The Cockroach - Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan has long been one of my favourite authors (Atonement, On Chesil Beach, Black Dogs, Amsterdam, Enduring Love...) but this was really just a bizarre little novella. I'm going to class it as a novella - I read it in less than an hour. I was drawn to it primarily because it's a signed copy (I know I know), but also because the blurb sounded quite Richard Marsh-esque - his 1897 horror The Beetle is pretty much along the lines of what I was expecting. 

~ That morning, Jim Sams, clever but by no means profound, woke from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic creature. ~

I quickly realised that the protagonist had not woken up one morning as a gigantic insect ready to wreak havoc on the city of London, but in fact the protagonist had been reincarnated from his previous life as a cockroach into a gigantic (in relative terms to his little cockroachy self) human. But not just any human, the prime minister of Britain. The novel reveals obvious parallels with contemporary politics - Brexit is certainly subject to satire here - and the concept is clever, but with such a short novel its difficult to really invest yourself. 

McEwan's concept sees the prime minister and his cabinet ministers all parading around parliament in a façade of complete normality, when in fact they have switched bodies with a collection of cockroaches. A witty comment that any old insect can become an MP? Perhaps. The cockroaches scheme to get their new Reversalist system implemented - a backwards ideology which means that employees will pay to work, whilst being compensated for their consumption. 

I read a great review on Goodreads which commented that Reversalism isn't quite as ridiculous as it may at first appear: 'Take an unpaid internship, factor in cost of transport and professional wardrobe and bingo – you’re paying to work. As for paying people to consume goods and services… sounds like influencers, no?" I was impressed with this well-informed viewpoint and completely agree with it - the entire novella is satirical and filled with irony. 

Overall, this book really didn't leave a lasting impression on me and I would've much rather read about a gigantic insect terrorising the UK...