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• inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Mrs. A. King (Musing), 14:31:32 04/08/07 Sun
  The passage on page 99 describing Florence's sea crossing with her father
  suggests to me that she was sexually abused , and that this is possibly the
  cause of her so-called frigidity. Does anyone else care to comment on this
  theory?
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Simon Cross, 11:12:39 04/09/07 Mon
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Mrs A Siddell, 05:00:54 04/14/07 Sat
    • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- peterfranz, 10:41:29 04/18/07 Wed
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- 6sheep, 02:25:00 04/22/07 Sun
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- maggie (thoughtful), 23:23:36 05/15/07 Tue
    • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach (NT) -- Deborah, 14:24:56 07/22/07 Sun
      • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- elizabeth wood, 10:29:39 09/12/07 Wed
        • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Jonathan K, 11:28:10 09/13/07 Thu
        • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Lorna Schofield (OK), 13:58:48 02/16/08 Sat
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Diana, 20:29:05 06/18/07 Mon
    • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Naj, 08:23:09 06/26/07 Tue
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Ava Krogmann, 14:23:43 07/05/07 Thu
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Daisy, 17:42:01 07/18/07 Wed
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Timothy McKeown, 19:01:42 08/25/07 Sat
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Ellen Johns (Relieved), 16:07:22 09/07/07 Fri
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Jude Seaboyer, 03:58:34 09/16/07 Sun
    • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Susan Brown, 10:32:27 09/23/07 Sun
      • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Sharp(-;, 12:49:16 09/24/07 Mon
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Brad, 21:40:34 09/25/07 Tue
    • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Tee (Abuse and general reaction), 05:55:09 09/26/07 Wed
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Jean Reif Robinson, 11:19:37 11/02/07 Fri
    • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Dominique, 17:48:33 01/05/08 Sat
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Geraldine Roberts-Stone (agreement/taboo), 08:33:36 11/22/07 Thu
  • Re: inference of sexual abuse in Florence's frigidity in McEwan's On Chesil Beach -- Glenn Parrington, 17:26:37 01/22/08 Tue

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• Life Imitating Art -- a Saturday Moment -- Edward M Stadum, 04:51:53 02/16/08 Sat
  I regard Saturday as McEwan's finest novel. Especially, the pivotal moment when Henry says to Baxter, "Your father had it. Now you've got it, too."
  
  Today the story surfaced in the London Daily Mail of the meeting between Dr. Chris Britt and Mark Gurrieri in a London restaurant. Dr. Britt shook Gurrieri's hand and immediately recognized the symptoms of acromegaly, a benign tumor at the base of the brain that can lead to blindness, diabetes, high blood pressure and premature death. Britt was right. In due course his diagnosis was confirmed. and a surgeon removed the tumor from Gurrieri's pituitary gland, saving him from a premature death.
  
  That handshake was a Saturday moment.
  
  (You can read the Daily Mail article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=514340&in_page_id=1774)
  

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• Does anybody read "In Between the Sheets"? -- Evelyn (Sad), 07:18:20 02/12/08 Tue
  I'm going to have a degree in english literary translation, and its topic is this beatiful short stories collection by Mcewan. I've passed so many time looking for informations, and yes I've found "something", nothing more that an "one of his books is...". I transleted into Italian one of the short stories "Psychopolis"- an extraordinary description of contrasting emotions which lead a man to a "just breathing" life. What about this?
  

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• Massacre of schoolgirls -- rdwilliams@telefonica.net, 06:15:29 02/02/08 Sat
  Where please is the massacre of uniformed schoolgirls supposed to have taken place? No doubt such things happened in Poland, Russia and the Baltic but I have not read of such a massacre in Northern France.
  
  Would you please name the location and village.
  
  The Nazis have quite enough to answer for in France (Drancy camp and Oradour sur Glane etc) without fabrication for the sake of a story (which I hope this is not). RDW
  

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  • Re: Massacre of schoolgirls -- paul wichman, 18:35:18 02/10/08 Sun

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• Briony's Atonement -- Sean Matson (curious), 14:14:20 09/26/07 Wed
  Does Briony achieve atonement for the troubles she caused in her childhood?
  -How does her suffering through nursing help her atone
  -the novel she writes
  -the war experience that she gives in part II
  -The end when she explains that she is "god" and that the attempt was all.
  -I know she atones but what about all of these incidents shows that she has atoned... What is atonement?
  
  what scenes show all of these and prove that she has atoned?
  

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  • Re: Briony's Atonement -- Rachel, 21:19:08 01/23/08 Wed
  • Re: Briony's Atonement -- Autumn (infuriated), 17:31:02 01/25/08 Fri
    • Re: Briony's Atonement -- Kim, 11:40:48 02/10/08 Sun

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• Climax -- Navin (Puzzled), 15:44:45 02/07/08 Thu
  I just read the novel and I get the feeling what if one of those "drafts" had Robbie die of Septicaemia and Cecilia in the Underground blast.
  At the end of the day, Briony is a novelist, she has the ability to create her own version of the entire incident. I hope somebody could enlighten me.
  

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  • Re: Climax -- kim, 11:19:58 02/10/08 Sun

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• Robbie & Cecilia Meeting Question -- Su, 10:15:20 01/17/08 Thu
  I read 'Atonement' a few years ago, and I am now reading it again after seeing the film. I'd like to know if the meeting between Robbie and Cecilia after his release, but before he goes to war actually happened. At the end of the book Briony states "Who would want to believe that they never met again, never fulfilled their love?" I realize their reunion at the end was all in Briony's imagination, but what about this one? I'm a bit confused.
  
  Any and all thoughts are much appreciated!
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Robbie & Cecilia Meeting Question -- Sleep (I am also confused), 20:37:26 01/20/08 Sun
  • Re: Robbie & Cecilia Meeting Question -- nicole (joyful), 14:24:26 01/23/08 Wed
  • Re: Robbie & Cecilia Meeting Question -- Fantine, 16:55:03 01/29/08 Tue
  • Re: Robbie & Cecilia Meeting Question -- Mandy, 09:44:41 02/01/08 Fri
  • Re: Robbie & Cecilia Meeting Question -- Brittany, 20:40:15 02/07/08 Thu

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• Ian McEwan at Sydney Opera House on 9 March -- Pristine, 00:34:29 02/05/08 Tue
  An afternoon with Ian McEwan in conversation with Ramona Koval.
  
  Tickets go on sale to general public on 9 Feb. However, if you book online (http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/Priority/AnAfternoonwithIan_McEwan.aspx), you can get tickets now and get $5 off full price tickets.
  
  Adults--$39
  Concession (child under 16/full time student/pensioner)--$29
  

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• Atonement -- Charmaine (Description of Rape), 07:28:36 02/02/08 Sat
  page 74- i have read atonement before and have just started reading it again, we seem to have a very visual description of lola's rape 'A tall nettle with a preening look, its head coyly drooping and its middle leaves turned outwards like hands protesting innocence- this was lola, and though she whimpered for mercy, the singing arc of a three-foot switch cut her down at the knees and set her worthless torso flying', is this briony playing god, as if she was thinking of the violence and having an actor to perform it, in the form of (paul marshall).
  Are we seeing the event as it happens or are we falling for another of briony's ability's to lead us into a tale?
  

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• FIRST EVER STAGE ADAPTATION OF THE CEMENT GARDEN -- FallOut Theatre, 07:06:00 01/28/08 Mon
  FallOut Theatre, associated with Cambridge University, is staging the first ever stage adaptation of THE CEMENT GARDEN. The production runs from 6th-9th March at the Judith E.Wilson Drama Studio on West Road, Cambridge. For more information see www.fallouttheatre.com or email rp337@cam.ac.uk.
  

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• Henry Perowne and Henri Pirenne -- Mary Soderstrom, 07:57:53 11/30/07 Fri
  Reading Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs, I've just come upon the answer, perhaps, to a question that has bothered me since I first read Saturday: where does the name of the hero, Henry Perowne, come from.
  
  Henry, as you all know, wakes early on the morning of a day of international protest against the approaching war in Iraq to see a plane in flames approaching Heathrow Airport. The vision shadows everything that happens to him, including the attack he and his family survive.
  
  McEwan seems to have very carefully worked out the details of the book. Even the poem which saves Daisy from rape and worse—"Dover Beach" by Mathew Arnold—appears chosen for its message as well as its popularity. But the hero’s name stands out for its absence of significance. How strange, I thought at the time, annoyed that it seemed to resonate with something which I couldn’t put my finger on. I even spent a couple of hours trying possible permutations of the letters in Henry Perowne to see if I could come up with an interesting anagram.
  
  No luck.
  
  But then in rereading the Jacobs book, I came across her discussion of Henri Pirenne, (1862-1935) a Belgian historian and Orientalist. He is best known, it seems for the Pirenne Thesis which argues that the ancient world ended and the Middle Ages began following the establishment of Muslim control over the Mediterranean Sea.
  
  According to Pirenne, Jacobs writes, that Dark Age started to move toward light when the “ poor, backward European cities...began trading with one another again and, indirectly through Venice, with the Middle East and Asia.” This, of course, falls right in with Jacobs’s thoughts about the economies of cities, but it also has interesting resonances with what is happening now. Is our current increased awareness of what is going on in the Muslim world an end or a beginning?
  
  I have been trying to find a forum on which to ask McEwan if the choice of Perowne’s name is one of those symbols writers sometimes drop into their work for their own pleasure, or if it is pure coincidence. What do you think?
  
  Mary Soderstrom
  http://marysoderstrom.blogspot.com
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Henry Perowne and Henri Pirenne -- RR, 17:21:41 01/25/08 Fri

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• Water Imagery -- Becky, 15:21:19 01/24/08 Thu
  I just saw the movie last night and felt the water imagery throughout the story was compelling. There is obvious connections with religion but does anyone have any thoughts....I can't get the movie out of my mind and will read the book soon.
  
