Customer Reviews
Far from his best - By: Mr. Trench, 10 May 2008 
I think I have read alll of McEwan's work, so obviously I am a fan. However I found it rather disappointing. It is still very readable, but reallly 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 smalll 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 & you will probably enjoy this as a mediocre work.
If you have not read McEwan before, I suggest you start elsewhere. "Enduring Love", "Atonement" & "The Cement Garden" are alll excellent.
Novella written in a self-regarding style - By: Sarah Blake, 07 May 2008 I was disappointed in this short novel. Although initiallly I found the two protagonists, a young couple on their wedding night, appealing & 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 & the other on a literary prize.
My first Ian McEwan - By: Jeni, 05 May 2008 
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.
Leaden - the emperor has no clothes on - By: Liz, 29 Apr 2008 
I'm sorry but I think this is a terrible book. The characters are poorly drawn, the prose is clunking & the sex scenes are risible. Ian McEwan belongs to that school of writers who obviously believe they write LITERATURE & that this can largely be achieved by writing in enormous & 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.
Jewel of a book - By: A. Browne, 26 Apr 2008 
This is the best book I have read since "Birdsong"- a wonderful evocations of love, emotion, uptightness, duty, sex, & post war England.
A jewel of a book.
