Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful but Weird
Review: McEwan is a wonderful descriptive writer. For example: "In one direction, the street vanished into total darkness; in the other, a diffused blue-gray light was making visible a series of low buildings which descended like blocks cut in granite and converged in the gloom where the street curved away. Thousands of feet above, an attenuated finger of cloud pointed across the line of the curve and reddened. A cool, salty wind blew along the street and stirred a cellophane wrapper against the step on which Colin and Mary were sitting." In my opinion, McEwan's goal in "The Comfort of Strangers" is to exercise his marvelous descriptive powers, which truly allow the reader to see and feel the experiences of Colin and Mary, his primary characters. At the same time, this descriptive power seems complete, in and of itself, and makes it unnecessary for McEwan to have much of a story. Indeed, his plot might be summed up as two disorganized people not really connecting, on their vacation. For me, this book was an intense and pleasurable read, with its prose as exacting and suggestive as fine poetry. This, perhaps, explains why the book's ending seems arbitrary and contrived. The book, after all, is not about plot but about the power of great writing to capture experience. At the book's climax, my marginalia say "What?!" Read "The Comfort of Strangers" and see what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: A "Literary Thriller"
Review: Never having read McEwan I decided, on a whim, to start with the immensely discomforting The Comfort of Strangers.
In less gifted hands, the story would simply qualify as a psychological suspense/thriller but McEwan's immense talents yield a "literary thriller" that makes for compelling reading and packs not only a visceral whallop but an intensely emotional one. McEwan expertly depicts the ennui between long-time lovers Colin and Mary as they vacation in Italy while subtly overlaying their seemingly directionless wanderings and chance encounter with the charismatic, enigmatic Robert and his wife Caroline with ominous foreboding. The sense that something is not quite right with Robert's overtures of friendship and his relationship with Caroline serve as a subconscious catalyst in sparking renewed sexual energy between Colin and Mary -- as if they unite against a common yet unkownable, unspeakable threat. Despite the ever-present aura of impending disaster, so rapidly and succintly does McEwan spin the circumstances of the climax and denoument and so smartly but simply does he trap the lovers and propel them to their doom that I remain, weeks later, haunted by the powerful impact of the chilling conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tawdry Little Thing Disguised as First-Class Fiction
Review: Perhaps I waited too long. I first bought this novel when it was published, just over 20 years ago. A fine review in The New York Times made it sound like a suspenseful psychological thriller. It is not. For one reason or another, I never got around to the book, instead picking it up just recently in its paperback incarnation. For me it simply didn't work: the writing is clotted, the characters unsympathetic, the dialogue terribly contrived, and the outcome obvious. In place of any psychological penetration we get myriad small details of the uninteresting lives of uninteresting characters. In such arid surroundings, how could anything seem threatening? (ie, even the most "bizarre" occurrence [and what the writer must have found bizarre 20 years now fails to register as such] would have to appear welcome). It is, however, an early novel of Mr McEwen, and it certainly shows much promise, but compared with the best of what's being written today (see my review on Naeem Murr's "The Boy" or Murray Bail's "Homesickness"), this is pretty thin stuff, indeed. Not recommended.
Rating:
Summary: thoroughly engrossing, remarkable writing
Review: Stylistically, I've never encountered a writer whose vivid, precise descriptions of the characters' immediate surroundings does so much to illuminate and reflect the characters' increasingly fragile psyches. McEwan employs this ability of his to mesmerizing effect. As you progress through this novella, you'll encounter little nooks of crannies of this unnamed European city, sidestreets, alleyways and the abode of an enigmatic couple. McEwan's facility with words enables him to depict these various spots as though they contained powers of their own, as though they were all conspiring with one another to bring the protagonists to an untimely end. This all portends the final outcome of the book. It was pretty chilling.
Rating:
Summary: hence, the time zone rule
Review: That James M. Cain was a genius is never more evident than when you watch other authors try to make a character's participation in his own degradation and his eager embrace of certain doom seem plausible. In Ian McEwan's Comfort of Strangers, an unhappy British couple, Colin and Mary, are in the moidst of a perfectly horrid vacation in Venice when they meet Robert, a cheesy seeming, imitation disco king, Eurotrash, local bar owner. He takes them under his wing and tells them the brutal but very amusing story of growing up with a domineering father who favors him and several bitterly jealous sisters. Later he takes them back to meet his rather ephemeral, somewhat crippled wife, who tells them, as they are leaving, that she is Robert's prisoner. For no apparent reason, this encounter rekindles the passion between Colin and Mary, though they studiously avoid discussing the episode and seek to avoid any subsequent meetings with Robert. Inevitably, they do eventually see him again and the results are predictably ugly. Stories like this one, which require the reader to suspend disbelief as the actors venture further and further into the abyss are extremely hard to pull off, so it's not surprising that McEwan doesn't quite manage it. First off, Colin and Mary are so unsympathetic that, as in The Sheltering Sky which it in some ways resembles, we eagerly await the tourists getting their just desserts. More troubling, Robert, despite his one captivating story, is so obviously shady that Colin and Mary seem totally stupid for getting involved with him. An author can get away with making his characters naive, but at the point where the reader is yelling at them and calling them idiots for following along with the novel's plot, that author has lost control of his own narrative. On the upside, the book offers further proof, as if any was needed, of the fundamental wisdom of the Time Zone Rule. This holds that you should never, ever, under any circumstances, leave the Eastern Time Zone of the United States. GRADE : C-
Rating:
Summary: Superb psychological novel
Review: THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS reminded me very much of Daphne Du Maurier's story "Don't Look Back." Two lovers are in Venice on holiday and meet a very dangerous man who turns out to be completely obsessed with them. They're drawn into a web of psychological control, with disastrous results. A brilliantly dark, intense novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Venice
Review: The writer's "evocation of place" includes the interesting observation of the constellation Orion visible in the evening in summertime, indicating a location somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Couple this with sunrise over the ocean, and we are led most probably to the coast of Brazil - possibly Sao Paulo. Why he wanted to locate his couple here is unknown - maybe because vacations are cheaper in the 3rd world.
Rating:
Summary: wow, the prose...
Review: This book is, I think, the best piece of prose I've ever read. The end is shocking, but on reflection only adds to the beauty of the book. The heat of venice steams from the pages, every word seems hot and sticky. I went to Venice once, when I was very young, and my memories combine perfectly with McEwan's description. It seems as if he's taken a regular length novel and boiled it down into this incredibly intense piece. Not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Thriller
Review: This book may not cover a whole lot of action, but it moves along very quickly. The writing of McEwan describes the scenes to such an extent that the reader feels the intensity experienced by Colin and Mary. Throughout the novel, this intensity builds, making for one of the most exciting and well written books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Thriller
Review: This book may not cover a whole lot of action, but it moves along very quickly. The writing of McEwan describes the scenes to such an extent that the reader feels the intensity experienced by Colin and Mary. Throughout the novel, this intensity builds, making for one of the most exciting and well written books I have ever read.
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