  Becky
  

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• Robie's feet....Bleed to death -- Bonnie Robinson (Confused?????), 21:27:43 01/16/08 Wed
  When Robie was walking into the Bar in Dunkirk....and found something to drink....saw the aborition of his mother washing his feet in the bowl, did he, in fact...or was that "Symbolism" for him shattering the glass bottle placing that into the bowl....or into his shoes...then walking out....His friend asked him why he was walking strangely???? he then went into the cellar and a day later passed away....did he bleed to death? That was my interpretation.....Bonnie
  

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  • Re: Robie's feet....Bleed to death -- sleep, 20:56:12 01/20/08 Sun

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• Ian McEwan at the Adelaide Festival -- Pristine, 05:21:09 01/12/08 Sat
  Although I live in Sydney, I missed out on getting a ticket to see Ian McEwan at the Adelaide Festival. Would anyone here happen to have a ticket to spare? Postage and ticket cost would happily be paid for :D Thanks!
  

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  • Re: Ian McEwan at the Adelaide Festival -- Pristine, 23:41:22 01/19/08 Sat

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• Saturday -- Charlotte (fired up), 09:19:31 01/06/08 Sun
  I have just finished Saturday and hugely enjoyed it. I have two comments. Firstly, having read many of McEwen�s earlier books, I spent much of my time waiting for the horror, for the character�s that I had connected with, to be killed in some way. I was let off the hook but now I feel there should have been greater collision between Baxter�s world and that of Henrys�.
  
  Which is part of my second point. I found the life of the Penrose family too comfortable and too smug to really believe their concern for the world events around them. I guess I am suppose to be slightly put off by the arrogance of Henry�s thinking, but the whole family�s rationalization, made me cringe at times, especially when they talked through the events of the intrusions. I can�t work out if it is because I have heard such middle-class reflections in my own family or because it was hyper real. Either way it made me uncomfortable. As did the no mention of taking Henry�s mother into the family home, which, as we were told many times, was so big. Also that they only took one ornament from her house, as if those ornaments would infect the rooms in their home. This really annoyed me. Was it the intention of the author and highlights me falling for the book? If so the result was to stop me digesting some of the political points and caring about their world views.
  

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  • Re: Saturday -- Chris, 16:16:58 01/19/08 Sat

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• Atonement: Lola and Paul -- dap (perplexed), 07:13:28 01/15/08 Tue
  I've read Atonement (years ago now) and just saw the film, which I was concerned would not do the book justice. It actually is quite a good movie - well acted and directed. My wife asked a question about the relationship between Paul Marshall and Lola that never occurred to me before. Perhaps I simply missed it all this time, but she suggested in her question that Lola not only was not attacked by Robbie, but that she was not attacked by Paul - that it was a consensual liaison between the young girl and the older young man. However inappropriate, it seems possible that the two were picking up on the spark that was formed inside the house when they first met.
  
  Is this an obvious point, or is this a fresh look?
  

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  • Re: Atonement: Lola and Paul -- david maiman, 07:16:58 01/16/08 Wed

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• One of the best daramas of all time -- N.M.G., 00:48:14 01/16/08 Wed
  I really enjoyed this book. You have a natural talent for writing, very descriptive, and the characters were had such powerful emotion. Briony was merely a child, she was very different from her peers, she was unique, an artist of her own and she also likes being the ringleader. She was jealous, as a natural reaction, she tried to get even, she wanted it to be Robbie, but she was not aware that it would hurt Cee that much.
  The real drama was Briony still carrying this guilt at an old age, knowing she can never be forgiven.
  It does not seem fictional at all. Atonement is a powerful piece of drama that should be a part of everyones collection. I hope to be a writer someday and its stories like this that really inspires you. It's absolutely beautiful!
  

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• Companionable lovemaking -- Tony, 15:36:38 11/17/07 Sat
  Hello
  
  I only recently discovered Ian McEwan. One Of the many things that appeal to me about his writing,is his ability to put words to things that we feel, but cannot express.
  
  I just came across "companionable lovemaking" in Black Dogs. He uses the term to describe a married couple making love.
  
  I suppose this skill is a pre requisite for all great authors. Anyway, I wanted to come on here and express my satisfaction with Mr McEwan!
  

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  • Re: Companionable lovemaking -- dap, 07:08:13 01/15/08 Tue

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• Chesil Beach -- Editor (Tongue in cheek), 06:37:33 04/13/07 Fri
  We think mr McEwan should hold on to his rocks see
  http://www.bridportradio.co.uk/content/view/636/99/
  

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  • Re: Chesil Beach -- gerald white (bored), 19:22:29 01/08/08 Tue

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• Atonement ending -- Kali, 17:27:04 01/06/08 Sun
  I loved Atonement but I really disliked the ending. I felt that the ending was very confusing and too hastily put together.
  But the book as a whole was amazing! I cannot wait to see the movie!
  

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• Atonement: Anybody see the silmilarity to The Wars? -- Cathy, 11:26:02 01/02/08 Wed
  Has anyone read Timothy Findley's The Wars (1977)? There is a section of the novel that has an English country house, two sisters, one who is precocious and imaginative, a misunderstood sex scene, and a hero named Robert. The Wars is not a love story and is set in the first World War but there are some eerie similarities. There is even an older woman who is telling her part of the story. Even the idea of atonement is present but it has to do with war and not misunderstanding.
  

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• McEwan'books and Italian translations -- Nadia (The Italian one), 12:57:45 12/26/07 Wed
  Dear Mr McEwan,
  I like reading your books so much but...I prefer reading them in their original draft as translations are missing something somewhere..I can't tell exactly what it is.Susanna Basso is really good at giving words that shape of meaning they probably want to convey but..the fact is that your English is probably much better than her Italian. Chesil Beach was very good, it reminded me of Eveline by Joyce, the setting was so perfect...and so was characterisation.
  

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• Grammar -- Elisabeth (curious), 13:34:51 10/05/06 Thu
  From the novel Saturday I quote:
  
  "An habitual observer of his own moods, he wonders about..." p. 5, paperback.
  
  Why do you say "an habitual observer". Why is it not "a habitual observer"?
  
  Stupid question maybe, but the aswer woud be interesting!
  
  Greetings from Elisabeth
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Grammar -- Tim de Ferrars, 14:55:34 10/05/06 Thu
    • Re: Grammar -- Jiri (Misprint in "Saturday"?), 23:41:05 11/07/06 Tue
      • Re: Grammar -- Robin Guest, 15:40:17 09/16/07 Sun
  • Re: Grammar -- mimi, 21:58:32 07/14/07 Sat
    • Re: Grammar -- Carly (Wild City Woman), 19:33:15 08/12/07 Sun
  • Re: Grammar -- Carly (Wild City Woman), 19:18:27 08/12/07 Sun
  • Re: Grammar -- Nadia (the Italian one), 12:46:29 12/26/07 Wed

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• Is there a consensus .... -- Tony, 19:15:30 12/23/07 Sun
  on here, as to who is a good read for someone, who has already read all of Ian McEwans' books?
  
  
  Many thanks for your comments.
  
  
  I am a already a big fan of Somerset Maugham.
  

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  • Re: Is there a consensus .... -- nadia (the Italian one), 12:36:35 12/26/07 Wed

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• degree thesis on Ian McEwan -- Valy, 13:12:13 12/02/07 Sun
  Hi!
  
  I'm an Italian student of foreign languages and I'd like to do my degree thesis on Ian McEwan because he is simply great! My problem is the choice of the topic. I think I'm going to compare his short story collections, but I'm not sure and I'm looking for suggestions. Could you please help me?
  
  Thank you very much.
  
  Bye,
  
  Valy :)
  

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  • Re: degree thesis on Ian McEwan -- Samantha, 07:34:18 12/11/07 Tue
    • Re: degree thesis on Ian McEwan -- Jenna, 23:41:47 12/19/07 Wed

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• The Cement garden -- Rachel V, 11:37:08 11/29/07 Thu
  I am writing an essay concerning the presentation of the protagonist in the Cement Garden (JACK).
  Would anyone be able to help me any information on this or anything I could include in my essay.
  For example- Narrative technique, Use of language, How the reader is supposed to react to Jack
  
  Thanks
  

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• "First" what in Atonement -- Gabrielle, 23:56:14 11/01/07 Thu
  Cecilia says on page 196 of the American version, "My mother never forgave you your first."
  
  First what?
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: "First" what in Atonement -- Jean Reif Robinson, 11:03:15 11/02/07 Fri
    • Re: "First" what in Atonement -- Gabrielle, 12:31:50 11/02/07 Fri
  • Re: "First" what in Atonement -- Emily (answer), 17:54:12 11/27/07 Tue

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• Page 126 in "On Chesil Beach" -- Clare, 13:59:27 06/21/07 Thu
  On page 126, McEwan writes: "He had always been reticent about the girls he had made love to, but she did not doubt the wealth of his experience."
  
  Is this a contradiction from the statement on page one that Florence and Edward are virgins? Or, is Florence assuming Edward is not a virgin?
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Page 126 in "On Chesil Beach" -- Rachel, 18:10:52 06/22/07 Fri
  • Re: Page 126 in "On Chesil Beach" -- PO, 22:14:38 06/23/07 Sat
  • Re: Page 126 in "On Chesil Beach" -- mimi, 21:46:46 07/14/07 Sat
    • Re: Page 126 in "On Chesil Beach" -- Edna, 11:14:40 11/22/07 Thu

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• Companionable lovemaking -- Tony, 15:35:23 11/17/07 Sat
  Hello
  
  I only recently discovered Ian McEwan. Of the many things that appeal to me about his writing,is his ability to put words to things that we feel, but cannot express.
  
  I just came across "companionable lovemaking" in Black Dogs. He uses the term to describe a married couple making love.
  
  I suppose this skill is a pre requisite for all great authors. Anyway, I wanted to come on here and express my satisfaction with Mr McEwan!
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Companionable lovemaking -- Geraldine Roberts-Stone (agreement), 10:17:31 11/22/07 Thu

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• On Chesil Beach and the Ultimate Fragility of Human Romantic Love -- Geraldine Roberts-Stone (reflective/sad/poignant), 08:27:33 11/22/07 Thu
  I have just completed "On Chesil Beach," ironically having been rejected by the love of my life following a series of mixed messages and misunderstandings a la Florence and Edward. I am interested in the protaganists' notions of feeling "cheated" by their situation. Is it ever possible "to be in love and be herself?" (p.146) Is all romantic love ultimately doomed to failure and recrimination or can we truly "love and set each other free?" (p.142)Why do we hold back in life and settle for safety in the shadows?
  

