-
Welcome
to BookAndReader! We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!
Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.
Ian McEwan
- Thread starter Lyra
- Start date
Shade
New Member
Yes. His books are either very good or very forgettable. On the forgettable side would be his second story collection, In Between the Sheets, his novel of parenting A Child in Time, and his inexplicable Booker-winner Amsterdam. On the very good side would be his first story collection, First Love, Last Rites, his rightly-praised-by-Lyra Enduring Love (a story of obsessional deranged attachment, for those uninitiated, complete with fictional psychiatric paper at the end), and Atonement, which really should have won the Booker that year (Peter Carey's all-fur-coat-and-no-knickers True History of the Kelly Gang took it), and which will probably be seen as his masterpiece.
As Shade mentioned, A Child in Time was infinitely forgettable. I had to read it for A Level English (which normally spoils all but the best book, because of the way you have to dissect it). If I hadn't had to read it, I would have thrown it down in disgust after a few chapters.
Unfortunately that has spoiled this author for me and it's doubtful I would try any other of his books.
Unfortunately that has spoiled this author for me and it's doubtful I would try any other of his books.
novella
Active Member
Ian McEwan is a fine writer, but he could do better. I disagree that Atonement deserved the Booker. Sure, the first 80 percent of the book was artful, beautiful writing, but the end was a slapped together cheat, IMO. Absolutely not up to the standard of the rest of the book. It is very difficult to write the end of a novel that lives up to the promise of its beginning, and McEwan didn''t manage to accomplish it in Atonement.
Amsterdam was, to me, more of a meditation than a novel, though a book I'd recommend. Black Dogs was similar in its focus on one central psychological issue. Both of these books resolved sasfactorily, but were not complexly plotted and did not feature a lot of diverse characters.
I'll definitely read McEwan's next book. Hopefully he'll sustain the craft until the last page next time.
Novella
Amsterdam was, to me, more of a meditation than a novel, though a book I'd recommend. Black Dogs was similar in its focus on one central psychological issue. Both of these books resolved sasfactorily, but were not complexly plotted and did not feature a lot of diverse characters.
I'll definitely read McEwan's next book. Hopefully he'll sustain the craft until the last page next time.
Novella
Scratchy
New Member
Finished reading Atonement about month back and thought that it was a good (but not fantastic) read. I really liked the ending though. Despite all her success, Briony is still unable to achieve resolution / closure with any of the people involved in the incident. I suppose, I prefer this ending to an alternate "happy" one (which McEwan could have easily written to appease the masses). Was thinking of moving on to Amsterdam, but I don't think I will now, after reading what you guys have to say. 
novella
Active Member
Scratchy said:Finished reading Atonement about month back and thought that it was a good (but not fantastic) read. I really liked the ending though. Despite all her success, Briony is still unable to achieve resolution / closure with any of the people involved in the incident. I suppose, I prefer this ending to an alternate "happy" one (which McEwan could have easily written to appease the masses). Was thinking of moving on to Amsterdam, but I don't think I will now, after reading what you guys have to say.
The cheat ending, to me, was that it had a "and then I woke up" quality, i.e., the narrator became intentionally unreliable and the whole story sort of collapsed because it was portrayed as a faulty, uncorroborated memory. Did you read it that way?
I understand your point about Briony not being able to achieve resolution, but there was, on top of that, this copping out re the facts of what transpired.
Scratchy
New Member
No, I read it quite the opposite, actually. From what I remember, Briony does hint at what really happened to Cecilia and Robbie. But she moves on quickly to say that that's not how she's chosen to write about / remember it in her book. And it is in this respect that I feel McEwan coped out by giving readers Briony's "fictional" happy ending (alongside what happened in actuality) as if readers can't deal with a tragic ending.novella said:
"But I have an obligation to keep my readers happy. We don't want them not to buy my book, do we?"
But I do understand what you mean by Briony's unreliability. McEwan's switch from 3rd person to 1st person narrative in the last chapter is a little disconcerting; it ends the book on a "through the eyes of Briony" instead of a "what really happened" note.
Like I said before: it was a good, but not fantastic read.
StillILearn
New Member
Anybody read "Saturday" yet?
Ellie82
New Member
Atonement in a league of its own
I got into Enduring Love first after an excerpt of it was in my A-level exam. I thought it was very well written and I hated Jed until the very last page as I'm sure we're supposed to do. But I didn't feel it said anything particularly new from other novels about stalkers (except that it was two men). It was also very disturbing, I'm not exactly dying to read it again. I didn't see the film for the same reason - I wasn't keen to see the balloon incident brought to life. The thing about books is you can imagine something as much or as little as you want - with a film you're forced to except the image before your eyes.
