Customer Reviews
Ewwww.... yucky. In a good way. - By: daisyrock, 01 Mar 2008 
One thing you can rely on with Mr McEwan is that you get something different every time. It's hard to believe this book is by the same person who wrote A Child in Time, Black Dogs & - especiallly - Atonement.
The claustrophobic atmosphere of a filthy house in the middle of an unbearably hot summer is almost tangible throughout this book. Sometimes I could feel the sticky kitchen floor & smell the rotten food in the fridge. And as for our three key players, the children of this revolting home, they are the most unlikeable, weird bunch you could imagine. A little bit Lord of the Flies, a little bit Wasp Factory, this is not a chocolate box image of childhood, but a relentless dig at the underbelly of a very, very dysfunctional family. Like picking at a scab, you can't leave it alone until you know just to what depths these twighlight zone characters will plunge.
The point is well made. When kids grow up without love or affection, like flowers in a concrete garden, their natural inclination to love, family & bonding can get wildly out of kilter.
Not a pleasant read. But a good one.
Not that great - By: A. Dean, 15 Feb 2008 
I bought this book following alll the great reviews. As someone who runs a project looking after orphans, some who live alone, I thought it would be an interesting read. However I found the characters & setting unbelievable & difficult to relate to. There was little exploration of the children's feelings about their parents' deaths & it seemed more centred around their sexual awakening. The climax at the end was predictable. I won't be recommending this to my friends!
Disturbing but brilliant - By: Suzie, 16 Sep 2007 
I thought I was going to hate this - as a keen gardener & lover of wildlife, how could I empathise with a father who intended concreting his entire garden? But the father dies & the children are eventuallly left to fend for themselves.
Despite being a darkly disturbing novel it somehow manages to grip the imagination & hold the reader's interest. The central story, in many ways so improbable, becomes plausible in the hands of such skilled writing. Ian McEwan portrays the indolence of youth & the hot summer days so vividly that you can hear the buzz of flies & feel the heat rising off the concrete.
In the end, it is easy to imagine how children in such a disturbingly distressing situation managed to slip through the safety net of the authorities.
Whether or not it is an 'enjoyable' read is a moot point but I would urge anyone who has not done so to read it for the sheer thought-provoking brilliance of the writing.
An even darker "Lord of the Flies" - By: Caterkiller, 12 Mar 2007 This is a dark, disturbing but exhilarating book. It is kind of a turbo-charged Lord of the Flies, except it replaces the youthful adventures of that book with a disturbing twist on the everday & the prosaic. You can tell from the start that there will be no happy ending; as the back garden is covered by a layer of concrete & cement it symbolises an end to a "normal" childhood, & the characters descend into an incestuous "fake-family" with children playing the roles of Mum, Dad & Baby. A well written & compelling read & the shortness of the book means that there is no let up. Brilliant.
Deeply disturbing... dark fiction - By: Heather, 17 Feb 2007 
Although The Cement Garden was McEwan's first novel, i have only just got around to reading it & was definitely not disappointed. I have found with some other writers, who i have come to 'late' that going back to their earlier work has been a bit of a let down & that later works, where their style has been more perfected have been much more enjoyable & successful. However, i would not say this is the case with McEwan as i found The Cement Garden to be just as successful as some of his later novels.
This novel very much represents McEwan's style & choice of subject matter which he has addressed throughout his writing. The Cement Garden follows the lives of four children after their father, & shortly after, their mother pass away, leaving the siblings to fend for themselves. As their lives begin to disintegrate & the children become further removed from society, their are passages reminiscent of 'Lord of the Flies' which are both shocking & saddening. I do not, however, wish to give the impression that this is a sentimental novel. McEwan writes, as he does in alll his fiction, with ease & an unflinching eye when describing death & more disturbingly abnormal sexual relationships.
While The Cement Garden is a very dark novel, it is also a story about adolescence & the awkwarness of growing up especiallly in an unconventional household as this one. I found his descriptions of the interaction between the siblings to be both honest & raw but fundamentallly troubling.
I found this novel extremely disturbing, but McEwan is such an intelligent & unique writer that he seems to create narratives which we are compelled to read. If you have enjoyed other McEwan novels then do not hesitate to try this one but if you are new to this writer then The Cement Garden gives you a real sense of what to expect from him.
This is definitely a novel that will get you thinking & talking whether you like it or not- a sure marker of great fiction. There are descriptions that will stay with you long after you finish reading.
