Ian McEwan's Somerset Maugham Award-winning collection First Love, Last Rites brought him instant recognition as one of the most influential voices writing in England today. Taut, brooding, and densely atmospheric, these stories show us the ways in which murder can arise out of boredom, perversity can result from adolescent curiosity, and sheer evil might be the solution to unbearable loneliness. These tales are as horrifying as anything written by Clive Barker or Stephen King, but they are crafted with a lyricism and intensity that compel us to confront our secret kinship with the horrifying.
Ian McEwan is the bestselling author of more than ten books, including the novels The Comfort of Strangers and Black Dogs, both shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Amsterdam, winner of the Booker Prize, and The Child in Time, winner of the Whitbread Award, as well as the story collections First Love, Last Rites, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and In Between the Sheets. He has also written screenplays, plays, television scripts, a children’s book, and the libretto for an oratorio. He lives in London.
Biography
One of the most distinguished novelists of his generation, Ian McEwan was born in England and spent much of his childhood traveling with his father, an army officer stationed in the Far East, Germany, and North Africa. He graduated from Sussex University in 1970 with a degree in English Literature and received his MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.
McEwan burst upon the literary scene in the mid-1970s with two short story collections that highlighted with equal clarity his early predilection for disturbing, somewhat shocking subject matter and his dazzling prose style. Similarly, his 1978 debut novel, The Cement Garden, attracted as much attention for its unsettling storyline as for its stylistic brilliance. But even though his early work was saturated with deviant sex, violence, and death (so much so that he earned the nickname "Ian MacAbre"), he was never dismissed as a mere purveyor of cheap thrills. In fact, two of his most provocative works (The Comfort of Strangers and Enduring Love) were shortlisted for major U.K. awards.
As he has matured, McEwan has moved away from disquieting themes like incest, sadism, and psychotic obsession to explore more introspective human dramas. In an interview with The New Republic he described his literary evolution in this way:
"One passes the usual milestones in life: You have children, you find that whether you like it or not, you have a huge investment in the human project somehow succeeding. You become maybe a little more tolerant as you get older. Pessimism begins to feel something like a badge that you perhaps do not wear so easily. There is something delicious and reckless about the pessimism of being 21. And when you get older you feel maybe a little more delicate and hope that things will flourish. You don't want to take a stick to it."
Among many literary honors, McEwan has been awarded the Somerset Maugham Award for First Love, Last Rites (1976) and the Whitbread Prize for The Child in Time (1987). Nominated three times for the Booker Prize, he finally won in 1998 for Amsterdam. He has also received the WH Smith Literary Award and National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award for Atonement (2001) and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Saturday (2005).
代赵毅衡老师发 —————— 八十年代初,美国大学的创作班开始遍地开花,什么大学都能开一个,请来的老师多半是需要钱的作家诗人。那时候就引发辩论,问大学开这种行当,除了给一些名声可疑的作家诗人们饭碗,给当作家梦的学生一点似有似无的希望最后更加残酷的失望,其他...
评分周末,重读《立体几何》。 《立体几何》描写了一对纠结夫妇,梅茜有些神经质,甚至歇斯底里,渴求男人的关爱,无论是身体还是内心,可惜两方面“我”都未能满足她。小说开头有段精彩的对白: 她摇摇我的肩膀。“先别睡好吗?别让我一个人呆着。” “我就睡在你身边”,我说,...
评分英国大作家麦克尤恩的成名作,《最初的爱情,最后的仪式》,历尽千辛万苦,终于出来了。漂亮的蓝绿色小书摆在眼前。忘了是哪一年,在长安的酒店里,我用一个下午的时间读完了传说中的《立体几何》。此前,做了几年编辑的我已经不看小说了,职业化的厌倦吧。这本书是朋友推荐的...
评分其实还包括译名 这俩都搞得无比小清新。 当然了,封面可以改,但这译名真不知道咋改才能不清新。 起初我是买错了,以为是另外一作家的 就是写自杀俱乐部和失恋排行榜那哥们。 这本小说腰封如是说: 布克诸奖没啥稀奇,诺奖只是时间问题。 鄙夷的鼻哼了一声,就凭借失恋排行榜...
评分采访:小乐 翻译者说 城市画报:麦克尤恩的小说里有些非常特别的、细小的“细节”,比如我总是忘不掉《夏日里的最后一天》中珍妮出场前的笑声。你有类似的“忘不掉”的细节吗? 潘帕:这个问题问到了痛处。最令我挥之不去的,是《蝴蝶》中的一句自述:“我是个长相可疑的人,...