I read Amsterdam next and was extremely dissapointed. It started out so well! The descriptions of what its like to be tipping on the edge of genius/ madness and to be so preoccupied were utterly absorbing and very believable. Theres been some mention of cop-out endings in relation to Atonement but I think it is much more true of Amsterdam. He went from these very delicate descriptions and subtle emotions....to an ending that basically said "then they both went mad and decided to kill each other - the end". Didn't quite ring true for me. He didn't quite make the leap from slightly unbalanced to completely insane and in my opinion there is a huge amount of difference. He went from absolute genius writer to very mediocre writer in the space of a few pages. Very dissapointing.
Atonement is so far my favourite book of all time and I do agree he deserved the Booker for it. What I love about this book is that no one is entirely to blame and you can feel sympathy for everyone involved. It is the series of entirely believable but unforseen events which compete against the characters to make this book the tragedy that it is - and I don't think that's lost in the ending. Don't you get the sense that Briony is actually glad shes dying? She's glad she's got a tumour eating up her brain, because she knows that soon she won't be able to remember anymore, she won't feel the guilt. Shes looking forward to death because then she'll finally be free. I'm glad there wasn't any attempt at a melodramatic ending as in Amsterdam, I think the fact that she lived from the age of 13 to 70 something with this tremendous guilt that she couldn't do anything to change hanging over her made a far more poignant ending. The drama all took place very early on in her life...the fact that there wasn't any in later years only increased her pain.
I got into Enduring Love first after an excerpt of it was in my A-level exam. I thought it was very well written and I hated Jed until the very last page as I'm sure we're supposed to do. But I didn't feel it said anything particularly new from other novels about stalkers (except that it was two men). It was also very disturbing, I'm not exactly dying to read it again. I didn't see the film for the same reason - I wasn't keen to see the balloon incident brought to life. The thing about books is you can imagine something as much or as little as you want - with a film you're forced to except the image before your eyes.
I read Amsterdam next and was extremely dissapointed. It started out so well! The descriptions of what its like to be tipping on the edge of genius/ madness and to be so preoccupied were utterly absorbing and very believable. Theres been some mention of cop-out endings in relation to Atonement but I think it is much more true of Amsterdam. He went from these very delicate descriptions and subtle emotions....to an ending that basically said "then they both went mad and decided to kill each other - the end". Didn't quite ring true for me. He didn't quite make the leap from slightly unbalanced to completely insane and in my opinion there is a huge amount of difference. He went from absolute genius writer to very mediocre writer in the space of a few pages. Very dissapointing.
Atonement is so far my favourite book of all time and I do agree he deserved the Booker for it. What I love about this book is that no one is entirely to blame and you can feel sympathy for everyone involved. It is the series of entirely believable but unforseen events which compete against the characters to make this book the tragedy that it is - and I don't think that's lost in the ending. Don't you get the sense that Briony is actually glad shes dying? She's glad she's got a tumour eating up her brain, because she knows that soon she won't be able to remember anymore, she won't feel the guilt. Shes looking forward to death because then she'll finally be free. I'm glad there wasn't any attempt at a melodramatic ending as in Amsterdam, I think the fact that she lived from the age of 13 to 70 something with this tremendous guilt that she couldn't do anything to change hanging over her made a far more poignant ending. The drama all took place very early on in her life...the fact that there wasn't any in later years only increased her pain.
Thelma
New Member
I'm so glad somebody mentioned McEwan to start a discussion, even though I have to confess I only read Atonement, but he is on my list of must read writers.
I liked Atonement a lot, especially the firts part, which is about the wish to become a writer and the early attempts to write. The way Briony gets to understand what makes good literature is by facing facts in reality and by growing up. There are some great passages about the art of writing, about creating literature in general.
And then the descriptions of the bombings during the war, the images of summer peace, they were excellent.
As regards the ending, I think it was suitable, it's not a conventional happy ending and I wouldn't have expected that. All in all it was a great book.
I liked Atonement a lot, especially the firts part, which is about the wish to become a writer and the early attempts to write. The way Briony gets to understand what makes good literature is by facing facts in reality and by growing up. There are some great passages about the art of writing, about creating literature in general.
And then the descriptions of the bombings during the war, the images of summer peace, they were excellent.
As regards the ending, I think it was suitable, it's not a conventional happy ending and I wouldn't have expected that. All in all it was a great book.
Ellie82
New Member
Recommendation: Similar books to Atonement
For anyone that enjoyed Atonement, or even those that liked the themes of the book but thought it was a bit slow, I seriously recommend you read "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hossini.