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• SATURDAY - NARRATIVE DISCUSSION -- Jacqueline (Confused and need help!), 04:27:31 11/22/07 Thu
  I'm writing an essay on the nature and function of narrative in Saturday. I need some help and opinions. Anything from why it's written in the third person to if you think there's more than one narrator....Perowne and the narrator looking down on him? My lecturers seem to think that's the case. HELP PLEASE!!! Thanks.
  

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• Atonement -- Brenda, 16:17:11 09/08/07 Sat
  I have just returned from the cinema after seeing Atonement and I am sure that I have seen a production of this novel before - either on the big screen or on tv. Can anyone help - has this book been adapted as a film before?
  

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  • Re: Atonement -- marian, 02:04:28 10/17/07 Wed
  • Re: Atonement -- gerard brangan, 14:16:42 10/18/07 Thu
  • Re: Atonement -- marke, 13:17:31 11/10/07 Sat

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• Chesil Beach -- Dympna Pyle (perplexed), 02:52:47 10/27/07 Sat
  Sory to be a nit-picker, but having lived in Henley for 20 years I was perplexed to find trains going to Oxford from there in Chesil Beach. It's the ned of a line - a very small branch line; occasional trains to London, but all trains have to go to Twyford. Change there for Reading and Oxford!
  

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• Atonement -- CL_FlushEntityPacket, 05:54:49 10/22/07 Mon
  Loved this book. Small (petty) correction. Probably been said before. Page 370 "...Cecilia was killed in September of the same year [1940] by the bomb that destroyed Balham Underground station." Balham station was hit by a bomb that killed 65 (64?) people on 14 October, 1940. Surely couldn't be deliberate?
  

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• On Chesil Beach-Beatles & Stones -- Colin Hendry, 16:07:31 10/08/07 Mon
  Thoroughly enjoyed reading the latest from Ian McEwan but would love to know what records by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones Edward played to Florence on p127. If memory serves the former's first album wasn't released until 1963 and the latter's first until 1964.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: On Chesil Beach-Beatles & Stones -- Arnold Nestler, 16:46:22 10/12/07 Fri
    • Re: On Chesil Beach-Beatles & Stones -- Colin Hendry, 11:05:37 10/14/07 Sun
  • Re: On Chesil Beach-Beatles & Stones -- Arnold Nestler, 16:51:12 10/12/07 Fri
    • Re: On Chesil Beach-Beatles & Stones -- Colin Hendry, 14:33:13 10/14/07 Sun

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• Short Listed -- Goat Peter, 05:19:29 10/11/07 Thu
  No wonder McEwan is saying Chesil Beach ain't too short for the Booker - he wrote it didn't he and he wants to win.
  
  Its FAR too short to be considered. Perhaps he should try writing a proper-lengthed novel.
  
  Hard work though eh
  

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• Amsterdam -- Velvins, 03:53:44 04/08/07 Sun
  Hi,
  I had troubles with last few chapters, I couldn't really make out what happened at the end.Anyone willing to explain?Thnx!
  

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  • Re: Amsterdam -- mimi, 22:20:33 07/14/07 Sat
  • Re: Amsterdam -- Carly (Wild City Woman), 19:47:47 08/12/07 Sun
  • Re: Amsterdam -- gail (Amsterdam), 10:36:00 10/06/07 Sat

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• "Saturday" -- Peter Byrne, 00:49:36 10/05/07 Fri
  
  Swans Commentary � swans.com September 24, 2007
  
  
  
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  On Edge In Middle-Class Heaven
  Ian McEwan's Saturday
  
  by Peter Byrne
  
  Book Review
  
  
  
  McEwan, Ian: Saturday, Vintage, London, 2005, ISBN 978-0-099-46968-1, ISBN 0-099-46968-5, pp. 282.
  
  
  (Swans - September 24, 2007) In 2004 Ian McEwan wrote Saturday, a "consciousness" novel, update of the tradition that gave us James Joyce's Ulysses and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Like his great predecessors, McEwan tells us what passes through the mind of a character during a single day in a specific and limited place. This is central London on Saturday, February 15, 2003. Not that McEwan's edgy temperament and taste for bouts of intense drama haven't altered the recipe. He doesn't preserve his 24 hours in amber like Joyce or cushion them in dreamy musing like Woolf. He's very much of the present whose electronic novelties pretty much rule out a view of the world sub specie aeternitatis.
  
  In 1904, Joyce's Leopold Bloom certainly knew of, say, the Russo-Japanese War raging over Port Arthur. However, it seemed a safe distance away from cozy Dublin. As for Clarissa Dalloway in 1923, she had shrugged off WWI as a bad dream and felt shielded by London's imperial monuments from all except very personal problems. But of Henry Perowne, the neurosurgeon whose mind McEwan inventories for us, the author says:
  
  He's feeling the pull, like gravity, of the approaching TV news. It's a condition of the times, this compulsion to hear how it stands with the world, and be joined to the generality, to a community of anxiety. The habit's grown stronger these past two years; a different scale of news value has been set by monstrous and spectacular scenes. The possibility of their recurrence is one thread that binds the days. (Page 176)
  This professional man with terrorism on his mind is what Americans called a liberal before they allowed the word to be degraded and now have taken to whisper like an obscenity. Perowne's high guilt quotient contributes in large part to what makes him a good person. He's totally devoted to very skilled, socially useful work. He's also a family man showing the same devotion to his lawyer wife, and young-adult son and daughter. He's of course prosperous and middle class.
  
  On the Saturday in question he sets out early in his silver Mercedes S500 with cream upholstery to meet a colleague for a game of squash. But this is the day of the worldwide anti-war protest. 750,000 demonstrators will turn out in the streets of London, the largest demonstration ever in the British capital. Traffic snarls up. Perowne finds himself in a deserted side street where another car sideswipes his. The three occupants, clearly denizens of the underworld, set about assailing him. His medical eye saves him from more than a bruising blow to his sternum. He recognizes and talks about the symptoms of fatal disease visible in Baxter, the trio's leader. Baxter's confusion at having his misfortune -- Huntington's Disease -- aired allows Perowne to escape.
  
  The hard-driving professional man of fifty won't miss his game of squash for so little. It turns out to be ruthlessly competitive but accompanied by generous thoughts. Had he wrongly exploited his medical knowledge in talking himself out of a mugging? Could he not have done more for Baxter, a clever young man whose viciousness surely came from a deprived upbringing?
  
  So Perowne's busy day -- his day off -- will continue. Driving to an upmarket fishmonger's he sees traces of the demonstration and also Falun Gong people in a silent vigil outside the Chinese Embassy. He learns from his radio that terrorism might explain the burning Russian plane that landed at Heathrow in the morning. He leaves central London briefly to visit his widowed mother in a nursing home. Far gone in dementia, she takes him for someone else and makes no sense. He's ashamed of his happiness when the visit ends and he can climb back into his cream upholstery. In another part of London he stops to hear his son's rehearsal. The boy is a promising blues guitarist, and Perowne's relationship with him untroubled.
  
  Back home, an impressive 19th century house on an elegant square, he begins to cook the fish stew that will be his contribution to the evening's festivities. His wife will be home after a crucial day in court. His father-in-law, a prominent poet, will come on a visit from the South of France and, best of all, his beloved daughter will be home from Paris where she resides and also writes poetry. His son will join them with his guitar. Perowne reflects that he's lucky to be on the warmest of terms with all of them, though his uncontentious relationship with his wife's father results from a truce of sorts.
  
  Yet Perowne remains an uneasy liberal. He feels all too aware of world events that at the same time resist his grasp. They are real and he is real, but something unreal comes between:
  
  Have his anxieties been making a fool of him? .... He suspects he's becoming a dupe, the willing, febrile consumer of news fodder, opinion, speculation and of all the crumbs the authorities let fall. He's a docile citizen, watching Leviathan grow stronger while he creeps under its shadow for protection. .... Does he think he's contributing something, watching news programmes, or lying on his back on the sofa Sunday afternoons, reading more opinion columns of ungrounded certainties, more long articles about what really lies behind this or that development.? (Page 180)
  The arrival of Perowne's daughter adds a bitter aftertaste to these thoughts. As loving as his feelings are for his family, he has to admit that of the five people who will sit down to dinner only he has doubts about the antiwar demonstration in course. The young woman is full of enthusiasm for the event and launches into a spirited attack on her father's position. This only hardens in debate, and Perowne realizes they are arguing about more than a putative attack on Iraq. His view was a common one at the time, insisting that the evil Saddam and his villainies must go and that removing him might well shake-up the Middle East for the better. (We are a month before Parliament backs the war, and two before Baghdad falls to U.S. forces.) The young woman's views were just as frequent in Britain then and, finely argued, amount to her "it'll be a mess and even you will wish it never happened." (Page 192)
  
  The dramatic personal events of the evening will undermine Perowne's conviction that was in any case never so assured as he pretended. His willingness to unseat Saddam depended mainly on an Iraqi he treated and whose wounds from regime torture impressed him. At the end of the long day Perowne's squash-player's aggression has withered:
  
  He's weak and ignorant, scared of the way consequences of an action leap away from your control and breed new events, new consequences, until you're led to a place you never dreamed of and would never choose -- a knife at the throat. (Page 277)
  That knife belonged to Baxter, who forced his way into the middle-class fortress and threatened Perowne's wife and daughter with abominations. However the good doctor again managed to distract the criminal with talk of Huntington's Disease. They go upstairs to examine non-existent notes on a cure, and Perowne, with the help of his guitarist son's large hands, throws Baxter down the stairs and breaks his head open.
  
  But British liberal guilt is not easily expunged. The son's first question to the police is whether he's committed a crime against Baxter. Perowne himself regrets his deceit about there being a cure. He jumps at the chance to operate on Baxter and manages to save him so that his slow death by neurodegeneration can continue undisturbed in prison.
  
  If we add that the pivotal event of the evening concerns Baxter's enthusiasm for Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach, our account might seem that of a novel given to fantasy. This isn't the case. McEwan renders the rich texture of contemporary life with a master's touch. He recalls Joyce in the way he impregnates the medical sector of his novel with a language distinct from that of the literary sector. Londoners will marvel at the evocation of their city, just as all the inhabitants of our 24-hour-news world will shudder before the truth of how we live now.
  
