's autobiography, I write autobiography and I'm told it's fiction, so since I'm so dim and they're so smart, let them decide what it is or it isn't."  Touché Mr. Roth & with regards to your other point "I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway," I say, please keep writing away - I will read everything you write, and that includes your dirty laundry list.