Research Catalog

Title

Ian McEwan / Jack Slay, Jr.

Author

Slay, Jack.

Publication

New York, NY : Twayne Publishers, [1996], ©1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 165 pages : portrait; 22 cm.

Summary

• The blurring of the mundane and the horrible, perversions of the ordinary, visceral twistings of everyday life: such is the territory explored in much of Ian McEwan's fiction - works that have brought him not only critical acclaim but also a notoriety that springs directly from the dark and violent nature of his subject matter.
• In such novels as The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) and in the story collection First Love, Last Rites (1975), McEwan has dealt with incest, regression, brutality, perversion, and murder in what has been perceived as a conscious desire to repel and discomfit the reader. One of the primary objectives of Jack Slay's comprehensive, insightful overview of McEwan's novels, stories, and screenplays is to dispel this perception - that McEwan is a fine writer tainted by too frequent ventures into the darkest of psyches. Slay contends that by emphasizing the ordinary within the extraordinary, the normality within the abnormality, McEwan is able to depict the reality of a bizarre and often demented world.
• Slay sees McEwan as not just a fiction writer but a conscientious historian for our times. Slay concludes that McEwan's revealing glimpses into the politics and machinations of interpersonal relationships have exposed the foibles and lauded the virtues of the modern world. His dark portraits of contemporary society speak to the immediate present, illustrating the necessities and the needs, the dreams and the longings of every individual.

Series Statement

English authors series ; 518

Uniform Title

Twayne's English authors series ; TEAS 518.

Subject

McEwan, Ian > Criticism and interpretation

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Ch. 1. Meeting Ian McEwan -- Ch. 2. A Shock into Literature: First Love, Last Rites -- Ch. 3. The Momentum of Childhood Fantasy: The Cement Garden -- Ch. 4. Gorillas, Mannequins, and Other Lovers: In Between the Sheets -- Ch. 5. Danger in a Strange Land: The Comfort of Strangers -- Ch. 6. Warping Fantasy into Reality: The Film Scripts -- Ch. 7. Vandalizing Time: The Child in Time -- Ch. 8. And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Innocent and Black Dogs -- Ch. 9. Looking Forward.

ISBN

0805745785

LCCN

95025615

OCLC

• 33209671
• ocm33209671

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries