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The Cement Garden | 
 enlarge | Author: Ian Mcewan
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £1.79
You Save: £5.20 (74%)
New (33) Used (21) Collectible (1) from £0.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 6455
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0099755114
EAN: 9780099755111
ASIN: 0099755114
Publication Date: June 5, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Is in perfect condition
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Ewwww.... yucky. In a good way. March 1, 2008
One thing you can rely on with Mr McEwan is that you get something different every time. It's hard to believe this book is by the same person who wrote A Child in Time, Black Dogs and - especially - Atonement.
The claustrophobic atmosphere of a filthy house in the middle of an unbearably hot summer is almost tangible throughout this book. Sometimes I could feel the sticky kitchen floor and smell the rotten food in the fridge. And as for our three key players, the children of this revolting home, they are the most unlikeable, weird bunch you could imagine. A little bit Lord of the Flies, a little bit Wasp Factory, this is not a chocolate box image of childhood, but a relentless dig at the underbelly of a very, very dysfunctional family. Like picking at a scab, you can't leave it alone until you know just to what depths these twighlight zone characters will plunge.
The point is well made. When kids grow up without love or affection, like flowers in a concrete garden, their natural inclination to love, family and bonding can get wildly out of kilter.
Not a pleasant read. But a good one.
 Not that great February 15, 2008
I bought this book following all the great reviews. As someone who runs a project looking after orphans, some who live alone, I thought it would be an interesting read. However I found the characters & setting unbelievable and difficult to relate to. There was little exploration of the children's feelings about their parents' deaths and it seemed more centred around their sexual awakening. The climax at the end was predictable. I won't be recommending this to my friends!
 Disturbing but brilliant September 16, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I thought I was going to hate this - as a keen gardener and lover of wildlife, how could I empathise with a father who intended concreting his entire garden? But the father dies and the children are eventually left to fend for themselves.
Despite being a darkly disturbing novel it somehow manages to grip the imagination and hold the reader's interest. The central story, in many ways so improbable, becomes plausible in the hands of such skilled writing. Ian McEwan portrays the indolence of youth and the hot summer days so vividly that you can hear the buzz of flies and feel the heat rising off the concrete.
In the end, it is easy to imagine how children in such a disturbingly distressing situation managed to slip through the safety net of the authorities.
Whether or not it is an 'enjoyable' read is a moot point but I would urge anyone who has not done so to read it for the sheer thought-provoking brilliance of the writing.
An even darker "Lord of the Flies" March 12, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a dark, disturbing but exhilarating book. It is kind of a turbo-charged Lord of the Flies, except it replaces the youthful adventures of that book with a disturbing twist on the everday and the prosaic. You can tell from the start that there will be no happy ending; as the back garden is covered by a layer of concrete and cement it symbolises an end to a "normal" childhood, and the characters descend into an incestuous "fake-family" with children playing the roles of Mum, Dad and Baby. A well written and compelling read and the shortness of the book means that there is no let up. Brilliant.
Deeply disturbing... dark fiction February 17, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Although The Cement Garden was McEwan's first novel, i have only just got around to reading it and was definitely not disappointed. I have found with some other writers, who i have come to 'late' that going back to their earlier work has been a bit of a let down and that later works, where their style has been more perfected have been much more enjoyable and successful. However, i would not say this is the case with McEwan as i found The Cement Garden to be just as successful as some of his later novels.
This novel very much represents McEwan's style and choice of subject matter which he has addressed throughout his writing. The Cement Garden follows the lives of four children after their father, and shortly after, their mother pass away, leaving the siblings to fend for themselves. As their lives begin to disintegrate and the children become further removed from society, their are passages reminiscent of 'Lord of the Flies' which are both shocking and saddening. I do not, however, wish to give the impression that this is a sentimental novel. McEwan writes, as he does in all his fiction, with ease and an unflinching eye when describing death and more disturbingly abnormal sexual relationships.
While The Cement Garden is a very dark novel, it is also a story about adolescence and the awkwarness of growing up especially in an unconventional household as this one. I found his descriptions of the interaction between the siblings to be both honest and raw but fundamentally troubling.
I found this novel extremely disturbing, but McEwan is such an intelligent and unique writer that he seems to create narratives which we are compelled to read. If you have enjoyed other McEwan novels then do not hesitate to try this one but if you are new to this writer then The Cement Garden gives you a real sense of what to expect from him.
This is definitely a novel that will get you thinking and talking whether you like it or not- a sure marker of great fiction. There are descriptions that will stay with you long after you finish reading.
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