It covers the same themes of guilt and the search for redemption but is far more fast paced than Atonement and has twists and turns right to the last page.
It's about two young boys growing up in 1970s Afghanistan - Amir is the only son of a wealthy businessman and Hassan is his low caste servant boy. Amir has far more power than Hassan but is jealous of his own father's affection for Hassan because he is far more sporty and courageous than Amir will ever be. This causes Amir to grow secretly jealous of Hassan and ultimately he treats him very badly while Hassan's devotion to Amir never wavers. After the Russians invade, Amir and his father flee to America while Hassan remains in Afghanistan, but Amir's guilt never fades. Many years later he returns to Afghanistan at the height of Taliban rule to seek redemption.
It's extremely well written and flows so easily thats its very easy to read. I can't find a bad word about it on this site!
For anyone that enjoyed Atonement, or even those that liked the themes of the book but thought it was a bit slow, I seriously recommend you read "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hossini.
It covers the same themes of guilt and the search for redemption but is far more fast paced than Atonement and has twists and turns right to the last page.
It's about two young boys growing up in 1970s Afghanistan - Amir is the only son of a wealthy businessman and Hassan is his low caste servant boy. Amir has far more power than Hassan but is jealous of his own father's affection for Hassan because he is far more sporty and courageous than Amir will ever be. This causes Amir to grow secretly jealous of Hassan and ultimately he treats him very badly while Hassan's devotion to Amir never wavers. After the Russians invade, Amir and his father flee to America while Hassan remains in Afghanistan, but Amir's guilt never fades. Many years later he returns to Afghanistan at the height of Taliban rule to seek redemption.
It's extremely well written and flows so easily thats its very easy to read. I can't find a bad word about it on this site!
DanWilde1966
New Member
Hi all - I have just surfed in to these forums.
It's worth getting back to basics with McEwan.
I have just finished revisiting The Cement Garden - his first novel, published in 1978. It's a fascinating, intense work. It focuses on one deeply alienated family, which becomes even more anomie-stricken when both parents die, leaving their four children to fend for themselves.
The novel is told from the perpective of Jack, the second-oldest child, who is an outsider in his own family, and who like most other teenage boys, masturbates obsessively. He has vaguely-erotic feelings for his older sister Julie, and this sense of the perverse and deviant, pervades his clipped narration.
The father dies and no closure or process of bereavement seems to take place. When the mother dies - probably of cancer, or some such wasting illness - Julie and Jack opt not to tell the authorities (they don't want to end up in care, all split up from each other), but instead plant her in a block of cement in the basement. The unresolved feelings about the father, compounded by the taboo-method they use to dispose of the mother's body, creates a palpable sense of emotional turmoil and dysfunction in the now-parentless and adultless household. A developing sense of psychosis henceforth builds...
Thus, as the novel's second half opens, the children are living without adult intervention, and in a society that could almost be post-nuclear, for all the outside world seems aware of their predicament. As time passes, the atmosphere in the house becomes more psychotic, more alienated, more disturbed - and the "rising stench" from the basement, as the hot summer months progress, doesn't help matters, other than to introduce the macabre into this dysfunctionality.
With all this tension in place and gripping the reader beautifully, McEwan then introduces the outside character of Derek into the house - Julie's snooker-playing boyfriend - who starts to wonder what the smell from the basement actually is. I won't say any more -- but the results of this character's introduction are compelling and suspenseful. McEwan writes with assurance and total control, and with a cinematic approach that made the novel ripe for adaptation in 1993.
The Cement Garden is a masterclass for aspiring first-novel writers. It is concise (a mere 127 pages), and tautly structured (ten chapters - five in Part One, and five in Part Two). It oozes with story, but it is also a study of alienation - a variation on Golding's Lord of the Flies thematics, wherein children are removed from healthy adult society and must somehow survive on their own. I re-read it in an afternoon; I wholly recommend it.
It's worth getting back to basics with McEwan.
I have just finished revisiting The Cement Garden - his first novel, published in 1978. It's a fascinating, intense work. It focuses on one deeply alienated family, which becomes even more anomie-stricken when both parents die, leaving their four children to fend for themselves.
The novel is told from the perpective of Jack, the second-oldest child, who is an outsider in his own family, and who like most other teenage boys, masturbates obsessively. He has vaguely-erotic feelings for his older sister Julie, and this sense of the perverse and deviant, pervades his clipped narration.
