The Daydreamer - Ian McEwan

Atonement - Ian McEwan

"Atonement" is Ian McEwan s latest novel and according to the jacket of the hardback edition, "his finest achievement". The first part of the story opens on the hottest day of 1935. Thirteen year old Briony Tallis watches from a distance as her Cambridge graduate sister, Cecilia, strips off to her underwear in front of Cecilia s childhood friend and fellow Cambridge graduate, Robbie Turner, before plunging into the fountain in the garden of the Tallis country house. That evening, Briony finds her 15 year old cousin, Lola, in the garden, preporting to have been raped. Brimming with the imagination of a would-be novelist, Briony sees the culprit and ...

Atonement - Ian McEwan

"Atonement" is Ian McEwan s latest novel and according to the jacket of the hardback edition, "his finest achievement". The first part of the story opens on the hottest day of 1935. Thirteen year old Briony Tallis watches from a distance as her Cambridge graduate sister, Cecilia, strips off to her underwear in front of Cecilia s childhood friend and fellow Cambridge graduate, Robbie Turner, before plunging into the fountain in the garden of the Tallis country house. That evening, Briony finds her 15 year old cousin, Lola, in the garden, preporting to have been raped. Brimming with the imagination of a would-be novelist, Briony sees the culprit and ...

Atonement - Ian McEwan

What can one say about Ian McEwan that won't be cliched or, worse, seen as Jill-bashing? We can roll out cliches till the sheep come home (or was it the cows? Englishmen and -women, please come to my rescue... enlighten me!): "McEwan one either loves or hates"; "McEwan's writing is lush, metaphoric"; "McEwan's cruel streak shines again"... Yet cliches, as I so love to repeat in my every other op - and as adapted from Kurt Andersen's novel 'Turn of the Century' (which reminds me, I should write an op on that excellent book one day) -, very often are true. That is why they become cliches. And truly, truly, truly, ...

Atonement - Ian McEwan

What can one say about Ian McEwan that won't be cliched or, worse, seen as Jill-bashing? We can roll out cliches till the sheep come home (or was it the cows? Englishmen and -women, please come to my rescue... enlighten me!): "McEwan one either loves or hates"; "McEwan's writing is lush, metaphoric"; "McEwan's cruel streak shines again"... Yet cliches, as I so love to repeat in my every other op - and as adapted from Kurt Andersen's novel 'Turn of the Century' (which reminds me, I should write an op on that excellent book one day) -, very often are true. That is why they become cliches. And truly, truly, truly, ...

Black Dogs - Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan's 'Black Dogs' is a beautifully crafted work, both powerful and unforgettable. The novel is built around a brilliant short story, an encounter with two terrifying dogs by an English couple honeymooning just after the war in a French village. The couple are the narrator's parents-in-law, who ...

Black Dogs - Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan's 'Black Dogs' is a beautifully crafted work, both powerful and unforgettable. The novel is built around a brilliant short story, an encounter with two terrifying dogs by an English couple honeymooning just after the war in a French village. The couple are the narrator's parents-in-law, who ...