Ian McEwan

[sunnywong]

God, I bloody love him.

Just finished Atonement , and even knowledge of Kiera Knightley's performance in the forthcoming film could not detract from the power of the novel.

Love him.

Discuss

Anyone read 'Tis Pity she's a whore' John Ford? Sen it, better. Fucking top....

Have not read but loved the one with the hot air balloon (title escapes me). On an Ian Rankin binge at the moment. I'm on my tenth Rebus novel in a row...

Endearing Love

amsterdam NOT child in time

I have just read "Saturday". What a wsate of time - a short story stretched to 300 pages and a would-be thug rapist disarmed by poetry!. This is my first McEwan and if the over-written over-blown overly-descriptive prose of this book is anything to go by, it will be my last.

um....it is customary to preface a post like that with
SPOILER ALERT
in case anyone has NOT read a book

Why don't you try his short stoires then? In Between the Sheets and The Cement Garden

Spanna I loved loved loved 'Tis Pity'. I saw it performed at Stratford yrs ago and it has always stayed with me.

Dimpledthighs, why not 'A Child in Time'? Too poncy? Too laboured? Too longfor its own good? 'Enduring love' was pretty good. My no.1 is 'Black Dogs' which I think is earlier.

I've only read Atonement, and it has really lingered in my mind. Didn't know there was a film coming out, KK doesn't sound like the right actress for the role TBH.

Like him but didn't get into Atonement. Maybe I should try again as I like him as a writer.

Seems to write really competently about different subjects. I actually liked Saturday, although the events of the story are a little trashy and far-fetched, I thought his style showed through, and the detail was what made it good. I quite enjoyed the way he wrote about all the brain surgery stuff for example, not something i knew much about, unsurprisingly.

TBH i had a couple of false starts with atonement but once i'd got through the first part, it grabbed me. (was for reading group so had to get though it)

yes, I had a false start too.

But worth it

I was really dusappointed in Saturday but Atonement is one of my all time favourite books.

Perhaps I will try Atonement again then

I couldn't get into Atonement either, love his other stuff though, agree about short stories, esp Cement Garden.

Just dropped in to say dh looks a lot like Ian McEwan. btw, loved Atonement.

I liked Saturday very much even though ridiculous plot point as mentioned below but atonement didn't understand the fuss. What's the fuss?

SPOILER ALERT!

I keep reading books by Ian McEwan and keep getting disappointed. I found Saturday painfully, agonizingly tedious and unconvincing (not to mention smug beyond belief).
I really disliked Atonement too. His books just fail to convince me. I don't beleive in his characters or the events that befall them.
Saturday - not only does poetry disarm a rapist but a brain surgeon who has seen a man hold a knife to his wife's throat and humiliate and prepare to rape his daughter, leaps up at the end of the novel to perform lifesaving surgery at him. What rubbish! If it went wrong I'd like to see him explain why he was doing the op in the first place.

I like Ian McEwan's work, from In Between the Sheets and The Cement Garden to Amsterdam (which I read a couple of months ago), Saturday and Atonement.

However it is not unusual for successful authors to get a bit pretentious and long-winded. I reckon the editors stop doing any work and let the author get away with things they would never have passed in a first novel. Anthony Burgess is another example. Some of his final books were as bad as his early work, but in a different way.

Agree Aloha - I apologize for my earlier error re spoiler but I was so shocked that a) a trusted friend could possibly recommend 'Saturday' and that b) McEwan is so highly acclaimed. Frankly I mentally gave up at the point where when making a cup of tea he mused about the design of the kettle for half a page.

I enjoyed Atonement and Enduring Love, got Saturday to read next but doesn't look like it's going down too well.

I do like McEwan but I feel he is deeply disturbed - he reminds me of JG Ballard a bit. I liked 'Saturday' although I could only manage two pages of the squash game. 'The Innocent' is excellent but the scene where they dismember the German boyfriend is just repulsive - how can people actually write this stuff?
My personal fave is 'A child in time' ( which incidentally has made the A level syllabus a few years running now - I love teaching it).

Enjoyed Cement Garden, Child In Time and The Innocent, found Atonement painfully slow.

i love him!onl read child in time(i studies for english a level!) and cement garden though.

He's wonderful! Enduring Love - fantastic. Saturday - harder going, but very cleverly written, the way the events of a short period of time are stretched. Started The Child in Time but couldn't carry on - think that's more to do with being a mother IYKWIM than quality of writing.

I loved cement garden, atonement was great, between the sheets is fantastic, enduring love was ok but not my favourite, and i really enjoyed the innocent

Then i read Saturday and it really pissed me off, awful poncey middle aged man fantasy - all the characters were vile and smug and i was very disappointed.