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Article: McEwan's masterpiece
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 10, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 Evening Standard - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan (Cape, 16.99)
IAN McEwan's first two books, First Love, Last Rites and In
Between the Sheets, both published when he was in his twenties, are
still pretty shocking. These are stories about abnormal sex and
sudden violence, often involving children and adolescents, narrated
without any moral qualms and with disturbing intimacy.
A 14-year-old boy describes raping his little sister. A 12-year-
old calmly recounts the drowning of a woman and baby. A man tells how
he abused and murdered a nineyearold girl. And so on. A father is
unfortunately aroused by his 14-year-old daughter and her girlfriend.
There are scenes of bondage and mutilation, sadism and masochism. In ...