How far do you agree that by the end of chapter 8 the reader is engaged with the novel?

I disagree to an extent as it is in this chapter that the reader begins to understand that Joe's world is very much centered around himself. This is because he delves into his regrets of becoming a science journalist and how he'd much rather be a physicist, and we learn yet more of another one of his upcoming articles - all giving the reader the impression that his head is often occupied with thoughts of his own personal life. At the end of the chapter Joe expresses his yearning to do more with his life - 'I was a journalist, a commentator, an outsider to my own profession. I would never get back to those days.' From this quote among many others we understand his devotion to science and how this obscures his ability to acknowledge any other ways of how life began even if he does not believe them, which makes it hard for the reader to like him or engage fully with him or the novel.

This quotation also may distant the reader from the novel, and primarily from Joe, as his tenacity to relate science to all events becomes tedious. He appears to have no other way of looking at things, and the lack of emotion makes it hard for the reader to establish a connection with the main character. He talks of the science behind a baby's smile, showing his ability to turn something to innocent and beautiful into a series of scientific theories, and Clarissa widens the gap between the reader and any emotional connection by the contrast of her opposite view that, 'the truth of that smile was in the eye and heart of the parent, and in the unfolding love which only had meaning through time.' This demonstrates her more romantic view on things which distinguishes she and Joe, making Joe seem all the more prudential which is hard to engage with.

The beginning of this chapter is Joe talking about the baby's smile, neo-Darwinism and his and Clarissa's different views, and then his run in with Parry and the police phone call. He then goes back to how he feels about himself and science, showing a cycle in his mind. This is evidence that despite what happens around him, Joe always returns to thoughts of himself or his failed career as a physician, and it is only the last page of the chapter that Joe returns to thoughts of Parry, 'There were three work messages, leaving Parry's score at twenty nine.' The line itself - of Parry's obsession - is engaging, but as expected following this Joe begins to wonder 'how I came to be what I was', and how he might achieve something new before he was fifty. The reader is forced to be brought back to Joe's world that they have already heard so much about which becomes tedious.

Over all, I think that it is difficult for the reader to be fully engaged with the novel by the end of chapter eight. This is because Ian McEwan presents many obstacles such as Joe's personality and how easy he makes it to dislike him, his obsession with himself and science, and emotional deprivation. Joe's character leaves much to be desired in terms of emotion and therefore this is very hard to become engaged with.