I feel like I’ve been screwed over twice. First by the publisher, for advertising this as a spy story, and then by the author, for the way he wrote this entire fucking book. Seriously, want to know what Ian McEwan thinks of you, his reader? Especially if you happen to be a lady reader? Read Sweet Tooth right to the fucking end and find out. Serena Frome (rhymes with “plume,” as she tells us) is the smart, beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop. Raised in a loving family, she has been spared from […]
Just Stay Home
There are no doubt piles upon piles of books that make you want to travel, and there’s probably no shortage of books that make you want to visit Venice in particular. Then there’s Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers, the book that makes you dread just the thought of Venice. Or really any travelling. After finishing this book, you will want to stay home forever, and lock all the doors to keep the outside world and its evils at bay. Mary and Colin encounter those […]
Another fascinating book by McEwan
Time is running desperately short, so please find my review (coming very soon) of The Children Act on my website here.
The Children Act (.)
Ian McEwan gets it. He understands the complicated nature of the human heart, the means by which we process love, loss, faith, loss of faith, life and death. His later novels are especially interested in human nature, not as an abstract concept, but as a reality. A solid, concrete, beating heart. And it’s to this material that he again returns with The Children Act. The novel’s title is a pun of sorts, deriving both from The Children Act of 1989, and a short, declarative sentence. […]
Two former lovers of Molly Lane.
Honestly, if this book was written by any other author than Ian McEwan, it would have gotten two stars from me. But it was written by Ian McEwan, and there’s just something about the way he strings his words together that enchants me, regardless of how interesting I find whatever else is going on in his books at the time. Amsterdam is thankfully a concise book (with relatively large typeface and small pages), so no great investment of time on my part. The catalyst to the […]