Review of 'The comfort of strangers by Ian McEwan'

involved with Roger shows one of many weaknesses in the novel. Roger’s shady character and his weird story about how his father was very strict and how his jealous sisters made him eat chocolate so that he would get into trouble with his father along with other things should have kept Mary and Colin away. Stories like this one, which require the reader to suspend disbelief as the actors venture further and further into the abyss are extremely hard to pull off, so it's not surprising that McEwan doesn't quite manage it. An author can get away with making his characters naive, but at the point where the reader is yelling at them and calling them idiots for following along with the novel's plot, that author has lost control of his own narrative. A big complaint that reviewers have had with this novel or rather this ‘short story’ is that the author works around taboo issues meaning he may talk about them for a moment or two and then ignores them. Another problem which links onto this is that many times the author builds up the story as something really dramatic is going to happen and then nothing out of the ordinary happens for example when Mary jumps in the water you would think that one of them may drown but it turns out to be something just ordinary. I think this has a negative effect on the reader as well as the fact that sometimes the reader is left to ‘fill in the gaps’ themselves when we are not given enough detail on the characters or the storyline. There is no real solution at the end of the novel. Another problem with the novel is how Mary and Colin’s sex lives suddenly become great again after meeting Caroline and Roger. Another similar instance is when Roger punches Colin in the stomach for NO reason. The setting of the novel, which is Venice, is not really used well by Ian McEwan either as Venice has hundreds upon hundreds of restaurants but amazingly Roger and Mary can’t find one. Some possible positives of the novel are that McEwan as usual uses very descriptive language and the build up is really great.  This however does not take the away from the fact that the novel is rather incomplete and isolated and is probably worth giving a miss. I think it would be best to read McEwan later novels such as Enduring love and Amsterdam as they are the ones which have gained him international recognition. McEwan writing seems to have improved as he has written more pieces. I can say this after having read all of Enduring love and having begun reading ‘Amsterdam’ by the same Author. I don’t think it is very easy to review this novel because it is very short and there isn’t much really to talk about and the rest is up to the reader to read and find out what the key points in the novel are. Rating: ** out of *****.