Books about Ian McEwan

The following resources provide critical analysis or interpretation of Ian McEwan's writing.
Additional criticism is listed on individual book pages,
as well as on the various foreign language pages listed
on the Bibliography & Criticism webpage.

The most comprehensive book of scholarship on Ian McEwan's works -- from his earliest short stories through Amsterdam. Chapters include:

1. Understanding Ian McEwan
2. The Short Stories: First Love, Last Rites and In between the Sheets
3. Fiction and Evil (I): The Cement Garden
4. Fiction and Evil (II): The Comfort of Strangers
5. Change, Dystopia, and the Way Out: The Child in Time
6. Brushes with History (I): The Innocent
7. Brushes with History (II): Black Dogs
8. Science and Fictions: Enduring Love
9. Other Works: Screenplays, the Oratorio, Children's Fiction, and Amsterdam

Includes a brief bibliography of additional criticism.

A must for anyone studying McEwan's work and highly recommended for general readers interested in acquiring a deeper understanding of the author.

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One of the standard works on Ian McEwan. The nine chapters are as follows:

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

The book also includes a selective bibliography and an author chronology through 1994.

A slim volume, but still of value. The ten chapters are as follows:

1. Introduction: The Art of Unease
2. Growing Pains: First Love, Last Rites
3. Sex, Violence and Complicity: In Between the Sheets
4. Keeping Mum: The Cement Garden
5. Screen Tests: Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration, Solid Geometry and The Imitation Game
6. Coming Clean: The Comfort of Strangers
7. In Time of Fear: Or Shall We Die? and The Ploughman's Lunch
8. Back to the Future: The Child in Time
9. Body Blow: The Innocent
10. Feeding the Void: Black Dogs

The book also includes a selective bibliography.

1. an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Enduring Love
2. a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present
3. a selection of new and reprinted critical essays on Enduring Love, by Kiernan Ryan, Sean Matthews, Martin Randall, Paul Edwards, Rhiannon Davies and Peter Childs, providing a range of perspectives on the novel and extending the coverage of key critical approaches identified in the survey section
4. cross-references between sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
5. suggestions for further reading.

This edition of Ian McEwan's classic novel Atonement includes the full text of the novel along with a helpful Reading Guide.

Purchase online from Amazon.co.uk or a wide selection of high-quality Independent Booksellers.

Far more than a simple synopsis guide, York Notes provides a rich introduction to Atonement, its major characters, style, structure, overarching themes, and narrative techniques. Each of these critical approaches are dealt with in detail by Anne Rooney, a former English instructor at the Universities of Cambridge and York and the author of over eighty books, including GCSE and A Level guides.

The glossary and countless sidebar notes are especially helpful for the beginning literature student. Also included are 2-3 page "extended commentaries" on select passages from the novel that highlight McEwan's development of characters, themes, etc. Contents are as follows:

1. Note on the text and synopsis
2. Detailed summaries of the novel's major sections
3. Extended commentaries on select passages
4. Critical approaches (Characterization, Major Themes, Language & Style, Narrative Technique & Structure)
5. Critical History
6. Background (McEwan's life & work, literary, historical, and social background)
7. Includes a glossary of literary terms relevant to the novel and a brief bibliography of additional resources.

View the York Press website for additional titles in this series, or search Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or a wide selection of high-quality Independent Booksellers.

AS/A-Level English Literature: "Atonement"
(Student Text Guides)

Student Text Guides are writtten by teachers and examiners for the specific needs of students of AS/A-level English Literature, whether attempting a coursework assignment or revising for an examination. They should be used as an accompaniment to the novel, not as a substitute.

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A wonderful book devoted to exploring the intricacies of McEwan's Enduring Love. Includes a lengthy biographical chapter and reading/discussion questions. Chapters are as follows:

1. The Novelist
2. The Novel
3. The Novel's Reception
4. The Novel's Performance
5. Further Reading and Discussion Questions

A must for anyone teaching or studying this novel. Great for reading groups, as well, given its low price.

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Includes three sample essays based on the work produced by the author's A-Level classes.

Excellent resource at a reasonable price!

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Chapters include:

1. The Storied Self in Moral Space
2. Setting the Scene: The Postmodern Challenge to the Self
3. Unfolding the Map of Life: Locating the Self
4. Taking Perspectives: Stories of the Self
5. At the Crossroads: The Impact of the Singular on the Concept of the Self
6. Journey's End: Achieving 'At-one-ment'?
7. Conclusion
8. Works Cited

Claudia Schemberg studied English and French at the Universities of Kln and Southampton (1997-2004) and, at the time of publication, is writing her Ph.D. thesis. She works as a lectrice at New Hall, Cambridge (UK).

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This thesis traces the 'metaplot' of Ian McEwan's progress, through his professional writing.

Early in his career, he gained access to elements of his unconscious through free-association, active imagination, meditation and the use of recreational drugs. These elements, which surfaced gradually and piecemeal, include strong feelings associated with the Oedipus complex, difficulties with masculine self-identification, feelings of rejection, unresolved grief, wishes to regress to the latency period of childhood, and sexuality contaminated with anal-sadistic power issues.

McEwan dealt with these themes by creating characters who expressed them through sexual deviations and violence or acted them through to their logical conclusion. Thus he was able to confront previously repressed aspects of his inner life and resolve some of his emotional problems in safety, while availing himself of rich material for his fiction.

The psychodynamic interpretations offered in this thesis depend on a detailed study of McEwan's published work. Their aim is to isolate the separate threads in the fabric of his fiction and demonstrate the maturation and increasing sophistication of his work.

This book supplements Byrnes's previous book on Ian McEwan: The Work of Ian McEwan: A Psychodynamic Approach.

It explores McEwan's Atonement and Saturday, two novels not included in the previous study.

To order the book directly from the publisher, please click on the dust jacket or the book's title.

Contact the Publisher:

Editions l'Harmattan
5-7 rue de l'Ecole-Polytechique
75005 Paris, France

Dr. Christopher Williams
Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden and the Tradition of the Child/Adolescent as 'I-Narrator'
Biblioteca della Ricerca
Schena Editore, 1993

This pamphlet is made available courtesy of Dr. Christopher Williams.