  This account of a liberal in our times has not gone uncriticized by the British liberal community. Some have found Perowne much too happy a man. He actually gets along well with his family and loves his wife. He took the wrong side in the argument with his daughter. That big house and his silver Mercedes S500 testify against him. (A neurosurgeon of his standing would be a multimillionaire in America.) In former novels McEwan often put forward one or two freak characters and had a special line in perverts. The feeling among the righteous was that the author had sold out.
  
  Recrimination became so nagging that McEwan decided to defend himself in the Guardian of August 18, 2007. He said, "People felt uncomfortable because I painted this exaggerated version of themselves. Henry [Perowne] is really the fat contented western man; they themselves are fat contented western people." He also agreed "you can never underestimate the spite of a certain section of the English middle-class."
  

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• Ian McEwan : Nationality -- Ted Johns (Bemused), 05:42:34 10/04/07 Thu
  Ian McEwan is not American, he is British. (I know that there's not much difference theses days)
  

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• Chesil Beach -- Jan Davey (Vaguely average), 09:29:56 09/27/07 Thu
  How your book - Chesil Beach - touches the core is fascinating to me.
  After giving my copy to my 16 year strong book club,(tis being swopped between meetings) another club is insisting I come along to review it on date am due at first!!
  Have suggested hiring village hall for joint discussion, but no! Lone voice asserted hall would be cold.....heigh ho
  warmest best
  jan d
  

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• On Chesil Beach -- utalrim, 09:52:04 08/25/07 Sat
  on page 29, there is a phrase i can't understand. it is: "taking the measure of the world with their nightcaps." what does this phrase mean?
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: On Chesil Beach -- Tee, 19:05:54 09/26/07 Wed

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• Atonement (Film) -- Ben, 06:00:40 09/05/07 Wed
  I saw the premiere of Atonement last night at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square.
  
  Atonement is one of my favourite novels and I had concerns about its adaptation for the big screen. So much of the novel rests on the concept that Briony is the 'author' and I couldn't see how this would be succesful. When I saw the director Joe Wright had previously worked on Pride and Prejudice I thought Part One would just be shot as a typical period drama. Fortunately I was wrong. Joe Wright and Working Title have made an incredibly stylish film and I highly recommend it.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Atonement (Film) -- Tracey, 13:28:01 09/09/07 Sun
  • Re: Atonement (Film) -- Mimi Choi, 13:56:26 09/14/07 Fri

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• Saturday -- Lucia, 10:01:05 04/25/05 Mon
  I am writing to express my sincere admiration for the complete excellence of Ian McEwan's writing. I have just finished "Saturday" and words cannot do justice to express exactly how terrific the experience of reading it was. I have read all your novels and at the end of each one felt as if I had been on a literary journey of such original and intricate richness, but "Saturday" leaves me especially touched. It is so expertly crafted, the time structure exhilarating, themes and facts as always thought-provoking but here even more brilliantly so. An all-absorbing story......
  I am astounded that this website consists of mainly moaning A level students (albeit understandably so from the point of view of being forced to read a novel not necessarily of one's own choice(I admit to ceremonious burning of "Middlemarch" after A level English Lit - loving a novel is a very personal matter) but perhaps it shows a lack of good teaching of the subject - and of grammar!)and even more astounded to find so few references to "Saturday", apart from a couple of enquiries about Henry Perowne's fish soup. Ian McEwan's work is without question of serious academic worthiness, but should it not be confined to degree level contemporary fiction study?
  Awaiting the next novel with great anticipation....
  Mr McEwan, you are a literary genius.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Saturday -- Stella, 13:33:21 04/25/05 Mon
    • Re: Saturday -- H, 12:25:01 04/26/05 Tue
      • Re: Saturday -- John V., 07:16:17 05/25/07 Fri
    • Re: Saturday -- Carly (Liked it), 13:29:17 08/19/07 Sun
  • Re: Saturday -- Susan Boswell, 10:12:09 04/27/05 Wed
  • Re: Saturday -- Susan Troutman, 16:30:26 04/30/05 Sat
    • Re: Saturday -- Lucia, 02:25:00 05/15/05 Sun
    • Re: Saturday -- flowr6powr, 14:45:14 05/06/07 Sun
      • Re: Saturday -- Kate, 00:06:36 05/13/07 Sun
  • Re: Saturday -- Miffy, 04:58:05 10/24/05 Mon
  • Re: Saturday -- M� Jes�s Hern�ndez, 11:57:09 12/16/05 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- massimo viggiani, 01:34:16 03/12/06 Sun
  • Re: Saturday -- Josie, 04:48:04 04/07/06 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- Padma Chandran, 05:09:49 06/06/06 Tue
  • Re: Saturday -- Carly (W W Don't Have the Blues), 23:07:55 08/12/07 Sun
  • Re: Saturday -- Barbara (reflective), 18:02:52 08/15/07 Wed
  • Re: Saturday -- Carly (I agree . . .), 13:26:09 08/19/07 Sun
  • Re: Saturday -- Steve Hall, 15:42:20 09/01/07 Sat

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• Chesil Beach Book Club -- Ann Kafetz (Would like help with questions), 15:25:04 08/30/07 Thu
  I am suppose to be the discussion leader and would like your input on some thoughtful questions to ask my book club group. Thanks. Ann
  

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• Amsterdam and Of Mice and Men -- David, 10:21:33 07/10/07 Tue
  By pure coincidence - or is it the fact that I enjoy reading short novels! - I finished reading Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and promptly picked up "Amsterdam". I highly recommend reading the two - it could easily be done by a book group (particularly a men's book group, I would think)as collectively they comprise less than 300 pages. Both involve adult male friendships that end tragically. Although it may be argued that the similarities, or points of comparison, end there, I think it is worth talking about McEwan's view of the late twentieth century urban/ bourgeois British male and his relationships to other males, and Steinbeck's view of the transient male worker of the depression era and his relationships to other males. I wondered whether anyone else had considered the comparison.
  I also wondered how females respond to McEwan. Particularly in my readings of Saturday, On Chesil Beach, and now Amsterdam, I am always thinking that he is probing the core of my twenty-first century male psyche. But perhaps his musings and internal voices are more universally shared.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Amsterdam and Of Mice and Men -- Carly (Wild City Woman), 19:59:57 08/12/07 Sun
    • Re: Amsterdam and Of Mice and Men -- Matt, 06:39:19 08/21/07 Tue

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• On Chesil Beach -- Deb, 18:16:27 07/29/07 Sun
  This book was so true that it hurt. How could a man be so insightful about women?
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: On Chesil Beach -- Carly (True? Nah!), 13:36:45 08/19/07 Sun
    • Re: On Chesil Beach -- Martin, 05:50:36 08/20/07 Mon

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• Chesil Beach -- Carly (:-)), 13:15:52 08/19/07 Sun
  Someone told me it wasn't very good; but the 'someone' who told me that, never likes anything I like, so I took it for a good sign.
  
  When I realized McEwan was going on and on about this 'foreplay' in the honeymoon suite, I just figured it was his usual style - his books seem to do that - they usually go about one third the way through before the guts of the story gets kicked off.
  
  But this one is all about this difficulty the couple are experiencing with the sexual act. And, as always, he makes it interesting by way of background, telling about their relationship with each other and the people in their lives.
  
  We're reading this together, Jeff and I, and I think we've got two more sessions with it before we're done.
  
  I cannot say it's my favourite of all the Ian McEwan books, but then again, even though it's nowhere near Atonement, Amsterdam or Enduring Love, I can't say I didn't like Chesil Beach.
  

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• Happy Birthday!! -- Jonathan kav, 13:54:58 06/21/07 Thu
  Happy Birthday Dear Mr. McEwan.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Happy Birthday!! Belated! -- Carly (Wild City Woman), 22:52:22 08/12/07 Sun

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• Chesil Beach - I'm ready to rock! -- Carly (Wild City Woman), 18:52:36 08/12/07 Sun
  Hi there Ian MacEwan and Ian MacEwan fans!
  
  Well, I've got it! Chesil Beach! And I'm ready to rock!
  
  I look forward to every one of the books - and I get them on audio, put them on my I-Pod and listen to them while I'm gardening.
  
  Somebody told me I wouldn't like Chesil Beach (because she didn't). Well, it so happens that 'somebody' often likes books that I don't like and that 'somebody' often dislikes books that I like.
  
  So that's a good sign, don't you think.
  
  I am Carly - a writer (as well as a buncha' other things) and I live in the west end of Toronto, Canada.
  
  I am the owner/host of Wild City Writers' Workshop - there's also a book discussion forum included with those boards.
  
  Feel free to participate if you'd like to - you don't have to be a writer to enjoy some of the forums - especially my gardening journals (I'm so modest). Lotsa' pictures.
  
  I will enjoy discussing the books here.
  
  http://wildcity.proboards14.com/index.cgi
  

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  Replies:

  • Sorry - I spelled it wrong . . . -- Carly (Wild City Woman), 18:54:18 08/12/07 Sun

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• On Chesil Beach - Cannot wait Italian Translation... -- Amy (:)), 15:35:36 08/01/07 Wed
  Dear Mr McEwan,
  I think I can't wait the italian translation of your new Novel...I'll read it in english!!
  I've done in 2005 my graduation thesis about your works, especially developing "Atonement".
  The curious thing is that I'm graduate in Philosophy :)
  And I love you.
  Soon my opinions about new novel!
  Hugs from Italy
  

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• Regarding your novel, Black Dogs -- Edwin M. Yoder Jr., 08:14:23 07/30/07 Mon
  Dear Mr. McEwan, I have read almost all your novels with great admiration and enjoyment. While reading Black Dogs the other day I believe I encountered a writer's slip that you may wish to correct in future editions, though I can't be entirely certain that it is an error. On p 148 (pb edition, US) you list among adversities and encounters, "the Abwehr." I believe you meant to write "Gestapo," as you do earlier on p 133 of the same edition -- that is, as the thugs who brought the vicious dogs in during the occupation. I am sure you are aware that the Abwehr was one center of Army resistance to Hitler and a far cry from the Gestapo and the SS. With best wishes, Ed Yoder.
  

