The Cement Garden, by Ian McEwan

Started 5/17, finished 5/18


I'm not going to say much about this one. Nothing was said to me before I started it, and that's all that should be said. You should pick it up and let it happen to you. Finish it in one day, one sitting preferably.


All I'll say is that it's about children in a situation no children should be in.


McEwan is a genius. This book is a cross between J. D. Salinger and John Steinbeck, so powerful and mournful that you wonder how we as a species ever made it past the first generation. I've now read three by him, and I hope I can eventually read everything. I think every one of them inspires me to write better and to think differently. I can't wait to read his new work, On Chesil Beach.


Read it.


Book #13 will be The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie