Now McEwan has been short-listed for the prize once again this time with his novel Atonement, which is widely acclaimed as ‘the best thing that he has done.’ When in 1998 he won the Booker Prize with Amsterdam, it was widely assumed that it was awarded for his entire mature output, rather than the one short, dark tale that won. Beginning with A Child In Time and continuing through The Innocent, Black Dogs and Enduring Love, McEwan’s fiction has evolved into a warm style that most writers merely dream of. In a very matter-of-fact voice he told of children burying their mother under concrete (The Cement Garden, 1978) and of pickling a penis (Solid Geometry, 1979).īut now the dry humour of those early fictions seems to have given way to a much softer style of writing. When he first came to public notice, in the mid 1970s, many wondered if he was being serious or whether he was merely aiming to shock. It is perhaps unsurprising to learn that Ian McEwan was once described as Ian Macabre. Speaking to Meridian Writing he explains how his father’s experiences of World War II helped to shape the novel and of the sleepless nights he spent worrying that he couldn’t do the story justice. This time his engrossing family saga has been heralded as his best work yet. British novelist, Ian McEwan, has once again been short-listed for the Booker prize.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |