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Article: Saying sorry; New fiction.(New fiction from Ian McEwan)('Atonement')(Review)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 22, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Ian McEwan's new novel, about the real and the imaginary, is his best yet
IT IS rare for a critic to feel justified in using the word "masterpiece", but Ian McEwan's new book really deserves to be called one. We have known for a long time that he is a virtuoso technician, with almost too much facility for his own good. "Amsterdam" may have won him the Booker prize for fiction in 1998, but it was thin and irritatingly clever-clever. "Atonement", which is also on this year's Booker shortlist, is a work of astonishing depth and humanity.
Mr McEwan has certainly been thinking about the pitfalls of being seduced by one's own literary powers. His new heroine, ...