A review by tomhill
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan

3.0

Shelve under "not for everyone." Every story in the collection is dark, and most of them are really grotesque as well. You can really tell that McEwan was still experimenting with and figuring out his writing style. I think he is exceptional when it comes to plot and structure, and I think he's a great writer when he wants to be, when his tone is not cold and clinical, as it tends to be in his later novels. The problem I have with a few of the stories is that they feel needlessly transgressive: "Homemade" (all about incest) and "Butterflies" (all about a pedophile) in particular. Their only purpose seems to be to shock, and I didn't care for that. The rest of the stories, however dark and occasionally stomach-churning they may be, seem to be getting at something deeper and are well written and well constructed. My favorite is the title story, as well as "Solid Geometry," both of which are just the right amount of macabre for my taste.