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• Media Request -- HELP! -- Tara McKelvey, 12:47:28 11/24/06 Fri
  I'm working on a book ("Monstering: Inside America�s Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War," June 2006, Carroll & Graf), and I need your help!!! I'd like to use a McEwan quote, but I can't track it down -- anywhere! Who can help? In Slate magazine, journalist Christopher Hitchens writes, "McEwan observed recently that there were, in effect, two kinds of people: those who could have used or recognized the words Abu Ghraib a few years ago, and those to whom it became a new term only last year." Thanks.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Media Request -- HELP! -- FGFM, 22:03:29 06/01/07 Fri
  • Re: Media Request -- HELP! -- mimi, 22:12:08 07/14/07 Sat

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• On Chesil Beach -- Najwa Mounla, 10:30:43 06/25/07 Mon
  I'm reading the book On Chesil Beach and enjoying it. I fully identify with the couple's attitude towards sex and their inability to put into words what they feel or aspire. Yes I had similar experiences becasue I was born in the forties.
  
  But I was wondering if young readers who have not expereinced this behaviour towards sex and relationships
  "lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken" would they still enjoy reading the book?
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: On Chesil Beach -- Bill Abrams, 05:45:53 06/28/07 Thu
  • Re: On Chesil Beach -- Lu (absolutely), 17:29:55 07/09/07 Mon

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• On Chesil Beach -- David, 19:43:54 06/28/07 Thu
  I quite enjoyed my reading of On Chesil Beach. I was fascinated by the degree to which the climax � both literal and literary � has the potential to send the characters in any number of different directions. It wasn�t so much what was going to happen � catastrophe seemed quite certain - but what these characters were going to do with it. I found this very different from Saturday where the constellation of incidents is what appears so unpredictable. The doctor�s predilections are well established by the time the crisis strikes � the reader is more afraid of what the violent pair will do and less expectant of a new revelation in the protagonist�s character. With Florence and Edward you are given a rough outline of contrasting character traits and life circumstances � both within each character and between them � and you can only wonder which force will come to the fore in the crisis. I also found it fascinating how the deciding moment is determined by dialogue, when so little dialogue is developed in painting their characters. On the one level, this might merely serve to explain how it is that they are unable to negotiate a better ending to their wedding day. On another level, I responded to the discourse on the beach as I do to discovering that Hercule Poirot has come upon essential clues on his own and not bothered to let Ms Christie, or the reader, know of them until the final wrap up. The discourse lands on the beach like an unexpected balloon from Oz, replete with colours scarcely recognizable. Finally, I have to register my disapproval of wrapping up the story with a synopsis of the next 30 years or so as a device to register the author�s final statement on the significance of that brief moment in time on the slate-covered beach. I think it could have been achieved by a less distant narrative device. That being said, I felt that if synopsis must be had, it should make some effort to resolve both characters. The lack of even-handedness in the conclusion left Florence in a less-sympathetic light. Nevertheless, a good four-hour read!
  

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• On Chesil Beach a wonderful read -- R. Collins, 12:31:29 04/02/07 Mon
  There seems to be something special in each McEwan novel (and while I haven't read them all) including the newest, On Chesil Beach. Very funny in parts throughout, with striking realism. I was waiting for the trademark impending doom, but this time it was a vivid, believable communications breakdown, disappointment, and eventual painful regret decades later. A beautiful and powerful short novel.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: On Chesil Beach a wonderful read -- nigel, 19:30:25 04/02/07 Mon
    • Re: On Chesil Beach a wonderful read -- R. Collins, 10:46:11 04/17/07 Tue
  • Re: On Chesil Beach a wonderful read -- MMHenning (REPLY TO:ON CHESIL BEACH), 11:48:32 06/25/07 Mon

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• On Chesile Beach Book Tour (92nd Street Y) -- Matt B. Klein (disappointed), 05:42:06 06/08/07 Fri
  Hey Ian, buddy.
  
  I found your time at the Y a bit disappointing. As you said, the book is only about 4 hours long. I had purchased the book and was excited to read it in the upcoming days. Yet, you managed to read what must have been about 40 pages (or 1/5 of the book).
  
  I enjoyed hearing the book read by its author and the pretext added, but come on now, let's leave some of the fun for the individual reader. Thankfully, yet disappointing, I had to recuse myself from the theater so that you didn't spoil your own book for me. I have a suggestion for next time, maybe a bit less reading and a bit more interview/question answer. I am sure every will walk away better for it.
  
  Thanks for all your brilliant writing.
  
  Matt B. Klein
  

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• Historical inaccuracies in 'On Chesil Beach' -- Richard, 12:45:03 04/01/07 Sun
  One review of 'On Chesil Beach' (in the Spectator) said that it was the kind of novel Professor Peter Hennessy, contemporary historian, might have written about 1962. I beg to differ for Peter Hennessy would not have made the two basic historical errors at the outset in Chapter One.
  (1) The radio news and the chimes of Big Ben in 1962 took place at 9 p.m., not 10 p.m.
  (2) The wedding night takes place in June 1962 and there is a reference to Harold Macmillan sacking one third of his Cabinet in the Night of the Long Knives. This event took place on 13 July 1962.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Historical inaccuracies in 'On Chesil Beach' -- Peter Viney, 05:39:49 04/07/07 Sat
    • Re: Historical inaccuracies in 'On Chesil Beach' -- Pristine, 10:51:05 04/15/07 Sun
  • Re: Historical inaccuracies in 'On Chesil Beach' -- peterfranz, 10:25:22 04/18/07 Wed
    • Re: Historical inaccuracies in 'On Chesil Beach' -- peterfranz, 16:00:30 04/18/07 Wed

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• "Disguises" original publication -- Sam Ward, 05:06:56 10/17/06 Tue
  I'm writing a dissertation on McEwan (and Angela Carter) and wondering if anyone can help with a small query. His story "Disguises" in First Love, Last Rites was first published in American Review magazine/journal. I can't get access to it so does anyone know when that was first published? Worth a try. Email me answers and that would be great.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: "Disguises" original publication -- Nicholas Morris, 16:15:08 01/27/07 Sat

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• Saturday -- Phillip, 10:28:26 05/15/05 Sun
  If several hundred pages of cliched characters and obsessive navel gazing by an obnoxious, aging, baby-boomer yuppie--British edition--are your idea of a good read, then I can highly recommend Saturday. The shallow musings of the central character, neurosurgeon Henry Perowne (on everything from his fading squash game, to his spoiled insipid daughter Daisy, to a London demonstration on the impending invasion of Iraq)become so tiresome that, toward the end of the book, when a character called Baxter and a mate show up chez Perowne to terrorize a much anticipated, extended family gathering, I was half-hoping the unexpected visitors would be a fictional British version of the Manson family, and the Perownes.....well you know.
  
  Alas, not to be. Acting on a coded signal from the pompous award-winning, South-of-France-inhabiting (where else!) grandfather poet Grammaticus, the now naked, visibly pregnant, hormonal, on-the-verge-of-being-a-published-poet, studying-in-Paris (where else!) Daisy begins to recite the verse of some obscure 19th century bard. The thug Baxter is laughably overcome with poetic rapture and--even more hilarious--insists Henry take him upstairs to peruse the latest literature on neurosurgical techniques that Henry misrepresents as potentially useful for Baxter's particular mental disease (Hungtington's). Of course our know-it-all neurosurgeon-narrator assures the reader this is credible and perfectly consistent with Baxter's mental condition. Whatever. In Baxter's moment of inattention, Perowne-jeune fils--aka gen-x/y super-blues-boy-Theo--bounds up the stairs and intervenes to save the day. In the ensuing scuffle, Baxter tumbles down the stairs and sustains a serious head injury (as if the poor guy isn't already a head case but, it quickly becomes clear, the author intends to concoct a scenario where Henry can become the "all forgiving miracle worker"). Thus in due course, and in a nice bit of irony and, I might add, a not so subtle racist subtext, Henry is summoned to the hospital to operate on Baxter because the attending anesthetist (also Perowne's squash partner) deems the young African immigrant (witch?) doctor, already present in the operating room, not up to the task.
  
  The author of course makes Baxter's surgery a success and, having now transformed Henry into Jesus of Baxter's Lazarus, accords Henry another 20-30 pages to bore the reader with his oh-so-deep thinking. First while taking Baxter's pulse at bedside (the old fashioned way of course!); then chez Perowne where he and super barrister Perowne-mere engage in cringe-inducing, pre-coitus cooing on the family's greatness and bravery in its time of terror; subsequently, in a bit of solitary post-coitus self-aggrandizement, expansively imagining himself as a benevolent all-giving and all-caring Perowne-grand-pere. Mercifully, the book ends there. The only character who shows any good sense is Baxter's mate Nigel who, in the course of terrorizing the family with Baxter, decides this band of self-absorbed, over-educated morons is just not worth the time and effort and leaves the house in disgust. I couldn't agree more.
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: Saturday -- Robert Marshall, 10:16:47 05/30/05 Mon
    • Re: Saturday -- Jim, 09:40:43 06/16/05 Thu
    • Re: Saturday -- Manuel Richard, 14:27:31 01/04/06 Wed
      • Re: Saturday -- matameo, 01:11:37 02/06/06 Mon
        • Re: Saturday -- Laura Ospina, 06:30:11 03/03/06 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- Mike, 04:28:38 09/01/05 Thu
  • Re: Saturday -- M� Jes�s Hern�ndez, 12:11:57 12/16/05 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- Michelle Stafford, 18:51:41 12/24/05 Sat
  • Re: Saturday -- Alex, 22:59:28 12/29/05 Thu
    • Re: Saturday -- Bjoernikowski, 12:09:18 01/25/06 Wed
      • Re: Saturday -- Noelle Mills, 16:48:06 01/25/06 Wed
        • Re: Saturday -- louise newsome, 17:06:58 01/27/06 Fri
        • Re: Saturday -- Geoffrey (the illiterate), 14:45:15 04/08/07 Sun
      • Re: Saturday -- alex, 18:48:23 01/28/06 Sat
  • Re: Saturday -- butthead, 04:48:14 01/27/06 Fri
  • Re: Saturday - I totally agree -- Josie, 09:09:20 02/03/06 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- Derek, 09:52:28 02/07/06 Tue
  • Re: Saturday - weren't there ANY bad reviews? -- Josie, 06:53:27 02/08/06 Wed
  • Re: Saturday -- Rose Papai, 07:34:27 02/08/06 Wed
    • Re: Saturday -- Derek, 08:34:11 02/09/06 Thu
      • Re: Saturday -- Josie, 03:35:17 02/10/06 Fri
        • Re: Saturday -- Derek, 01:51:19 02/11/06 Sat
  • Re: Saturday -- David, 06:55:46 02/24/06 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- Jim, 20:26:23 02/28/06 Tue
  • Re: Saturday -- gertz, 06:37:28 05/26/06 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- H Tyrrell, 03:27:38 05/28/06 Sun
  • Re: Saturday -- murcutt, 18:51:38 06/08/06 Thu
  • Re: Saturday -- monika, 16:17:29 01/09/07 Tue
  • Re: Saturday -- bookedit, 12:28:07 01/21/07 Sun
  • Re: Saturday -- Craig (silk pajamas), 07:21:09 02/26/07 Mon
  • Re: Saturday -- Justin W (shrug), 17:35:09 03/12/07 Mon
  • Re: Saturday -- George Orwell, 09:03:43 03/13/07 Tue
  • Re: Saturday -- Bruno, 08:09:43 03/22/07 Thu
  • Re: Saturday -- John, 19:22:27 04/06/07 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- Samantha (the Sad), 19:32:46 05/04/07 Fri
  • Re: Saturday -- Bruno4 (gratitude), 02:45:21 06/02/07 Sat
  • Re: Saturday -- Bruno4 (gratitude), 02:47:07 06/02/07 Sat

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• Saturday -- Saturday, 19:45:33 05/30/07 Wed
  I made a mock movie trailer for the novel Saturday for my English class, thought you guys would enjoy it.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUNSr7S7VYI
  
  Note: Some things had to be altered due to the circumstances of our group.
  

