In Between the Sheets

Not as good as or as provocative as the other short story volume (First Love, Last Rites), but still worth reading...

"In Between the Sheets" was brilliantly written, as would be expected coming from McEwan- his style of writing is the closest anyone can get to Jane Austen- he's like "the" Jane Austen of our time. But after reading "Atonement" which was an unbelievably phenominal "couldn't put it down" read, I was quite dissapointed with "In Between the Sheets" because for being the brilliant writer that he is, these short stories weren't worthy of McEwan. There is a bizarre twist in each of the short stories in this book, and at the end of each story your left 'dumbfounded,' and you cant help but go back and re-read the last page so that you can try to understand what point McEwan is trying to make, but the attempt is useless because I still have yet to make sense of some of these stories. The most confusing was To and Fro- I don't think I'll ever understand that one. However, one of the points I did figure out McEwan was trying to make is that love, lust, passion, and sexuality are all very confusing things (even if it does involve an ape, a dwarf, or a mannequin, and not a real person) that can make a person act not like themselves and even resort to doing something completley crazy. So in short, I wouldn't recommend this book but I would most definitley recommend "Atonement":)

Lo compré con mucha ilusión en la versión en español. Una desilusión. Si bien lo venden como provocador no me pareció para nada. Lo sexual parece hasta artificial. No conmueve, no atrapa. Es la primera vez que me encuentro con algo de este autor que no me gusta casi nada.

I read a lot of books, but I generally avoid the more "literary" authors. There are exceptions, however, and Ian McEwan is one of those. I have enjoyed the other books of his I've read (including Atonement, Amsterdam and Enduring Love), but In Between the Sheets, his early collection of short stories, is merely passable. It is well-written but not a great read.

Whether it is a short story or a novel, my personal preference is more plot-driven stories, as opposed to the plotless, slice-of-life tales that may be more artistic, but tend to be less entertaining. Again, there are exceptions, but this collection is not one of them. The seven stories vary in quality: a couple are decent enough, including a tale of a philanderer who gets a comeuppance from his two lovers and the story of a wealthy man and his obsession over his new mistress. On the other hand, while most of the other stories are not bad, they aren't very compelling either. Only one story, "To and Fro," I found to be almost unreadable (a matter of taste, I am sure, as I'm not much for more experimental fare).

For the most part, this fits my definition of a three star work: while there is little bad about this book, there is also little good. I am willing to admit that the type of writing within is not my usual cup of tea, so your opinion may be different. To me, however, this is a book for only McEwan fans only, and even then, only to see what his early work was like. For others - especially those who prefer more plot with their stories - this is one to skip.

There is little to recommend this slim volume of stories that reads very much like a reheating of the subtle horrors that had such an impact in Mcewan's debut collection, 'First Love, Last Rites'. Once again, the various characters slip, almost imperceptibly into a range of grand guignol predicaments, but the tone is less subtle than in the first collection and the book does not represent much in the way of originality or development from this early phase of Mcewan's early career.