The father dies and no closure or process of bereavement seems to take place. When the mother dies - probably of cancer, or some such wasting illness - Julie and Jack opt not to tell the authorities (they don't want to end up in care, all split up from each other), but instead plant her in a block of cement in the basement. The unresolved feelings about the father, compounded by the taboo-method they use to dispose of the mother's body, creates a palpable sense of emotional turmoil and dysfunction in the now-parentless and adultless household. A developing sense of psychosis henceforth builds...
Thus, as the novel's second half opens, the children are living without adult intervention, and in a society that could almost be post-nuclear, for all the outside world seems aware of their predicament. As time passes, the atmosphere in the house becomes more psychotic, more alienated, more disturbed - and the "rising stench" from the basement, as the hot summer months progress, doesn't help matters, other than to introduce the macabre into this dysfunctionality.
With all this tension in place and gripping the reader beautifully, McEwan then introduces the outside character of Derek into the house - Julie's snooker-playing boyfriend - who starts to wonder what the smell from the basement actually is. I won't say any more -- but the results of this character's introduction are compelling and suspenseful. McEwan writes with assurance and total control, and with a cinematic approach that made the novel ripe for adaptation in 1993.
The Cement Garden is a masterclass for aspiring first-novel writers. It is concise (a mere 127 pages), and tautly structured (ten chapters - five in Part One, and five in Part Two). It oozes with story, but it is also a study of alienation - a variation on Golding's Lord of the Flies thematics, wherein children are removed from healthy adult society and must somehow survive on their own. I re-read it in an afternoon; I wholly recommend it.
StillILearn
New Member
I recently finished "Saturday" , and I loved it. I'll probably reread "The Cement Garden" someday.
I'm thinking I'll maybe shelve "The Mermaid Chair" (Kidd) and go straight on to "The Ice Queen" (Hoffman).
Ooops -- off topic again!
I'm thinking I'll maybe shelve "The Mermaid Chair" (Kidd) and go straight on to "The Ice Queen" (Hoffman).
Ooops -- off topic again!
clueless
New Member
Re Atonement
I read Atonement when it was first published, so I may have forgotten the details. I did not like the ending. I did not expect a happy ending but I thought it did not make sense. If Briony really felt so guilty about what she had done, why wait until the end of her life to write about it? Why not tell the truth as soon as she found out, even if she was accused of libel because she had no material proof? Wouldn’t that make her feel that she had paid part of her debt? The ending made me doubt whether she really felt so guilty.
I read Atonement when it was first published, so I may have forgotten the details. I did not like the ending. I did not expect a happy ending but I thought it did not make sense. If Briony really felt so guilty about what she had done, why wait until the end of her life to write about it? Why not tell the truth as soon as she found out, even if she was accused of libel because she had no material proof? Wouldn’t that make her feel that she had paid part of her debt? The ending made me doubt whether she really felt so guilty.
dragansfanone
New Member
I just finished Saturday. I love his writing style. Very descriptive.
"Black Dogs" just wasn't something for me, but I think I'll give some of his others a try, since I like his writing style. Part 1, in "Atonement" was great, Part 2, I don't even want to comment on, but I'll do it in short anyway: huge dissapointment. No author should be allowed to do that to a reader!!!
Morty
New Member
Ian McEwan is without the slightest doubt one of the finest, most interesting and psychologically haunting novelists alive today. I've enjoyed many of his books, in particular Saturday and Atonement, his two best, and also Enduring Love and Amsterdam.
What makes McEwan so brilliant is his psychological understanding of the human mind, and his ability to create real people, and not simply characters. He has a unique insight into, and understanding of, human conflicts.
I can't decide whether I like Atonement better than Saturday or not. Atonement is a masterpiece, a sort of a tribute to classic english literature, where as, to me, Saturday is not only brilliant in its immense description of one man and one day, but also in understanding the problems of our time.
What makes McEwan so brilliant is his psychological understanding of the human mind, and his ability to create real people, and not simply characters. He has a unique insight into, and understanding of, human conflicts.
I can't decide whether I like Atonement better than Saturday or not. Atonement is a masterpiece, a sort of a tribute to classic english literature, where as, to me, Saturday is not only brilliant in its immense description of one man and one day, but also in understanding the problems of our time.
I agree with you too, don't think it deserved any Booker. (Saw your comments, thank you for the reminder.)novella said:
80%? Really? When I finished reading 50% of it, I was thinking, he should have stopped it there, and I stood by it after having read the whole book too. It just went downhill from then and onwards. Do you think it would have worked if he dropped the other 50% of it (meaning Part 2)? I believe so.novella said:
Morty, I disagree with you on "Atonement" being some kind of masterpiece. I reckon you found the ending to be rather brilliant too? I'd like to hear why.