  [Edit]
  

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• McEwan - the Chilterns connection? -- Richard Ayres (Hopeful), 11:12:12 05/27/07 Sun
  What is Ian McEwan's connection with the Chiltern Hills? They figure in several of his novels, notably 'Enduring Love', but also briefly in others. The Amersham Socialist Cycling Club? I think not!
  

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• Different editions of _On Chesil Beach_? -- John V. (confused...), 07:45:17 05/25/07 Fri
  I was just wondering what the difference is between the three editions of the book: http://www.ianmcewan.com/bib/books/chesil.html
  
  I'm assuming that it just has to do with what country the book is released in. Where has it been released thus far? Is it available yet in the U.S.?
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: Different editions of _On Chesil Beach_? -- Ryan, 08:13:08 05/25/07 Fri
    • Re: Different editions of _On Chesil Beach_? -- John V., 22:18:01 05/26/07 Sat

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• Enduring Love -- Hayley, 12:55:29 05/16/07 Wed
  Stunning, enthralling and emotionally satisfying.
  Simply the most fascinating and compelling novel since the 18th century.
  Intriguing at every corner and, in my opinion, the perfect novel.
  
  Thank you for providing AS English with such a thought evoking and physically challenging pleasure. I have never looked forward more to an exam.
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- Jonathan, 01:16:50 07/01/06 Sat
  The differences between us and the changes that face us reveal physical and
  emotional expressions of vulnerability.
  
  Even if we avoid ourselves or wear masks, vulnerability won't vanish.
  
  If we have feelings for something or someone
  our vulnerability rejects or connects with its/his vulnerability.
  
  If we increase or decrease from the degree of vulnerability,
  we harden or soften.
  
  Vulnerability is common to us and splits
  us apart.
  
  Polarizes relationships
  between us and
  the rest
  
  .
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- AL, 15:18:44 07/09/06 Sun
  • Re: Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- no, 16:22:18 08/08/06 Tue
  • Re: Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- AJ, 06:39:52 09/02/06 Sat
    • Re: Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- Jonathan Kav, 13:39:53 05/14/07 Mon
  • Re: Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- George.B, 08:00:54 02/23/07 Fri
  • Re: Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- naomi parrish, 04:17:49 05/13/07 Sun
    • Re: Thoughts over Ian McEwan's creation. -- Jonathan Kav, 11:43:50 05/13/07 Sun

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• Importance of the country house in "Atonement" -- Harriet, 06:45:14 02/25/07 Sun
  I'm doing a piece of coursework on the importance of the Tallis family home in "Atonement". If anyone has any ideas on it (or even knows something I can have a look at which will help), I would be enormously greatful.
  Thanks,
  Harriet
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: Importance of the country house in "Atonement" -- Pristine (HAPPY!), 20:18:50 03/02/07 Fri
  • Re: Importance of the country house in "Atonement" -- marwa, 01:21:33 03/09/07 Fri
  • Re: Importance of the country house in "Atonement" -- Hanne, 15:24:22 03/31/07 Sat
  • Re: Importance of the country house in "Atonement" -- naomi parrish, 04:15:09 05/13/07 Sun

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• amsterdam -- Maria, 14:20:03 05/09/07 Wed
  I am currently preparing essay on the theme DEGRADATION OF VALUES in Amsterdam and I need help. If anyone has something to say on this theme , please do it, I would appreciate it!
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Saturday -- Ersel, 13:47:51 05/08/07 Tue
  Hello,
  
  I wonder if anybody knows where Henry Perowne exactly lives and which way he drives through london. I need this information for a presentation in my english class.
  
  Thank you for your help
  

  [Edit]
  

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• McEwan's novels -- Kaye, 20:02:29 06/29/06 Thu
  I decided to read McEwan since he is on many current reading lists. I have read three of his novels now - Saturday, Atonement and Enduring Love. Overall, I enjoyed the stories, but I found all three plagued with the same problem - too many words! Slogging, plodding through verbage and minutiae made me angry and detracted from the story. Why don't the critics mention this tendency toward verbosity?
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: McEwan's novels -- Pristine, 04:02:35 07/04/06 Tue
    • Re: McEwan's novels -- Sara, 08:46:53 08/27/06 Sun
  • Re: McEwan's novels -- Morten, 06:03:19 07/09/06 Sun
  • Re: McEwan's novels -- Mark, 10:57:23 07/17/06 Mon
  • Re: McEwan's novels -- flowr6powr, 14:15:43 05/06/07 Sun

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• Florence -- Giselle, 06:55:35 05/02/07 Wed
  I just finished On Chesil Beach. It was satisfying to find out how Edward's life turned out. But I'm dying to know what happened to Florence. Does anyone have any theories?
  

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• Saturday -- Julie, 08:49:08 04/24/07 Tue
  Hey,
  
  I´m wondering whether McEwan is mixing different genres in Saturday, just the way he did it in Enduring love. Does anyone think so ?
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Former Moroccan student -- Bsaithi Omar, 13:56:07 04/06/07 Fri
  I write to say hullo to Mr McEwan.I do not have his personal email address so I send it here.I was a student of his back in 1981 in Fes university, Morocco. I came upon the site by chance.Of course I know he will not remember me but I would be glad if the message reaches him.At present I am a professor of English/American literature at Oujda university, Morocco.
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: Former Moroccan student -- Pristine, 10:49:27 04/15/07 Sun
    • Re: Former Moroccan student -- omar, 12:54:40 04/20/07 Fri

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• Review articles -- Flotsch, 08:36:12 03/10/07 Sat
  Is there any change to get hold of some of the reviews on The Innocent. They've been published mostly in 1990 and are not available on the web pages of the newspapers like guardian and time etc. Any idea where i can get them?
  Thanks for advice,
  Florian
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: Review articles -- KKelly, 15:42:04 04/14/07 Sat

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• Atonement -- Dr Stephen Brodsky (clinical), 07:34:26 04/11/07 Wed
  Having just read Atonement, I'm struck especially with McEwan's moving reconstruction of Robbie's retreat to Dunkirk. Military fiction is always a minefield for authors who haven't experienced war or military service, because of the mass of technical knowledge required. In the final chapter Briony is --- in this limited sense --- the author's apparent persona. She (he?) points out her pains to get the details right, to avoid what might otherwise be howlers for an informed reader.
  One that remains is Robbie's sight of a platoon of Welsh Guardsmen headed Dunkirk, led by a 2/Lt, marching with rifles at the slope and arms swinging --- i.e., as if they were drilling on a parade square. This is virtually out of the question: (1) If marching in "drill" mode, as is implied, their Guards pace would be only 116 paces per min, slower than the standard 120. (2) At the slope, they wouldn't make it more than a mile or so without rest. Even with a regular "Change Arms," their arms would go numb and elbow joins would ache. Troops NEVER carry their rifles at the slope in field conditions. They would carry them slung or ready at the port. (3) Also with fear of strafing, they would move in standard "ack ack formation," each rifle section on alternate sides of the road, with men at 5 yds interval (assuming that the author intends to show them as thoroughly well trained and disciplined troops.) The platoon commander would most probably follow the first section. (Photos of troops marching in three ranks are always taken behind the lines.) There would be no effort to keep in step, and they would cover 3 miles in the hour, taking a ten-minute break after each 50 minutes. (That, of course, is under ideal conditions in training. Even a platoon of Guardsmen might be forgiven for less punctilio on the way to Dunkirk.)
  Nontwithstanding my nitpicking,Atonement is a magnificent achievement.
  

  [Edit]
  

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• The Child in Time: happy or sad ending (SPOILERS) -- Pristine, 04:24:34 03/03/07 Sat
  I've just finished The Child in Time, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I'm a little confused--if that's the word--about the ending though. Does Stephen's new baby die? It would appear at first that the baby does come back to life, but then, the final sentence about Julie finally feeling the baby at the end (when the midwife comes) is just too abrupt. ("And it was in acknowledgment of the world they were about to rejoin, and into which they hoped to take their love, that she reached down under the covers and felt.")
  
