posted on January 10, 2008 09:37:49 AM new
Hi, all: A while ago I read "Saturday," by McEwan, and absolutely ate it up. So then I read "Atonement" a week ago and loved it, too (and there's a movie out now, based on it). When I find a writer I'm crazy about, I try to read many more of his or her books.
So. . . I'm wondering. . . if you've read more of his books, please make recommendations here! Thanks. ~Adele
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He is, like Webster, much possessed by death — so famous for his descriptions of murder, suicide and dismemberment that he has been called “Ian Macabre”. McEwan was the first student on the MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, set up by Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson. His collection of stories, First Love, Last Rites (1975), won a Somerset Maugham Award, and his career has been one long award ceremony since. He won the Booker in 1998 for Amsterdam, but many feel that he should have won it in 2001 for Atonement, a tale of thwarted romance (romance in McEwan is always thwarted) set in the Second World War, and now a successful film. Some criticise him for “borrowing” from other writers, but others would claim that his painstakingly detailed descriptions such as the opening of Enduring Love (1997) mark him out as a great stylist.
posted on January 10, 2008 12:06:32 PM new
Just checked my books and found a new paperback copy of "Saturday" by McEwan. If you would like to have it I can send it to you...free, of course.
Ooops, I see that Saturday is one that you have already read.
posted on January 10, 2008 03:35:08 PM new
Saturday was the first one I read, Helen, and it really gripped me. (One day in the life of a British couple, lots of details about home life and marriage, etc. etc. and things happening.)
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posted on January 12, 2008 05:10:58 PM new
Roadsmith, just noticed mention by Arts & Lettersof this recent interview of Ian McEwan on the New Republic and thought you might like to read it.
posted on January 13, 2008 10:06:44 AM new
Helen: I read that link. I hadn't realized how many of his books have been made into films.
I can see why so many of our relatives and friends have mentioned his books and have said their book group read one of them. There are some critics who say his writing will survive the century and live on. You never know.
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