The Cement Garden

You have to like good writing. I've been reading reviews of McEwan by people who've been bored. What this is is great writing. If you only like closely plotted thrillers, McEwan is not for you. I've noticed that people who pan him often can't spell. That, to me, is a giveaway. Even those McEwan books I'm not crazy about are better than most books, and I'm an addict of the written and spoken word. My favorite McEwan book is Saturday, by the way. I liked it so much I had to read it in print. Twice. It's his language, his sly descriptions, the patterns in the stories.

This book was difficult to stick with. The plot was thin at best and never really takes an interesting turn. It was predictable and flat, with characters that are not engaging. I found myself not caring what happened one way or another. I think I finished it out of sheer stubbornness...

Deeply dark and darkly deep. Simple and chilling without going for cheap explicit shocks. Reminiscent of "Lord of the Flies" with more sex and less religion. Well narrated with a just-slightly-menacing tone, although he sounds more adult than convincingly adolescent.

The book started out interesting but it went nowhere and it got there fast. It was plodding and it seemed to have no point. I listen to every book that I purchase through to the end, but it was difficult with this one. And then, when it was over, it came to no resolution and seemed to just "stop" (thank goodness because at the end it got REALLY bad). This is one I plan to remove from my player, delete from my library, and hopefully erase from my memory. My only recommendation is to save time by not listening to this. Any book available has to be better than this.

I like McEwan's work much better now that he's getting out of his kinky phase.

I was disapointed in this book. In my opinion therere was really no meat to the plot. I was left with a feeling of "What was the point."