A strong 3.5. I avoid short stories because I usually find the endings frustratingly abrupt. I've tried numerous authors and decided to accept I'm not a short story girl. I didn't realise this was short stories and only picked it up because it was Ian McEwan. Well, one of these short stories, As Dead as they Come, really was a runaway 5 stars. Perfection. By far the best short story I've ever read (not that I read that many) and I recommend you borrow this from your library, just to read that story alone if needs be.

There were a couple of others also very good, but there were also a couple not so good, and one which was uncomfortable to read, as it covered incestuous feelings by a father for their daughter. As much as I enjoy and appreciate McEwan's work, and I can always identify it by the sheer quality of prose, I don't enjoy the theme of incest or child sexual abuse, which is often found in his work, no matter how subtle, or in this case not subtle at all.

A collection of stories related to sex in some way. Like previous McEwan I have read they have a "grubby" feel about them.
The first story is about a two-timing man who is emasculated by the nurses he has been seeing.
The second is told from the point of view of an ape who was briefly the lover of an author and longs to reignite their relationship.
The third story comes in two parts and is set in a future in which society has collapsed.
The fourth is about a man who falls in love with a shop dummy.
The fifth is about a father who has sexual thoughts about his daughter.
The sixth I couldn't finish. It was written in a confusing style and I was not sure who the narrator was at various points.
The final story is about an English man in Los Angeles.
As with all short story collections the quality varies. The first story in particular I really liked but most of the others were disappointing. I couldn't grasp the point they were trying to make, if indeed there even was one. Despite this the writing itself was very good. McEwan excels at "grubby" combinations of words.

“Eaters of asparagus know the scent it lends the urine. It has been described as reptilian, or as a repulsive inorganic stench, or again, as a sharp, womanly odor... exciting. Certainly it suggests sexual activity of some kind between exotic creatures, perhaps from a distant land, another planet. This unworldly smell is a matter for poets and I challenge them to face their responsibilities.”

I gather from other reviews here that  First Love, Last Rites is the better collection of early Ian McEwan stories, but I liked this better than most of his novels. I recommend going in with low expectations and then keeping an open mind. Every other story ends weakly: not a great batting average for a 150-page collection of seven stories. Some of the would-be twists will make you roll your eyes.

But McEwan’s prose is as pungent and irresistibly precise as post-asparagus piss, and, with some exceptions, he chooses his material wisely: a divorced father overthinking his teenage daughter’s birthday gift, a painstakingly self-aware ape in love with a self-absorbed celebrity author, an elaborately delusional financier. The final story, “Psychopolis,” about a British man in Los Angeles is especially strong.

I even liked it slightly better than Angela Carter’s  The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, whose influence glares throughout like a floodlight in the whimsical first person voice that many of the stories share, the attempts at a knowingly Grimmsian surrealism, and the half-baked endings.

Od ove zbirke priča sam u jednom trenutku odustao. Priče nisu bile loše, ali, jednostavno, nisam bio raspoložen za njih.

Bizarre. And not in any entertaining kind of way. But fascinating to see his growth as a writer to what he has become, nonetheless.

Second try. Still don't like this guy.

Stvarno ne znam šta je to što me toliko fascinira u Makjuanovom pisanju, ali svaki put mi legne k'o budali šamar.
"Geometrija tela" je zbirka 4 priče (tzv. rani radovi) koja, kao i njegova kasnija dela, za centralnu temu ima disfunkcionalne odnose između pojedinaca koji liče na naše poznanike, kolege sa posla, ili komšije, sa umerenom dozom izvetropirenosti i seksualnom konotacijom. Poslednja priča, Psihopolis, je i najslabija, ali nikako ne kvari sveopšti utisak.
Ova zbirka je pravi pokazatelj u kom pravcu će se kretati Makjuanovo kasnije stvaralaštvo.

Ocena: 4*

well, this was a strange one but not as powerful as some of his earlier "strange" stuff, such as "The Cement Garden." The problem in a short-story collection of weird stories, nothing is shocking after a while and anyone who's read much of Ian McEwan is not easily shocked. I'm glad I read it but there wasn't any particular story I'd like to read again.

I ukratko o utiscima: kako su se price redjale, tako mi je odusevljenje opadalo.
Geometrija tijela i Pornografija su mi super, Psihopolis - razocarenje :/

McEwan writes very disturbing short fiction. Although not as bizarre as the FIrst Love collection, you can still marvel at the way his mind works and the multiple subjects and themes he considers. "In Between the Sheets" is probably the weirdest of all the stories. I hope he will give us another big,big novel like ATONEMENT soon.

Geometrija tela je zbirka četiri priče Ijana Makjuana kroz koje se provlači skoro ista tematika - seks, disfunkcionalnost porodice, izolacija i samoća, ali pre svega patološki odnosi između naizgled normalnih ljudi. Ove priče su nastale pre romana koji su mu doneli svetsku slavu i u njima se vidi ona crta lucidnosti autora i njegova opsednutost naizgled normalnim životom pri čemu se pod prašinom normalnosti (koja se nahvatala na životima glavnih likova) krije izvitoperenost i uma i duše. Ove četiri priče prikazuju patologiju savremenog društva koju samo Makjuan ume da prikaže tako "normalnom" i svakodnevnom.
Ono što dominira pričama jeste Makjuanov stil pisanja - toliko tečan, dinamičan, precizan,... Priče jesu intrigantne i uvrnute, ali svakoj se može naslutiti kraj.
Najbolja priča je naravno ona po kojoj je zbirka i dobila ime - Geometrija tela. Svaka sledeća priča je za nijansu slabija od prethodne, ali po završetku čitanja čitalac ipak ne ostaje razočaran.
Ljubitelji Makjuana će uživati u ovoj zbirki jer ona predstavlja značajnu etapu njegovog razvojnog puta.

Heel weird een beetje viezig. Twee vond ik wel heel goed, de eerste en dead as they come. De andere snapte ik niet zo goed.