I saw the movie version of The Cement Garden in the theater when I was fifteen, and completely freaked out. For years afterwards it stayed high on my list of all-time favorites. I haven't seen it again since then, though, so I have no idea what I'd think now, but at the time I just thought it was the greatest thing ever. Incest! Allegory. Incest! Foreigners! Incest! Cement. Incest! Adolescence. Tragedy! Incest! What more do you want from a film at age fifteen?Reading this book was definitely col...

Recipe for a lightweight Cement Cake à la McEwanTake Lord of the Flies, and mix it carefully with Flowers in the Attic. Once you see that the ingredients have formed a foamy, light and creamy texture, with the young characters wiped out in generic sweet-sour blandness, you put the cake in the oven, and wait for sixty minutes, just enough time to read through the novel.Once the plot has been baked, you make sure to add incredibility and incest as additional spices, end it in an predictably wannab...

Will ever these tales of incest cease? Well, my true guess is no, for they sure do captivate (lookin' atchu V.C. Andrews [...R.I.P., girl]!). Another case in point: this early novel from major Nobel contender (I'm certain of this, right?) Ian McEwan. "The Cement Garden" is considered by critics to be "Lord of the Flies"-like in its plot structure and because it contains young protagonists. But I must venture to say that it mostly resembles an early version of Bertolucci's "Dreamers" (of course b...

This was McEwan’s very first novel, which earned him the fame and the nickname Ian Macabre. It was narrated by a 15-year-old boy on his life with his three young siblings in a secluded big house shortly after the death of both parents. They grew up in an isolated and dysfunctional family. The lack of adult supervision and sexual experiences, and the yearning for kinship while desiring individual space, led them to explorations and experiments that beyond inexplicable. It was haunting and disturb...

The Cement Garden, Ian McEwanThe Cement Garden is a 1978 novel by Ian McEwan. In The Cement Garden, the father of four children dies. Soon after, the children's mother dies as well. In order to avoid being taken into foster care, the children hide their mother's death from the outside world by encasing her corpse in cement in the cellar. The children then attempt to live on their own. The narrator is Jack (14 at the start of the book, becoming 15 later), and his siblings are Julie (17), Sue (13)...

With Ian McEwan you will never read two novels with a similar theme. What you will read are novels that are unusual, bizarre, and often macabre. You will meet interesting , well-developed characters, often not ones you would choose for friends. You will also read some of the best prose in current literature. All this is why I am such a McEwan fan and why this was my 12th novel by this great British writer.Children grieving for their recently deceased parents, while not a common theme, is not unu...

Will it reflect badly on me if I say this book isn't sordid enough to be entertaining or truly affecting? Considering how unsettling and uncomfortable it already is?Four siblings, ranging from 6 to 17, who have too close for comfort of a relationship (if the word "incest" flashed in you mind, you are correct - it is not a spoiler, the "action" starts on page 2), witness both their parents die within the weeks of each other. When their mother dies, they make a decision to bury her in the cellar a...

Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden is, quite clearly not for everyone. There are several severely disturbing incidents throughout the book that might make some readers wonder why they bought it, and where is the nearest bookstore to return it? There are other groups both of a religious/fascist nature (the two are not always mutually exclusive) that might have it pencilled in on their "things to burn" list. In the hands of a lesser writer, much of this book would seem vulgar. However, in McEwan's cap...

This book is fucked-up, sick, and creepy...I loved it. I love McEwan's style. He doesn't clutter his writing with unnecessary words, yet he says so much. His writing is sharp and clean. He is so good at invoking a specific mood at the very beginning of a novel, and then continuing to give the reader that same feeling throughout. Then, just when you're sufficiently creeped out or unnerved or whatever it is you've been feeling, it gets even more intense. The book is a first-person narrative told b...

Concrete Civilisations Ian McEwan’s Cement Garden left me with the same disquieting feelings I had after reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In fact, I became aware of their resemblance right from the beginning, not in the sense of an imitation, of course, far from it, but in the choice of the theme and the way to develop it. Both books argue about the famous nature versus nurture, revealing how thin the shell of civilization is, how easy social conventions are forgotten when the lin

3.5*, rounded up. This is quite dark and odd, which I like, but it felt a little incomplete. It's a very short book, yet even so the narrative lacked some necessary urgency. Still, it's a compelling read, and McEwan is a wonderful stylist, though in this book he's more restrained and straightforward than in Atonement.

McEwan's first novel, published when he was only 30. (It was preceded by an even more shocking collection of short stories, "First Love, Last Rights", https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....)A profoundly disturbing, but very well written book. Had I realised the true nature of it, I doubt I would have read it, and somehow the fact it is told in such an unjudgemental way almost makes it worse."I did not kill my father, but I sometimes think I helped him on his way", is the opening sentence. It

Told in straight-forward sentences, this first novel reads like a very good writer’s memoir. I love the deep truth of some pretty extreme behavior by a family of orphaned siblings, which portends the even more sophisticated truths of oblique human behavior in later books. There is none of the lyricism or solid chapters of inner dialogue that characterize McEwan’s style today. I’m glad I didn’t start with this book, because now that I am an ardent fan, it was even more interesting to see where he...

Q: Before his first heart attack he had intended to build a high wall round his special world. (c) Both grass grows and paint dries more entertainingly than this plot goes about its squiggly and 'very special' business. A real chore to read and a strike against Ian McEwan's books. Had I not had a stellar experience with his Sweet Tooth (my fav!) I would've been tempted to classify him in with the hordes of authors who can't really write and so go on to be as shocking as possible. Mind it, I wasn...

Well..! That was.. Hmm, weird? Yes, weird.And I'm not talking about that 'taboo' subject, that was actually not a focus in the book. Right? We just got glimpses but never full-on (view spoiler)[until the very last scene and even then it wasn't like graphic (hide spoiler)]The only thing I will say about this is it destroyed my appetite! I actually felt bile in my mouth. Not the taboo part but the (view spoiler)[burial and those cellar scenes. (hide spoiler)]It was a good thing the book was short

I'm not surprised that Goodreads recommends J.M. Coetzee to readers who enjoyed this, because my experience of J.M. Coetzee was similar to my experience with this book, which was "Yes, a very good writer but ewwwwwwww!"I have not read Ian McEwan before, and if all his books are like this, I'm unlikely to try him again. I don't mind a disturbing book with unlikable characters who do disgusting things, but you have to give some reason to want to keep reading besides just admiring how skillfully th...

When I read the description for this book I expected to get a twisted, disturbing tale of incest. What I actually got was a very well written (mildly uncomfortable) story about four siblings who are lost and without an adult to set boundaries.And really, instead of shocking me I was fascinated. It's short, sharp and packs a punch. I am however, highly annoyed with the ending. THAT WAS NOT OKAY. I like things to be wrapped up, I like to KNOW what happens next and not be left to come to my own con...

The author’s debut novel – in fact more of a novella, I read this book due it being included in the 2019 Mookse Madness tournament.The plot of the book is discussed elsewhere and best summarised by Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cem...My brief observations .....I found it difficult to relate the book to McEwen’s later writing which can, in my view, range from the brilliant (Atonement) to the far too frequently annoying (less any particular book than aspects of his writing).Probably t...

Ugh, Ian's got me hooked on his expressive writing style. The kind that draws you into the book as if you were sitting next to the characters in their living room. Then, with your defenses down, he sucker punches you with the unspeakable!