I've enjoyed reading this, albeit very quickly at my work-desk. I certainly find McEwan's books fundamentally unsatisfying, but I wonder if you somewhat gloss over their appeal to readers by restricting discussion to his 'sandblasted' prose (excellent description, btw). Is it purely middle-class self-regard that makes them bestsellers?
Personally I've found what little I've read of his work undeniably gripping and tense. He's really good at ratcheting up a sense of dread at the incursion of violence into the cloistered middle-class world he evokes. Perhaps that's what you mean by comparing him to 'airport fiction', with added pretensions.
As you say, though, he sort of does your thinking for you, the way he writes is so nakedly cerebral that perhaps he flatters readers sense of their own cognitive abilities?
I remember finding Saturday pretty gripping and interesting to read but the climax was utterly ridiculous (the daughter reading the poetry aloud, stopping the illiterate thug in his tracks) and there is a sense of cold, surgical precision to it all which relates to that sandblasted prose. It's all too neat, too clever, etc.
There was a fantastic review of McEwan in Private Eye which labelled him something like ''British literature's Gollum''. Maybe I can find it online?
Anyway, interesting and thought provoking post. Thanks!