  In my 2006 Vintage edition, I actually finished reading that sentence and turned the page, only to be shocked that it was blank, that it was the end. Abrupt, as I said. So, did the baby actually die?
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: The Child in Time: happy or sad ending (SPOILERS) -- rog, 18:23:58 03/03/07 Sat
  • Re: The Child in Time: happy or sad ending (SPOILERS) -- zsosz, 10:45:07 04/09/07 Mon

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• On Chesil Beach -- Simon (Happy), 05:31:33 04/03/07 Tue
  I have just finished reading On Chesil Beach and it is a wonderful read that I would recommend to anyone. On Chesil Beach is a much more accomplished book than Saturday which I was critical of on this forum last year, but this author is over and above. The prose is beautifully written and I now want to read "Enduring Love" which I have heard should have won the Booker Prize. Thank you.
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: On Chesil Beach -- Pristine, 06:11:01 04/04/07 Wed
  • Re: On Chesil Beach -- Nina, 10:48:08 04/04/07 Wed

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• Saturday -- Martino, 01:48:48 05/19/06 Fri
  Hello everybody! My name is Martino, I am an Italian student. I took my degree with a thesis about McEwan's Saturday, so if you need a hand about this book, feel free to ask me any question. I can also you send via e-mail some chapters of my thesis, if you need it. write me! martins999@libero.it
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: Saturday -- eleonora, 07:58:38 06/08/06 Thu
  • Re: Saturday -- D. Williams (Henrey Perowne), 01:11:59 04/04/07 Wed

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• The Child in Time -- Johanna, 03:06:10 02/13/07 Tue
  I have to write an essay about The Child in Time. Any ideas about a thesis or topic? I would be very thankful of your help!
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: The Child in Time -- roger, 21:15:42 02/16/07 Fri
  • Re: The Child in Time -- Pristine, 01:12:10 02/18/07 Sun
  • Re: The Child in Time -- Lorraine, 04:35:02 04/03/07 Tue

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• help needed -- Irini, 01:17:06 03/28/07 Wed
  Hi I'm an honours student studying honours in history and one of our essay questions is �How useful is the fiction of [insert author] for historical understanding?�. Ian McEwan is one of the authors suggested and i was thinking that Black Dogs or Atonement could be useful as both deal with the events of WW2. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on the matter?
  

  [Edit]
  

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• enduring love -- pez (: (), 01:56:52 01/16/07 Tue
  can any of you give us (3 A level students)infomation on Joe rose,one of the central charactors in Enduring love?we need it for a college project.Thanks.
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: enduring love -- Me (Being an Irritating Git), 03:04:18 01/17/07 Wed
    • Re: enduring love -- rog, 15:02:58 01/18/07 Thu
      • Re: enduring love -- Jed 4 Joe (incorrectness), 05:35:23 01/25/07 Thu
        • Re: enduring love -- rog, 20:01:00 01/25/07 Thu
          • Re: enduring love -- pez, 15:01:02 03/14/07 Wed

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• Balloon acident based on a true event? -- Justin, 16:54:57 03/10/07 Sat
  I remember seeing some footage years ago of a balloon or blimp accident in which several men tried to keep a balloon grounded, but as it rose several held on and eventially fell to thier deaths. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this event or when and where it took place. I remember the footage was black and white, and looked like it took place in the 40's or 50's. Thanks!
  

  [Edit]
  

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• How does religion serve as an excuse to do evil in Enduring Love -- Hannah M, 12:48:51 02/26/07 Mon
  I'm currently writing a coursework piece on The Crucible, by Arthur Miller and Enduring Love (Ian McEwan) in which i must write about the ways that the authors explore whether religion serves as an excuse to do evil.
  
  I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of some books that would address this topic well, I've already had a look at the A-Level Student help section and acquired two books, both of not much use to me.
  
  It would also be greatly appreciated if people could tell me their opinions on the theory that; Jed Parry's mental condition justifies his action, or whether his relgious beliefs does.
  
  Any help would be much appreciated,
  Thanks,
  Hannah
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Utopia and Dystopia -- Oli, 08:25:38 02/24/07 Sat
  Hello
  I'm writing a coursework on the theme of dystopia and utopia in McEwans work. I'm rather stuck, obviously 'Child in Time' deals with Dystopia. I wondered whether it could be argued that the Protagonist of 'Saturday' inhabits a utopia lifestyle before the intervention of Baxter.
  Could anybody be a hero and offer me an opinion, some direction or recommend any secondary reading.
  Many Thanks
  Oli
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Essay on time in The Child in Time -- Johanna, 06:33:07 02/21/07 Wed
  Hey! I finally found a topic, and I'm going to write about time in the Child in time...or "Distortion of time in The Child in Time" ...I want to look at Genette's terms of time and analyze text passages...but the only problem still is I haven't found a thesis yet...can anybody help?
  

  [Edit]
  

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• BBC article: Novelist McEwan discovers brother -- Pristine, 21:22:33 02/01/07 Thu
  This recent BBC article about Dave Sharp, who recently discovered he's Ian McEwan's brother, is interesting...Just sets McEwan's novels in a different light, now that you think about him not being the only child growing up in post-WWII times. Think, for example, The Child in Time and even Atonement where, in an interview, he mentions the influence of his father as a WWII soldier.
  
  --------
  
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6269887.stm
  
  NOVELIST MCEWAN DISCOVERS BROTHER
  
  An adopted brick-layer who traced back his family history discovered his brother was the internationally celebrated author Ian McEwan.
  
  Dave Sharp from Oxfordshire was given away at Reading station by his mother, Rose McEwan, nee Wort.
  
  She became pregnant from a wartime affair with David McEwan, and gave the child away before her husband returned.
  
  When he was killed, Rose married Mr McEwan, and they raised Ian only 15 miles from Mr Sharp's new home.
  
  The novelist was born six years after Mr Sharp, but both men grew up without knowing of the other's existence.
  
  Different lives
  
  Mrs McEwan had put an advertisement in the local paper and her baby was handed to Rose and Percy Sharp at the railway station.
  
  Mr Sharp, now 64 and living in Wallingford, went on to work in the building industry.
  
  Mr McEwan CBE, 58, attended a private school, then a university and later achieved international acclaim for novels such as Atonement, The Cement Garden and Enduring Love.
  
  Mr Sharp, with the help of the Salvation Army's Family Tracing Service, traced Mrs McEwan's children with her first husband before finding his brother Ian.
  
  
  It didn't matter what he did - I'd just wanted to find any other family
  Dave Sharp
  
  He told BBC News: "I'd been told by the Salvation Army that they'd got people together in the past who'd wound up fighting, but I just wanted to know."
  
  Mrs McEwan developed Alzheimer's disease and died in 2003.
  
  Mr Sharp said his brother's fame only became apparent to him when autograph hunters interrupted their first meeting in a pub.
  
  Mr Sharp added: "I'd no idea who he was and to be honest it didn't matter what he did - I'd just wanted to find any other family."
  
  Mr Sharp is now writing a book, Complete Surrender, about his experiences, aided by ghost-writer John Parker.
  
  --------
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Suspense in Ian McEwan's works -- nocashboy, 23:51:45 01/23/07 Tue
  Hey all, I'm new to this forum and am currently writing an extended essay on how suspense is created by Ian McEwan in his works. I'm referring to Enduring Love, Saturday, Atonement, Black Dogs and First Love, Last Rites.
  
  Ideas are aplenty for Enduring Love and Saturday but not so much for the others. Could anyone please give me some suggestions or other points I could discuss about? Thanks alot.
  

  [Edit]
  

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• chessl beach in the new yorker -- roger fic, 08:16:16 12/18/06 Mon
  newyorker.com
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: chessl beach in the new yorker -- roger, 17:42:28 12/19/06 Tue
    • Re: chessl beach in the new yorker -- rog, 17:44:45 12/19/06 Tue
  • Re: chesil beach in the new yorker -- Ryan, 10:09:17 12/20/06 Wed
    • Re: chesil beach in the new yorker -- rog, 10:30:13 12/20/06 Wed
      • On Chesil Beach -- First Chapter -- Ryan, 16:19:38 12/26/06 Tue

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• Modern reference in post war Berlin era -- jadenite, 04:46:26 12/22/06 Fri
  In 'The Innocent' there is a referece made by Glass to the Futures Market . Would this have been a general topic of spech in 1950-ish? It seems such a modern remark.
  

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• chesil beach extract -- Pristine, 09:54:35 12/19/06 Tue
  I can't wait for Chesil Beach to be published. Does anyone know if the extract in The New Yorker is the first chapter or so of the novel? When's the novel coming out, and is Vintage publishing it again? (I hope so! I love their covers!)
  

  [Edit]
  

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• ian in the news -- michele, 11:44:01 12/13/06 Wed
  Author Ian McEwan loomed large in the development of the new social media site www.culturecloud.com. It was reading his book Enduring Love which planted the first seed of the idea that became culturecloud. And later throughout the design of the product, we kept using him and his work as an example to help figure out how the site would work. At one point one of the people on the team said �you realize of course that this is the last time he�ll ever he prominent in any of our tagclouds since he isn�t exactly front page news.�
  
  Well lo and behold, we launched culturecloud 2 weeks ago and in a burst of synchronicity who should be front page news but Ian McEwan. This time for reasons no one wants to get on the front page for: accusations of plagiarism. It didn�t make sense to me�and when I looked into it further I can�t believe the amount of ink already spent on this. This is no James Frey �literary� drama. This isn�t fraudulent publishers trying to publish fiction under the better selling category of non-fiction.
  
  McEwan did research into the work of nurses during World War II. He used the specifics of a treatment scenario and had always acknowledged the research and learning he got from Andrews.
  
  In reading the passage at the center of the controversy it�s a purely factual description of the administering of a treatment. I�m neither an author nor an expert, but isn�t this how fiction is created? Authors have an idea that they want to ground in a particular time and place. They do research; gain knowledge; the details that add credibility and then they create the fictional world of the story with that understanding. Isn�t this how fiction has been created since the beginning? There�s nothing new here, folks.
  
  I would like to understand how this became a story in the first place. I�m sick of non-stories getting massive coverage while real stories go untold. Editors pushing for stories with the veneer of moral outrage. We were duped! Meanwhile the stories that should provoke real outrage go unreported, unsaid. Once it�s out there, you can�t really ever put it away. We�ve given existence to something that never existed. Atonement indeed.
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: ian in the news -- Mimi Choi, 12:21:39 12/13/06 Wed
    • Re: ian in the news -- Mimi Choi, 12:33:16 12/13/06 Wed
  • Re: ian in the news -- finbarr o'connell, 15:48:50 12/13/06 Wed

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• Dear, Defenders of the Faith -- CaseyGlen@gmail.com, 19:31:01 12/11/06 Mon
  FILTH! What an utter disgrace to have an author pass off another�s work as his own. Then to have the gall to spearhead a protest in its earnestness is disturbing. Ian McEwen amazes with this brand of pie-eyed bravado. His diplomacy following the accusation is indefensible. I wish McEwen were alone in his principles but unfortunately, this is not meant to be. If McEwen had any real respect for Lucilla Andrews he would have never been so luminous in his pallid regurgitation. Though he wears the taint of his deed unabashedly and battles back with non-sensical rhetoric, I shall remember Mr. McEwen as �The writer who was famous for someone else�s words.� A title all too original I�m afraid.
  
