Far from his best
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I think I have read all of McEwan's work, so obviously I am a fan. However I found it rather disappointing. It is still very readable, but really not up to the standard that McEwan has set.
Although very short, I found most of the book a little laboured - taking too long to get through a relatively small amount of plot. And then suddenly he covers forty years in a few pages, which is rather bizarre.
If, like me, you like McEwan's work you will probably read it anyway. If so, don't set your expectations so high as his better work and you will probably enjoy this as a mediocre work.
If you have not read McEwan before, I suggest you start elsewhere. "Enduring Love", "Atonement" and "The Cement Garden" are all excellent.
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Novella written in a self-regarding style
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I was disappointed in this short novel. Although initially I found the two protagonists, a young couple on their wedding night, appealing and the story engaging, after a while McEwan's mannered prose style began to grate on me. It felt as though he had one eye on the story and the other on a literary prize.
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My first Ian McEwan
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What an interesting read! As many of the reviews have said before, McEwan has handled this sensitive situation with a fantastic amount of understanding from both parties of the main characters points of view. A beautiful piece of writing but also an opportunity to relate this to our lives.
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Leaden - the emperor has no clothes on
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I'm sorry but I think this is a terrible book. The characters are poorly drawn, the prose is clunking and the sex scenes are risible. Ian McEwan belongs to that school of writers who obviously believe they write LITERATURE and that this can largely be achieved by writing in enormous and mind-numbing detail about some things, while skimming through others. I don't understand the telescoping of the rest of the male protagonist's life into the last few pages, for example. It comes across as amateurish.
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Jewel of a book
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This is the best book I have read since "Birdsong"- a wonderful evocations of love, emotion, uptightness, duty, sex, and post war England.
A jewel of a book.
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