pynchon-l-digest V2 #6673

[Joseph Cerrato]

I agree with John's opinions. I've read most of the titles he mentions.

Atonement is good too in my opinion. muh better than the over 
sentimental movie they made out of it.

Joseph


P.S.:  I've been lurking here ever since I re-subscribed a few years 
ago. I love this list.
Thanks to all contributors.



John Bailey a écrit :
> Yeah, his old stuff was great. Cement Garden was one of my favourite
> books at university and I think it'd appeal to Pynchon fans. Black
> Dogs, The Innocent, Child In Time, Comfort of Strangers are all good
> reads with a bit of a disturbing or eerie twist at the end (which I
> began to think was McEwan's whole thing). The film of The Comfort of
> Strangers is absolutely fantastic - screenplay by McEwan and Harold
> Pinter, directed by (Taxi Driver) Paul Schrader, starring Christopher
> Walken, Helen Mirren, Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson. Come on.
>
> Always felt his later stuff (from Amsterdam on) comes across as... smug.
>
> His new one is about climate change and sounds sort of promising.
>
> On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 9:36 AM, Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>   
>>> I haven't read any Ian McEwan at all. Anybody got any raw data on
>>> that body of work?
>>>       
>> Of course I have - I don't have a life - remember?   McEwan started out
>> writing literary thrillers and he was pretty good,  the emphasis was on the
>> suspense.   Then he turned toward character development and tried to have
>> the suspense grow naturally out of that - sometimes odd characters.   It
>> works better at some times than others.    It's interesting to watch the
>> development.   (This is ONLY my interpretation - I've not read this type of
>> analysis anywhere - I've just read the books.  And I'm not a literary person
>> - no uni paperwork for it, anyway.)
>>
>> McEwan is notable for having 7 of his 10 books make the Man-Booker
>> short-list (with only one actually getting the award)  plus 1 nomination for
>> the Man-Booker International (for oeuvre).
>>
>> He tends to use slightly strange characters like the ones we meet in life
>> but don't really know that well.   These characters usually drive the
>> suspense - what will they do?  How will the "normal" characters - if there
>> are any - react?   Some books are more thoroughly developed than others.
>>  Many books include the relationships of married couples.
>>
>>  "The Comfort of Strangers" is a good example of this odd-character suspense
>> building.  It's about an American (?) married couple traveling in Italy who
>> are befriended by a stranger in Venice.   It was nominated for a Booker
>> Award but not really worthy, imo.
>>
>> Then McEwan started getting more literary and eventually came out with
>>  "Black Dogs,"  his best book, imo.  This one  was  also nominated for the
>> Booker but "The English Patient" got it - (yukko.).    "Black Dogs" is about
>> a married couple vacationing in France when an  old Nazi dog attacks the
>> woman.  It's very dark.  I recommend it.
>>
>> "Enduring Love"  was back to the almost straight suspense genre (an odd
>> character driving the plot)  with only a modicum of literary merit - good
>> entertainment,  decent style, but not up to the standards of "Black Dogs."
>>  This is about a nice family man who is harassed by another man who is
>> obsessed with the idea that the family man is in love with him.   It
>> threatens the family man's  marriage, his job,  his sanity.  The disorder of
>> thinking some person is in love with you is real -  This is the best of
>> McEwan's suspense books, I'd say,  but no nominations for anything I know
>> of.)
>>
>> I suppose that "Amsterdam" is McEwan's most literary (and most boring) book.
>>  It's basically character driven, imo, but it just lacks something -
>>  immediacy,  I think.    The literary, stylistic stuff,  took over too
>> completely.   It actually won the Booker prize in 1998 but as I see it,
>>  that was an honorary award for not giving it to his priors.   McEwan does
>> great character development,  but they seem a bit flat in this book and the
>> plot twists are a bit too twisted.   (Two men make a deal to commit
>> euthanasia on the other if they get as bad as the deceased lover they had in
>>  common.  They go on to make some serious mistakes in their own lives.)
>>  This is supposed to be a somewhat comic novel but it didn't quite come off
>> that way to me.
>>
>> "Atonement"  is a good book although there are lots of folks who felt that
>> McEwan had tricked them and were disappointed.  I didn't feel that way but I
>> wasn't that enamored anyway - too much romance for my general tastes.   And
>> I'm not generally a huge fan  of his (although I loooved Black Dogs - can
>> you tell?)  - I just mostly watch his progress.   - A young girl tells her
>> family that she was molested by her sister's boyfriend - was she?  What are
>> the effects?  etc.  The story is told from the vantage point of 50 years
>> after the main events but moves toward that time.  (Yes,  "Atonement" got
>> nominated for the Booker.)
>>
>> "Saturday" was great,  but there are those, again, who felt it was too
>> minimal, pointless almost.   A post 9/11 half-assed thriller about a doctor
>> whose family is threatened by a somewhat demented man and his friends.
>> It's like McEwan was writing in suspense language but not a whole heck of a
>> lot happened.  It could have though, I suppose.  It's a bit of a comic
>> novel.
>>
>> "On Chesil Beach" was very good - not terribly suspenseful but with curious
>> character probes (without too much conclusion).   Slightly strange
>> characters.  Two virgins in their late twenties marry in the very early
>> 1960s (before the liberation of "the pill").  This is the story of their
>> tragic wedding night.   "On Chesil Beach" was nominated for a Booker.  (ho
>> hum - also some comic element in this one.)
>>
>> He's got some new novel coming out later this year.  ?
>>
>> Bekah
>> again,  not a huge fan of McEwan but interested in seeing his development.
>>
>>
>>
>> .
>>
>>
>>     
> >
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