Rating: 
Summary: The Dark Side of Traveling
Review: I have to admit that I have not been struck by any of Ian McEwan's novels. I remember reading ATONEMENT and AMSTERDAM with anticipation and was somewhat disappointed.
McEwan, as in his other works, surely looks at the dark side of life and romance. THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS is even darker than the other works that I've read. During a time when travelers are already leary of traveling and other travelers, "Comfort" adds even a darker deminsion.
This is a book that I surely would not have finished had I been reading it in hard copy. However, narrator Simon Prebble, does a wonderful job or acting out the parts and captivating the listener.
There are many lurid and dark underlying themes to this work. It makes one reflect on relationships and love but not always in a comforting manner.
My warning is, read it at your own risk and surely not close in time to a vacation at a seaside resort.
Rating: 
Summary: Atmospheric and haunting
Review: I should start out by saying that I was not among those who felt that the novelist's later work, "Amsterdam", lived up to the hype and acclaim that it received. I enjoyed that story, but I am sure there were other works that were more deserving of the Booker Prize. That said, I was more absorbed by this story, finding it both suffocating and intense.
McEwan gives a very graphic and descriptive sense of a city, presumably Venice, where a bored couple, Colin and Mary, find themselves for a languorous vacation, filling in the days with aimless wandering, pot-smoking and sex, on occasion. The street sounds, the high-walled, narrow lanes and alleyways, add to the sense of entrapment that gradually makes its way into the emotional state of the main characters. Their encounter, which they later come to realize was by design, with the jovial but intense Robert, leaves them non-plussed but curious. Their time with Robert, and then his wife Caroline, brings them almost unconsciously under an unspoken kind of spell that results in a rediscovery of passion bordering on obsession for eachother. Perhaps more rational people would have fled much earlier from Robert - of course, if they had, there would be no story, or perhaps a different story to tell here. Colin and Mary, both blinded by their idealism, allowed themselves to be manipulated by a person with a deeply obsessive personality, who embraces fantasy with a dangerous exuberance. The story leaves questions where we look for answers, raises doubts when we think we have it figured out, and through it all, McEwan writes with a kind of macabre relish that is at times discomfiting, but left me impressed by the storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Second Novel by Ian McEwan
Review: I would guess like many readers I came upon this writer's work when he began receiving international acclaim for his work, "Amsterdam", in 1998 when the novel won The Booker Prize. I have read his work that has been published after that tale, and now have been going back to his earlier work, a decision that can be very rewarding, or quite the opposite. I suppose expecting earlier work to be less mature or skillful is reasonable, but there are also writers that appear with an initial work that is very good or even excellent, and they manage, with some exceptions, to keep the quality of work very high. Other writers peak with their first book, there are no rules."The Comfort Of Strangers" is the second novel that Mr. McEwan published, and it would be fair to call it more of a short story. I don't know what divides a short story from a novella from a novel; it appears publishers use the terms interchangeably at times. From the two earlier works I have read, this book along with, "The Innocent", Mr. McEwan to date, sits in the category of writers who get better as they hone their craft. This may appear to be the normal course of a writer's development, but we all have read otherwise. My primary complaint with this book is that the author worked around the fringes of what many would consider taboo conduct, darts in for a moment or two of detail, but does not fully explore the issues he touches upon, nor does he complete his tale. Another author that I am a great admirer of is Penelope Fitzgerald who said she never let her characters decide where they would go in a story, she decided their every move. Now again this may sound obvious, who controls their characters if not the author, but she was speaking of having a plan for her players from opening page to closing paragraph. Mr. McEwan does not manage the detail of his characters here, he asks the reader to fill in the detail or in some cases the blanks. In this book I do not like the decision he made, but for admirers of his work that wish to go back to his earlier published material, this is a quick and interesting read of an author that has gone on to be internationally recognized.
Rating:
Summary: Concise novel, excellent writing for Comfort of Strangers
Review: Ian McEwan is a master of painting a vivid picture and telling a gripping tale, while not wasting pulp.. Comfort of strangers is an excellent example. As I read I could visualize the scenes. McEwan is hard to put down. I did not feel much emotional connection to any of the characters but I doubt I was supposed to. Recommended read...
Rating: 
Summary: Good Early McEwan
Review: Many of the trademarks we have come to expect in McEwan novels are already here in this early novel published in the U. S. in 1981, the ironic title, the complexity, the psychological tension, the ambiguities, the questions left unanswered. I was handicapped in reading this novel in that I had already seen the movie so it was impossible not to see Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson getting lost in those maze-like alleys in Venice. (Nowhere in this slim novel, however, does McEwan name the city where the sinister action takes place.} On the other hand, since I knew the outcome, I could look for and admire the clues the author gives as to what will happen. McEwan does an excellent job of setting the tone for what ultimately occurs early in the novel. As early as page 17: "Colin and Mary had never left the hotel so late, and Mary was to attribute much of what followed to this fact." There are lots of references to the sexual tension between men and women in addition to many homoerotic allusions throughout the book that prepare you, at least in part, for the shattering climax of this horrific little novel. McEwan always gives the reader a story that appeals both to the intellect and the emotions. As usual, he doesn't disappoint us. One of the joys of living in these times is awaiting a new McEwan novel.
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: 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: 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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