Michael B. > > I haven't read any Ian McEwan at all. Anybody got any raw data on > that body of work? > McEwan's early novel "The Cement Garden" [1978] as well as the story-collections from the 1970s ("First Love, Last Rites"; "In Between the Sheets") were more than just promising. Yet since "Amsterdam" [1998] he has written nothing but crap. kfl