这本书最让我印象深刻的是它对“环境与人物相互塑造”的深刻洞察。这个故事的发生地——那个被作者详细描绘的小镇,简直可以算得上是“活着的”角色。它不是一个简单的背景板,而是具有强大生命力和影响力的存在,它塑造了镇上居民的性格,限制了他们的可能性,甚至成为了他们情感表达的某种隐喻。作者对于地方志和民间传说的引用,非常自然地融入了主线情节,使得整个故事的底色变得厚重而神秘。它让你思考,我们是否真的能摆脱我们成长环境的烙印?那些代代相传的习俗、那些集体无意识的恐惧,是如何潜移默化地影响我们的人生轨迹的?这种对“地域性”的极致挖掘,让这本书超越了单纯的个人故事范畴,上升到了一种对特定文化现象的探讨。它让我对那些看似平静的、封闭的社区产生了浓厚的兴趣,想要去探究其内部复杂的社会动力学,无疑是一部非常值得反复品读的佳作。
评分这本书的开篇就有一种让人沉浸其中的魔力。作者用非常细腻的笔触描绘了一个发生在某个古老小镇上的故事,那种带着潮湿海风气息的画面感扑面而来,仿佛我真的能闻到空气中咸咸的味道,听到远处海鸥的鸣叫。叙事节奏把握得极好,不是那种急躁的推进,而是像慢镜头一样,一点点揭开人物内心的褶皱。我特别喜欢他描绘人物心理活动的方式,那种看似不动声色,实则暗流涌动的复杂性,让人不得不去揣测每个角色的动机。主角的挣扎与迷茫,那种介于青春期尾声与成人世界入口的尴尬状态,写得太真实了。我看着他做出的每一个选择,都能在自己的记忆深处找到类似的影子,这或许就是优秀文学作品的力量——它能跨越时间和空间,触及到我们最原始的情感共鸣。这本书不仅仅是在讲一个故事,更像是在探讨“身份认同”这个宏大主题,在那样一个封闭的环境里,个体如何定义自我,如何与外界既有的期待和束缚抗衡,描绘得入木三分,让人读完后久久不能平静,需要时间来消化那些隐藏在文字背后的巨大情感张力。
评分说实话,我一开始有点被这本书的语言风格劝退了,它不像现在流行的那种轻快流畅的现代小说,反而带有一种古典的、近乎巴洛克式的繁复和华丽。大量的比喻和象征手法穿插其中,初读时需要放慢速度,甚至需要反复咀嚼才能理解其深层含义。但这正是它的魅力所在,一旦适应了这种语调,你会发现作者的文字功力简直可以用“鬼斧神工”来形容。他构建的世界观是如此的自洽和立体,每一个场景的细节都经过精心雕琢,充满了象征意义。比如,书中反复出现的一种特定的植物,它不仅仅是背景装饰,更像是预示着某种命运的走向,这种伏笔的设置,充满了文学的匠气,但却不令人反感,反而让人心悦诚服。我甚至会想象,如果这本书被搬上银幕,那画面一定是极具冲击力的,光影和色彩的运用都会成为叙事的一部分。对于喜欢深度阅读和文字美学的读者来说,这本书无疑是一场盛宴,它要求读者投入心力,但回报的,是精神上的极大满足。
评分这本书的结构处理非常巧妙,它采用了非线性叙事,时间线在过去、现在和主角的内心独白之间不断跳跃、重叠。刚开始看的时候,我甚至需要拿张纸来梳理一下人物关系和事件的时间顺序,因为它毫不留情地打乱了我们习惯的阅读逻辑。但这种看似混乱的背后,却隐藏着一种更深层次的“真相”的揭示方式。作者似乎在暗示,我们的人生经验和记忆本身就是碎片化的,只有将这些碎片重新拼凑,才能看到事件的全貌,特别是那些被时间掩盖的、痛苦的真相。这种叙事上的大胆尝试,使得阅读过程充满了探索的乐趣。每次转换视角或者跳跃时间点,都会带来一种“啊哈!”的顿悟感,让原本平淡的情节瞬间充满了戏剧张力和新的解读空间。它考验读者的耐心,但绝对回报以智力上的极大愉悦,它在挑战我们对故事“应该如何讲述”的既有认知。
评分我必须承认,这本书的氛围感是压倒性的,它弥漫着一种挥之不去的、难以名状的忧郁。这不是那种廉价的、矫揉造作的伤感,而是一种根植于人物命运深处的、关于“失落”和“错位”的深刻体会。故事中的人物似乎都活在一种永恒的黄昏之中,他们渴望连接,却又不断地因为自身的缺陷或外界的巨大压力而彼此疏离。特别是几段关于“回忆”的描写,那种模糊不清、带有滤镜的过去,与当下残酷现实的对比,让人感同身受。作者处理情感的克制也令人印象深刻,很多时候,最强烈的情绪是通过环境的描写、一个不经意的动作或者一句未说完的话来传达的,留下了大量的空间供读者自己去填补。读完后,我感觉自己像是参加了一场漫长而压抑的仪式,结束后虽然感到疲惫,但内心深处却得到了一种奇特的净化,仿佛那些潜藏在心底的、说不清道不明的情绪,终于找到了一个可以安放的容器。
评分太纯真,初恋和临终祈祷,应该再搞一本Last love first rites 呼应一下
评分学校一条街10块钱买的盗版翻印书质量可以,没仔细读扫过几篇,躁动的青春啊 以前麦克尤恩很火那阵译文还是书城有过不错的介绍好像还节译了,可能是中文译本出版之前那时候。那就不可能是译文了那个时候已经停刊了,不过译文肯定作过专题的,拜《赎罪》所赐的尤恩热潮啊。读译林《时间中的孩子》是什么时候的事了,隐约还记得故事大概,那个时候他还被叫做“恐怖尤恩”。《在切瑟尔沙滩上》怎么说呢,译文登过前半的后来在复旦旧书店八块钱买到本九成新英国精装版,无绝人帮我搬家的时候还特意感慨了下不知道潜台词是啥表情很微妙。。。最喜欢《水泥花园》,多半是夏洛特更斯布电影的关系,她舅舅Andrew Birkin拍的。对这作家谈不上喜欢。不喜欢《赎罪》电影。
评分看了柴静写冯唐的那篇文,里面提到的就是这本书嘛!口素我就是搞不懂作者是要表达神马啊啊啊!!!就是一个又一个的心理变态么???
评分写的非常好,有些故事让人惊讶的同时又有一种of course的恍然大悟感。故事参差有高低,但整体有一种对世界、人性的恶意,对世界、人性的无情攻击。然而我们无法反驳,因为,of course..
评分Ian likes to write about sick bastards, but deep inside who isn't. God, I wish i could be as simple as those who live without feelings.
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