I'm a big fan of Ian McEwan. I will read anything he writes. Almost always I enjoy the experience. Most of his works are short. Normally I prefer long novels. If I like a story I want more. I want the author to take the story as far as it will go. That's not McEwan. He likes to button things up without getting them bogged down with side stuff. I rarely read short stories. I tend to avoid them. I picked up this book solely because it was written by McEwan. I did not realize it was a collection of short stories. But it was McEwan so I persisted. Almost immediately I was further disappointed.

The first story is entitled Pornography. I was both surprised and put off. Pornography is not a subject that interests me and not something I wanted to read about. Not surprisingly the central character was not someone I could empathize with. To McEwan's credit he put together an arc in a masterful way. It even involved, in some sense, a righteous ending, sort of. Morality kind of wins out. But the ending is also disgusting. Believe it or not we've just passed the high point of this book.

The remaining stories were difficult to follow and easy to forget. I could only read a few pages before deciding I'd rather turn off the light and go to sleep. Coming back to it the next night I almost never remembered what was going on. I always had to go back a page or two to remind myself. I wasted my time reading this book. My advice is to ignore it. And that was just after I had finished another McEwan book which was great – Black Dogs. Read it instead.

McEwan writes so the strange appears normal. The twisted seem acceptable. A dark minded author whose books have an artistic and unique flair.

This collection was a real treat for me, a taster. Some stories were dark. Others were odd, weird and bizarre. They all drew me in for one reason or another.

I shall be reading more from this author.

A set of unsettling short stories

Probably I prefer these ugly and 'perverted' '70s to the '70s described by McEwan in 'Sweet tooth'...
BTW: I read this short stories collection in translation many years ago and I have almost no memory of that first reading
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

El tercer libro de Ian McEwan es otra recopilación de relatos, la mayoría de los cuales ocurre en ese misterioso espacio que son las sábanas. El lugar donde crece el mayor de los amores o el más intenso de los rencores; el lugar donde se da espacio a los deseos más ocultos, o a la satisfacción más estandarizada; o el espacio que da origen a dinámicas y obligaciones que marcan por completo relaciones. La verdad, me pareció una colección de relatos bastante débil y un retroceso respecto de sus obras anteriores. Si me veo obligado a recomendar uno, sería “Pornografía”, donde un promiscuo pornográfo que es víctima de una venganza por su irresponsabilidad sexual.

“Me está poniendo a prueba, pensó. Ella lo odiaba por su timidez, por su pasividad y por todas aquellas horas perdidas entre las sábanas. Le costó muchos años de matrimonio decírselo. Estaba harta de sus experimentos en literatura y de la ausencia de ellos en su vida. Lo odiaba. Y ahora tenía un amante, un amante vigoroso. Y, aún así, el hubiera querido decirle. ¿Te parece bien que nuestra preciosa hija tenga una amiga que debería estar en un circo?".

Really hesitating on the star rating. It’s a firm 3.5, but do I round up or down needs reflection. Have a review three-quarters finished on the way!

Me costó siglos terminarlo. El único relato que no encontré tan aburrido fue el del magnate que se enamoró de un maniquí. Whatever, le tenía más fe a este autor.

Of all the men, the English ones look at their crotches the most.

A collection of short stories that we didn’t want or need; the ugly stepsister of First Love, Last Rites. The stories would start with reasonable momentum but then fade away into nothingness, with some forceful controversy along the way. Rounding up to 3 stars because I love his use of language (more than the actual storylines).

Edit: yeah, look, I can’t deny that this was a 2.

This's exceedingly boring except the hilarious piece Dead As They Come, about a rich man in love w/ a woman who works in a shop or as a brothel window girl...who turns out to be a mannequin. Played so straight but emotional. I had to read it aloud to several people, it was so sad to gross, so endearing to perfectly timed for comedic beats.

That being said, the first story is the only other one of note and yet it's still kinda boring or at least very confusing w/ the wording about who's who and how all the dialogue and inside jokes are in one enormous story-size paragraph. The ending for the time was maybe shocking, but even then I kinda doubt it. I've def read several modern violent stories like it. He just always writes so stuffily British.

I mean, most everything is set in the 1990s but you'd think he was in 1890 in a poor fishing village toured by a rich diplomat most of the time. Lots of subtly creepy dad/daughter relationships, the millionth story I've read about a writer making their character one to moan about being successful or having writers block, something meandering about L.A, Americans and God and sexism that just comes off the totally wrong place for and a lot of stuff I straight up forget even though I just read it.

This a collection of some of the early short stories of the acclaimed British writer Ian McEwan. They show a broad range of literary styles and thematic interests, but McEwan's characteristic prose style (very smoothly flowing sentences and ideas) and deep interest in sexuality is on beautiful display. He is a young writer in these stories, and they are missing some of the gravity that comes in his later works. This is no Atonement. But that is okay, and if you don't go in expecting something life-changing, then it is easy to find reward in these stories.
Of course there are flaws. Some of the stories are a few pages too long, and one, about a post-apocalyptic London, I found felt more like a B-rated made-for-TV Scifi than a modern short story.
Still, for all the youthful mistakes, the literary genius comes through without trouble. Readers of McEwans newest novels (Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach) should have no trouble finding these stories delightful.

En enormt bra titelnovell, två bra, tre halvdåliga och en meningslös. Tyckte väldigt mycket bättre om "First Love, Last Rites".