Enduring Love

You must read Black Dogs and Saturday. He likes to explore the notion of how, in an instant, life can change. Saturday is a tour de force -- like Mrs Dalloway. the action all happens in one day. He explores life post 9/11, how our world looks and is different.
Black Dogs is also amazing -- very Jungian!

I agree re Black Dogs but Saturday was a heap of steamy stuff, in my opinion.

I realise my last post wasn't very informative, so here goes: Setting a novel in real time is a nice literary challenge to set oneself, but there has to be something in it for the reader too! It was dull, I didn't care, I didn't feel any mild peril for the main character whatsoever, and when I put the book down it was an effort to pick it up again. I am of course talking about Saturday, not Enduring Love, so I'll stop now.

I must admit that this was the book that finished me with McEwan. He does write quite beautifully but he seems to have lost it in regard to character - and if I can't believe or care about the people in the book then I tend to drift away. Much like a balloon.

I can't believe I didn't know this was an Ian McEwan novel! I saw the movie quite a while ago and enjoyed it. This has been added to my reading list (which grows longer the more I check out this site!)

While the realism of the characters can be questioned, I think the way McEwan plays with the reader's sympathies is brilliant. You never know whether to believe the narrator, and I think it is pulled off faultlessly.

This is one of his best. I couldn't put it down. How many were caught by his deception of the reader?

i agree with captainmcdan below. The character was infuriating. I enjoy a murakami characte who seems to rest in stillness while the world revolves aroind him but our main character here seemed just to useless to affect his own surroundings. after the ingenious start it went downhill.

I agree with KateT - The Child in Time is one of his best. It's worth remembering that there are effectively two Ian McEwans: the angry young man taking his literary cues from Malcolm Bradbury, and the older, wiser, slicker writer who wins awards. The Child in Time marks the turning point. Beth - perhaps you need to try some of the later ones, if you liked Enduring Love. Personally on the whole, I prefer the early stuff. I found this one okay, but I just can't relate to McEwan's characters any more - they've all turned very affluent and middle-class, just like Ian McEwan!

I haven't read the book, but the film was on Film4 last night - really enjoyed it, but a bit scary. It stars Daniel Craig (before he was really famous) and Rhys Ifans - both superb actors in my opinion.

I really didn't like this. Although it was extremely well written I could not believe in the main character at all, he just did not seem to react to the situation like a real person - by the end it was just infuriating.

You must try The Child in Time. The sequence in the supermarket when the protagonist, Stephen, searches for his small daughter is one I shall never forget.

This book was like reading poetry that could be instantly understood. So much of the joy of this dark tale was in the language, I would re-read whole passages just because they swept me away. It prompted me to try other McEwan books but only ever got half way through them and now they look at me forlornly from the bookshelf - maybe this will guilt me into this or maybe there is nothing like the first time