REVIEWS
In war’s long shadow, what have we learned?
Discomfited is the best word to describe Ian McEwan’s fictional world. He is the master of the half-surprise, the nightmarish possibilities of the seemingly common character. Mixed with a solid grasp of history and his characters’ places within its tumult, this psychological acuity is his main appeal. Some call it manipulation, others see it as skilful suspense.
Nevertheless, his novels do speak of a world easily recognisable and yet unerringly disturbing: the English gardens and war tragedies of, the political turmoil in, the hauntingly silent, fork-rattling tragedy of . Few can describe better what it felt like to have seen the history of the last half-century unfolding around them.
