Lots of icky feelings. All of the stories are disturbing, and well written!

This collection of short stories belongs to the canon of the short story form. It is balanced, witty, and the young man's required fiction read.
How some of you have been disturbed by the dark features of the stories is offensive. boys grow up in a mostly messy period, which McEwan portrays in loving literary art.

Perhaps how the boys of McEwan's collection surmounted a gigantic pressure of hostility and peculiar surroundings serves as a example to children and to those of us who grew up wrong.

Disturbing but well-written

As noted, stories are my chosen path. These examples of eerie early McEwan are notable for structure and shock value, the promise of the latter does diminish the further one proceeds into the book.

Es un libro que me veo en la obligación de recomendar. McEwan con sólo ocho relatos te transporta al lado grotesco y enviciado de la literatura, sin darte opciones. Es una maravilla que te hará sentirte culpable de que te guste, te lo puedo asegurar.

Though not nearly as good as Atonement or Enduring Love, I did enjoy this collection of short stories. Some of them are more on the surrealism-side of his writing, some downright revolting (the story of the quarreling couple and the one about the siblings that get too close) but this more raw type of writing makes perfect sense, considering this was his writing debut.

The story I liked best was the last one, where the boy is made to dress up by his mother. There are some interesting underlying tensions in that story that come out in both the children's interactions as with the adults. I do prefer his longer stories/novels because he does such a wonderful job with character development, which was lacking a bit here. Understandable, considering they are short stories.

you won't see me reading any more of McEwan's works... I've had enough

One of the most disturbing books I've ever read, but laced with glimpses of literary gold.

I'm not sure whether I want to risk exploring any further...

Everything in me wants to give this book more than just an average rating, but I can't. I read the back summary of this book expecting some kind of disturbing, Chuck Palahniuk-esque short story collection within. Honestly I feel a bit baited, because the best stories were the ones described in the summary, and the rest just felt like filler. He had a couple good ideas for the "what happens behind closed doors" theme, but the rest fell short.

4.5*

Pojebane gówno uświadamiające o tym jaki potrafi być świat. Wciągające, lecz nie dla ludzi o słabych nerwach.

why is mcewan so obsessed with incest? lmao stop pls