- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (Mar 7 1980)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 033025975X
- ISBN-13: 978-0330259750
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 100 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,239,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
A novel and a collection of short stories by English writer McEwan offer chilling portraits of sexual obsession.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
“Darkly impressive.” -- The Times
“A superb achievement: his prose has instant, lucid beauty and his narrative voice has a perfect poise and certainty. His account of deprivation and survival is marvellously sure, and the imaginative alignment of his story is exactly right.” -- Tom Paulin
“Marvellously creates the atmosphere of youngsters given that instant adulthood they all crave, where the ordinary takes on a mysterious glow and the extraordinary seems rather commonplace. It is difficult to fault the writing or the construction of this eerie fable.” -- Sunday Times
"A shocking book, morbid, full of repellant imagery - and irresistibly readable...The effect achieved by McEwan's quiet, precise and sensuous touch is that of magic realism -- a transfiguration of the ordinary that has far stronger retinal and visceral impact than the flabby surrealism of so many experimental novels." -- New York Review of Books
"His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing." -- The Times
"The Maestro." -- New Statesman
"McEwan has--a style and a vision of life of his own...No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him." -- John Fowles
"A sparkling and adventurous writer." -- Dennis Potter --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
“A superb achievement: his prose has instant, lucid beauty and his narrative voice has a perfect poise and certainty. His account of deprivation and survival is marvellously sure, and the imaginative alignment of his story is exactly right.” -- Tom Paulin
“Marvellously creates the atmosphere of youngsters given that instant adulthood they all crave, where the ordinary takes on a mysterious glow and the extraordinary seems rather commonplace. It is difficult to fault the writing or the construction of this eerie fable.” -- Sunday Times
"A shocking book, morbid, full of repellant imagery - and irresistibly readable...The effect achieved by McEwan's quiet, precise and sensuous touch is that of magic realism -- a transfiguration of the ordinary that has far stronger retinal and visceral impact than the flabby surrealism of so many experimental novels." -- New York Review of Books
"His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing." -- The Times
"The Maestro." -- New Statesman
"McEwan has--a style and a vision of life of his own...No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him." -- John Fowles
"A sparkling and adventurous writer." -- Dennis Potter --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Family Life,
By sainte-carmen (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Cement Garden (Paperback)
A friend recommended this book to me via email while I was on holidays in London. I read it while riding on the Northern Line, and I cannot think of a more suitable setting for this grimy little fable. McEwan is an astonishing writer. Despite the salaciousness of the subject matter, McEwan rarely panders to a reader's base desires. The events in the novel seem unavoidable. McEwan takes a matter-of-fact approach to the pollution that overtakes Jack and his family and succeeds in telling his story.
5.0 out of 5 stars
first-rate nightmare,
By
This review is from: The Cement Garden (Paperback)
This book will hanunt you: it is horrible and utterly believable, every word dripping with the meaninglessness of life and depression and confusion. THe plot is quite basic: siblings trying to keep a family together, but its descent into chaos is a chilling addition to fine literature. It is so vivid that you can smell it. TO reveal more would spoil the readers' discovery of the plot. While I prefer to stick to older classics, this one is truly worth the read. The atmostphere is so realistic and painful, so bleak, which reflects a writing style that is absolutely masterful. Recommended, but not for the squeamish.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Plot-driven novella,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Cement Garden (Paperback)
"The Cement Garden" is one of the early novellas by Ian McEwan, a winner of the 1998 Booker Prize for his novel "Amsterdam". Perhaps there is a reason why this book is not as popular as it might be, given the later-day success of this writer, as indicated by the awards. "The Cement Garden" is a plot-driven story with a great potential which nevertheless has never been exploited. The family of a marriage with four children falls apart when both parents suddenly die. Even here, in the very beginning of the book the storyline is unconvincing. After the father dies from stroke, the mother follows him in short order, apparently from incurable illness. In the very first chapter, the very first page even, when this information is passed to the reader - I wish the author had given some more thought to the actual events. The coincidence of their passing away is too artificial for my liking. Even the dysfunctionality of the family does not ring true. Of four children, only one appears to be sane, and what exactly is the probability that out of three teenagers and one toddler - one will turn out to be an early transvestite, and two others incestuous? The plot itself was bland, everything might be intuited right away. If only there was more to this book that the aforementioned storyline, that wouldn't hurt. Sadly, it isn't the case, as McEwan hints at the upcoming events in a bold fashion. The potential of the tale was not explored, and McEwan seemed to hesitate as to the actual course of the story. Circling around the seemingly unexpected solution to the situation the four children found themselves in, McEwan never dared deliver what he undoubtedly wanted to. This novel was hailed as the second Lord of the Flies (originally written by William Golding), and it just might have been, but wasn't, when all is said and done. In the writing itself, there is no hint that the author would one day win the Booker Prize. Having just closed the last page I have not retained any memory of anything original to the writing style of McEwan. All faults of this book combined together give an impression of a forced work, where everything seems to be stretched and artificial.
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