Ian McEwan....

A Child in Time is his best one.

Enduring Love has fine writing in it but I wasn't keen on the story; there didn't seem much to it. The Innocent is one of my favourite books of all time. It has left a perfect picture of Berlin of the time in my head and it's one of the truest love stories I've ever read. It's also pretty gruesome.

Enduring Love may disappoint you. It dribbles away after one of the best opening chapters of a book I have ever read. The technical ability of the man at describing the balloon etc is breathtaking. I think he is worth reading simply for technique, but don' t be surprised if you throw down EL in frustration at the end.

I thought The Innocents is the only McEwan that sustained it all the way through. When he talks about his writing he admits that he writes scenes and this is very true - what he can't do is the narrative drive in between killer scenes. It is soul-destroyingly true of Enduring Love, where he makes the mistake of putting the breathtaking piece at the beginning (I say mistake from the point of view of the reader, because it is all downhill after that - from his point of view, it got loads and loads of people who read the first four pages in the bookshop to buy it!) It is frustrating because his good bits are so, so good.

Well put, Andrew. Reading him can be like sitting down to a meal that has a superb starter sending your taste buds into ectasy and then following it with beans on toast and an over-ripe banana.

Nobody has mentioned Atonement - which I think is sustained - and also - the first couple of short story collections (can't remember the titles - First Love Last Rites and . . . something else). I enjoyed Enduring Love, thought it was okay, was more savagely disappointed by Amsterdam, which was a real drag . . .

Of course, Atonement....yes...that paces itself well and is truly memorable. Try that one next.....

EL is the only one i have read and i found it (as wolfie said) so beautiful at the beginning, but ultimately tedious and empty... i will try atonement.

Half-way through it hasn't declined into 'beans on toast' .. so I'll continue munching. So far it has promise and it will be interesting to see where it starts to fade. One quote I read was: 'I think of novels in architectural terms. You have to enter at the gate, and this gate must be constructed in such a way that the reader has immediate confidence in the strength of the building.' So this is a prefab of a book sat behind wrought iron gates Atonement is on my reading list too, but as EL languished on my daughter's bookshelf, I helped myself to it first. [%sig%]

Innocents was wonderful. I agree about EL. Cement Garden was ok, but nothing special. Atonement, well, ok but nothing too special. I almost threw it out the window in the first 90 pages, then it became interesting...so don't give up too soon. There's another one about a couple whose small child is kidnapped in a grocery store and what happens to their lives afterwards, but I forget the title. That one was as good as Innocents, maybe better.

The Child In Time, I think. But The Innocent is better. Liana read this one - it's the best. Honestly.

I did give up on Atonement after the first 90 pages - maybe it was just me, but I don't want modern authors to write an Evelyn Waugh country-house novel, I can go and read Evelyn Waugh for that. I did once go to court with a barrister on a case involving stalkers, and he went on and on about De Clerambault's syndrome and how much he knew about it - I hadn't the heart to tell him that all of the medical stuff in Enduring Love is entirely fabricated by McEwan. The award for Amsterdam was a bit like Denzel Washington's Oscar - it was really a 'god, have you not won this before? You'd better have one this time, regardless' deal. (I did once pick up a studynotes type book on Enduring Love and... this really is damning, enjoyed it more than the bloody novel)

Really, I thought all the medical stuff in the novel was real. When I got to the end and the case study is there I thought, what a lack of imagination, he couldn't even think of a story...

Andrew, you may have given up too soon...the first 90 pages are from a novel written by the narrator as a young woman...the rest of the book is MUCH more interesting and in a completely different style. I hated the first 90 pages and almost threw the book out the window...then it all changed very quickly....Atonement is still not one of my favorites, but if you stick with it, it's OK. I rather liked Amsterdam, but it was hardly worth a prize, especially the Booker.

I read Black Dogs some time ago and found it yawnsome but struggled to the end. Enduring Love has been recommended to me so many times that I've decided to give him a second try. [%sig%]

I finished this last night in bed and in some discomfort (I fell off a ladder @ the weekend busting a wrist and bruising my ribs) so holding even a paperback sends spasms of fiery pain through my chest ) and I reckon it pretty much lived up to the promise suggested by its opening chapter. As Andrew says, McEwan links killer scenes together and although the ‘narrative drive’ may fade in parts, generally the story maintains its momentum throughout. The characters are finely drawn and believable from the narrator straining to hold his life together under the pressure of guilt and the attentions of his stalker, through to the teenage girl responsible for the widow’s anguish. Perhaps only Jed remains a little vague around the edges? Anyway, I’d recommend it. Now all I need to do is blag a copy of Atonement….. [%sig%]