The Comfort Of Strangers
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in The Comfort Of Strangers for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"As the best young writer on this island, McEwan's evocations of feeling and place and his analysis of mood and relationship remain haunting and compelling."--"The Times"
"As always, McEwan manages his own idiom with remarkable grace and inventiveness; his characters are at home in their dreams, and so is he."--"Guardian"
"His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing."--"The Times"
"The Maestro."--"New Statesman"
"McEwan has--a style and a vision of life of his own...No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him."--John Fowles
"A sparkling and adventurous writer."--Dennis Potter
"Haunting and compelling." -"The Times"
"McEwan, that master of the taciturn macabre, so organizes his narrative that, without insisting anything, every turn and glimpse is another tightening of the noose. The evils of power and the power of evil are transmitted with a steely coolness, and in a prose tha
"As always, McEwan manages his own idiom with remarkable grace and inventiveness; his characters are at home in their dreams, and so is he."--"Guardian"
"His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing."--"The Times"
"The Maestro."--"New Statesman"
"McEwan has--a style and a vision of life of his own...No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him."--John Fowles
"A sparkling and adventurous writer."--Dennis Potter
"Haunting and compelling." -"The Times"
"McEwan, that master of the taciturn macabre, so organizes his narrative that, without insisting anything, every turn and glimpse is another tightening of the noose. The evils of power and the power of evil are transmitted with a steely coolness, and in a prose tha
Guardian
'As always, McEwan manages his own idiom with remarkable grace and inventiveness...'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
`The Comfort of Strangers', McEwan's second novel was published at a time when this bright new talent was causing controversy and had been christened Ian Mcabre by critics shocked by the brutality of his themes and his fearless exploration of dark, previously taboo subjects such as incest, sadomasochism and child abduction. With its theme of unhealthy homoerotic obsession there are echoes of the later Enduring Love here. The story opens with a coldly voyeuristic intrusion into the lives of Colin and Mary, an English couple holidaying in an unnamed European city (assumed to be Venice) in an attempt to recapture the passion that has drained out of their relationship. When we join them they are distant from each other, not speaking and sleeping in separate beds. This gulf is apparent in the fact that even their dreams are at odds. Wandering the city in a torpor late one night they encounter Robert, a smooth talking, cruel and sinister local who seems to mesmerize them against their better instincts and takes them to a seedy bar nearby. Despite being unsettled by the encounter they are persuaded by Robert to visit his home the next day. Here they meet Caroline, his put-upon Canadian wife and quickly detect that something is seriously amiss. It soon becomes clear that the gap between these couples is not as wide as it initially appears. Without a doubt Colin and Mary are complicit in their own downfall and their desires, though previously unrealised, are as unwholesome as those of Robert and Caroline. One theme explored is the impact of fathers on children. Robert speaks of the admirable brutality of his father and Caroline, who defines herself only in relation to men, explains the subservience of her mother and herself to her diplomat father, a pattern repeated in their own relationship. The book is drenched in sexual menace and met with a mixed response on publication with one critic accusing McEwan of "squandering his extraordinary gifts". In summary, excellent, as is all McEwan's output.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Being an Ian McEwan fan I couldn't wait to read this. It only took me one sitting and as always was very readable and totally engrossing - causing mounting fear and tension like only McEwan knows how to, with nothing in particular happening but an increasing sensation that something is about to (how does he do that?!). The book is set in Venice which adds to the calm mystique and general atmosphere of the story. The end was shocking - I felt quite sick after reading it. This is definitely one of McEwan's most twisted and chilling reads and I couldn't quite work out whether I had enjoyed it or not. Recommended although definitely not my favourite by the author.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'The Comfort of Strangers' at 100 pages long is an excellent thriller. It starts off subtly with a couple holidaying in Venice but rapidly becomes dark, twisted and chilling. McEwan writes extremely well, capturing the mood and emotions of the characters perfectly and depicting the darker side of human nature. It is an excellent book to get into Ian McEwan with before tackling his more famous works like Enduring love and Atonement. Read in one sitting 'The Comfort of Strangers' will get your adrenalin running and scare you witless. Buy it and read it next time you have two or three hours to kill.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
An uneasy read but remarkable
Surreal is an overworked word these days but it fits this novella. Enigmatic too. McEwan is spare with his words yet creates a melodramatic impact and this style has become... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jane Baker
Loved it - but it made me feel itchy
This is a great book. It's short and direct (like 'Saturday' should've been) but it's really grim at the same time - I felt itchy, sticky and light-headed after finishing it. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dicksonshire
By The Throat
I find McEwan's writing somewhat addictive and binge-provoking. His strength is in taking the reader gently into a quiet place, and then as it turns dark, gripping him by the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Urban Philosopher
Beautiful written but...
The 2nd McEwan novella that I have read and equally as depressing... You'd think I would have learned after the first one. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mrs. Nicola Clements
Dark, captivating
I have read most of Ian McEwan's books and found this one typical of his style, with a macabre atmosphere to the storyline. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ann Henry
Toe-curlingly embarrassing
I have been a great fan of Ian McEwan's novels for many years and I came across The Comfort of Strangers completely unaware that it was one of his early efforts. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Scott F. Hannigan
Love and life lost in Venice.
Ian McEwan knows what makes a story creepy. Set against the wonderful but slightly disturbing floating city of Venice, a bored couple on holiday loses their way in the dark network... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Luberta
not bad, but not one of his best
Ian McEwan always writes beautifully and always manages to create an eerie atmosphere: even when there's not much happening in the storyline or even if there's a pleasant enough... Read more
Published 22 months ago by maria1971
Read it
I, Lewis McGhee, dont often read. i am 17.
After asking my english teacher for a book to read over the current short break (7 days), he recomended this book. Read more
After asking my english teacher for a book to read over the current short break (7 days), he recomended this book. Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2010 by V. Mcghee
Ghastly
I found this novel, tiresome and unconvincing. McEwan has produced some great novels, yet this one seems to leave an indelible and discernible scar on what has been a corpus of... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2010 by L. Cameron
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