  If amazement hadn�t yet prevailed enough, shame on the author-collective for rallying around this man as if he were Arthur�s noblest knight. Just because some of the most revered names in the literary world pay weak homage to his effort means that they are just as proud in perverting their craft as well. Dark days are these when cultural figureheads such as John Updike conspire for the sake of protecting a baseborn ethos. To be honest, I don�t care how bruised Mr. McEwen feels emotionally. What he and his colleagues are trying to moralize is far more damaging to writers from all corners of time.
  
  Here is a small hint for your typical accomplished non-believer. Originality is what makes an artist who that person is and decides why their offering is special in either enlightening us, reviling us, entertaining us, or falling into obscurity. The essence is not however coveted for its ability to copy the work of another. Inspiration is a natural course but to commit a verbatim act artistically shrouded in a guise of invention? Unforgivable. Fear not, there is room for atonement Mr. McEwen. I would like to suggest that you and your righteous clan become cobblers. You might call the shop: Foot to Mouth.
  

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• Copying -- Marky48, 06:29:06 12/10/06 Sun
  I'm afraid you've done more than research Ms. Andrews work. You've directly copied her descriptions and adopted them as your own. Now the question is this: is this Okay? Most say not. I'm afraid as a writer of much less stature than yourself I have to agree.
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Black Dogs -- Stefanie, 14:10:07 12/04/06 Mon
  Hello!
  
  I am from Germany and I am going to write a term paper about the topic "The significance of the black dogs in Ian McEwan's Black Dogs".
  Does anyone know literature (apart from the bibliography published on his website which mainly includes short articles) dealing with this topic?
  
  Best regards,
  Stefanie
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Saturday -- Simon, 15:34:11 12/03/06 Sun
  I read "Saturday" and although the author is clearly intelligent, he is also clearly very ignorant. He spent 3 years researching neurosurgery and wrote so tediously about the subject, yet he clearly did little or no research about mental illness. In one of the last pages of his book he dismisses all people with mental health problems as being people to avoid and implies that they are all like Baxter. Living with mental illness is very difficult and many people reading "Saturday" are likely to be influenced by what he says and be less compassionate and understanding towards people with mental health problems. His thoughts are not those of an intellect but those of an arrogant child.
  

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• Enduring Love and Saturday -- Will, 22:58:46 07/18/06 Tue
  I am comparing two of McEwan's novels, Enduring Love and Saturday, for a school essay. I'm finding it difficult to make connections apart from the obvious- random events changing lives. Can anyone think of any other connections??
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: Enduring Love and Saturday -- Morten Jensen, 05:58:01 07/22/06 Sat
    • Re: Enduring Love and Saturday -- Rhiannon, 10:13:10 11/30/06 Thu

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• plagiarism -- Rina Tzoref, 00:34:41 11/29/06 Wed
  I've just read your denial of plagirism regarding your book Atonement.
  
  If, as you say, Andrews was your "inspiration" and influenced your work so strongly, you should have ACKNOWLEDGED HER CONTRIBUTION IN YOUR BOOK!
  
  What happens to nowadays authors? are they so greedy and miserable that they are afraid to acknowledge anything?
  
  I bet you won't put this message on the board....
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: plagiarism -- Pristine, 04:37:38 11/29/06 Wed
  • Acknowledgments -- Ryan, 07:39:04 11/29/06 Wed

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• Guardian article- borrowing -- Robert Reinhard, 08:26:50 11/28/06 Tue
  Dear Mr. McEwan if you read these- I'm sorry to see that newspapers are writing about your work(which I've always admired) in this way- imagine what they would say
  if the Waste Land were published today!!
  RJR
  

  [Edit]
  

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• Saturday: Character List -- Jim Haynie, 17:16:31 11/24/06 Fri
  Does anyone have a Character List?
  

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• painting -- Anthony Walsh, 04:03:57 11/22/06 Wed
  Who has painted a picture of Ian Mcewan with some magpies in it. Its hard to describe but very important that I find out.
  

  [Edit]
  
  Replies:

  • Re: painting -- Rob Bakewell (joyful), 08:21:38 11/24/06 Fri

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• Psychopolis -- Emily (using this in an essay), 02:01:10 11/21/06 Tue
  any views or opinions on the narration of this short story? I am using it in my essay question "how two different forms of narration help to develop these stories, and what sort of different impacts the narration creates."
  

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• Atonement -- Sophie, 09:16:00 11/15/06 Wed
  I am doing my English coursework on Atonement and why we get robbie's opinion of the sex scene...why not only Briony's? i have been told i need to include information on metafiction aswell if you can help me on the writing or the metafiction, then please write back, im very confused???!!!???!!!???!!!
  

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  • Re: Atonement -- Gesa, 10:49:53 11/15/06 Wed

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• Book Group Member -- Carol, 09:48:05 11/15/06 Wed
  Our book group is curious about Rose Blanche. In the US, Rose Blanche's text is attributed to Gallaz and Innocenti with the English translation by Martha Coventry and Richard Graglia. There is no mention of McEWan. Can someone tell us what his association is with this book?
  

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• the innocent -- stephan, 05:47:56 11/07/06 Tue
  I have spoken about the german Liebling is correct Libling is not.
  Why is there no debate about this book
  Did anyone like it?
  

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• german -- stephan, 10:44:20 11/06/06 Mon
  I have just read 4 of Ian's books
  I was struck at the incorrect german in " the innocent"
  Liebling is correct Libling is not and a couple of other examples I can give if needed.
  Is this intentional?
  Maria does speak good german so why get the spelling of some words wrong?
  

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• McEwanish Style -- Sara, 08:43:32 08/27/06 Sun
  Last year I let my English teacher read a tale I had written. She asked me if I had ever read anything by an American writer called Ian McEwan. I told her I hadn't. She told me that she thought that my style was similar to him and lended me "The Cement Garden".
  I don't know what my style is like, but now I have become a fan of McEwan I take it as a great compliment!
  
  Sara from Italy
  

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  • Re: McEwanish Style -- Giorgia, 08:11:28 09/03/06 Sun
  • Re: McEwanish Style -- stephan, 10:34:52 11/06/06 Mon

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• ENDURING LOVE -- mbi (!!!!!!!!!!!ARGHHH), 07:32:52 09/30/06 Sat
  I have to complain about one sentences of ENDURING LOVE.....chapter 14 page 120 line 9 it says "IN CHINA IT'S POLITE TO BURP AFTER A MEAL".....and that is not true.....IAN...MAKE SOME RESEARCH BEFOR YOU WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT OTHER COUNTRY!!!
  

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  • unbelievable passages in the oeuvre of mr. ian mcewan -- roger fic, 15:10:16 10/02/06 Mon
  • Re: ENDURING LOVE -- Laurie, 06:22:36 11/03/06 Fri
  • Re: ENDURING LOVE -- Diogo, 08:56:08 11/04/06 Sat
  • Re: ENDURING LOVE -- jadenite, 19:46:58 11/05/06 Sun

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• Enduring Love -- Mike Reason (depressed), 03:54:25 10/16/06 Mon
  Right like enduring love was well crap, it was an insult to me as a high profile book reader!!!! go back to do your gcse you suck ian mcewan!!!! yea like times ten and stuff!
  

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  • Re: Enduring Love -- gemma jones, 03:58:36 10/16/06 Mon
  • Re: Enduring Love -- Diogo, 05:24:28 11/02/06 Thu

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• copyrights -- Ana, 02:08:14 10/26/06 Thu
  Does anyone knows and can give an information which agency has the copyrights for Mr. McEwan's novel Amsterdam?
  

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• about daisy in "Saturday" -- Daisy Winling, 07:32:09 10/16/06 Mon
  I am a French librarian and i just read a review (in "livres hebdo" # 658)for " saturday" which was released the 5th october in France.
  At some point depicting the characters, the review says "...Daisy, the eldest, lives in France and is about to publish her first collection of poetry..."
  
  My firstname is Daisy and i am in the process of publishing my first poetry book
  
  Funny...or weird ?
  

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  • Re: about daisy in "Saturday" -- roger fic, 16:43:26 10/17/06 Tue

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• Hot Air? -- Julie, 06:12:06 10/16/06 Mon
  'Enduring Love' begins with the famous balloon accident. Joe, the narrator who is a science journalist by profession, claims that the balloon is not the kind filled with hot air but a helium balloon. Can this actauuly be the case?
  

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• Amsterdam - the ending? -- Rachael, 08:23:00 10/15/06 Sun
  Having just finished "Amsterdam" I hoped somebody might clarify what exactly George's involvement was, obviously he supplied the photographs but his smugness at the end hints at something more sinister? Or is it just me? Forgive me for being slightly drowsy - it is sunday afternoon after all! Please reply with your thoughts on the ending.
  

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• Intertextuality in Atonement -- Neska, 04:28:56 10/15/06 Sun
  Anyone who has anything interesting to say about intertextuality and metafiction in Atonement plis don't be shy... My email is: hagnez@yahoo.com
  

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• MA thesis -- Neska, 05:39:52 09/09/06 Sat
  I'm writing my thesis on Atonment and Saturday. If there is anyone out there who wrote on any of those two books feel free to share you papers or opinions with me. Who knows if I like them I may even quote them. :)
  
  My email address is: hagnez@yahoo.com
  

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  Replies:

  • Re: MA thesis -- Donna Rietbergen (Sad), 13:14:09 09/09/06 Sat
  • Re: MA thesis -- marwa shabbar, 02:06:24 09/10/06 Sun
  • Re: MA thesis -- ronald stewart, 16:27:35 09/11/06 Mon
  • Re: MA thesis -- carole watson, 13:23:41 09/13/06 Wed
    • Re: MA thesis -- thom dickens, 20:21:25 09/13/06 Wed
    • Re: MA thesis -- Neska, 04:26:22 10/15/06 Sun

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• TO marwa shabbar -- Neska, 04:23:29 10/15/06 Sun
  Sorry it took me that long to get back here.
  This message is especially to marwa shabbar!!!. My thesis is on intertextuality and metafiction in Atonment so if you could help that would be awesome. Ths
  

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