Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

First Love, Last Rites

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 · rating details · 1,993 ratings · 150 reviews

Taut, brooding and densely atmospheric, these stories show us the ways in which murder can arise out of boredom, perversity can result from adolescent curiosity, and sheer evil might be the solution to unbearable loneliness.

Paperback, 157 pages

Published 2006 by Vintage Books (first published 1975)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Winds of Winter by George R.R. Martin

Books I'd Break Into A Bookstore Or Library For

311th out of 391 books — 177 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 21, 2008 Manny rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

My relationship with Ian McEwan did not get off to a good start. I was an 18-year-old student at Cambridge, and a friend came to visit over the weekend. He had a copy of this book, which he praised extravagantly. Out of curiosity I read the first story. I really didn't like it.

That evening, he went out to visit another person he knew in town, and came back late and much the worse for wear, after having sampled the beer in three or four pubs. Somewhere around 2 am, I was woken by sounds of vomit...more

14 likes · like · see review

Jun 30, 2009 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, short-stories-novellas-essays

Ian McEwan, you are one sick fuck. Sick sick sick sick sick sick siiiiiiiiick. But, man you can write. The gorgeous sparse prose – no words are wasted with you. I have come to expect the warped characters you write about, yet you still manage to surprise me. The way you get into their heads...wow.

This was me reading your collection of stories (most of this happened inside my head, but some of it happened audibly):

{read read read} Sigh…beautiful.
{read read read} Yeah.
{read read read} Goddamn it....more

25 likes · like · see review

Dec 05, 2012 Callie S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Folgorante

Non ho altri aggettivi per descrivere una delle più belle raccolte di racconti che abbia mai sfogliato.
Benché il mio primo approccio con l'autore fosse stato segnato dalla delusione, ho preteso di rifarmi e sono stata più che ripagata.
L'esplorazione del primo amore, il sesso consumato come rito iniziatico, il desiderio perturbante dell'altro sono solo alcuni dei temi che McEwan pone al centro di una narrazione ora essenziale, costruita su flash folgoranti, ora arricchita da una lingua...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 06, 2011 Marc Maitland added it

There is often a somewhat disturbing undertone to many of Mr. Ewan’s books, and, given this is first collection of short stories, he certainly started as he intended to go on!

I wonder how much (if any) of what he has written is based on personal experience? If even a fraction of it is, then Mr. McEwan has been exposed to some very traumatic and disturbing experiences – either in childhood or young adulthood. Without giving the game away, themes included in this collection of short stories includ...more

like · see review

Mar 23, 2009 Kristopher Jansma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though I've been a McEwan fan since I first read Enduring Love, I've long avoided reading his debut collection of short stories. They've turned out to be everything I'd heard about them: perverse, disgusting, creepy, twisted, dark... and undeniably amazing.

I don't want to dwell on any individual story, or give all of the surprises away, but I'll try to explain why I liked them regardless of the content.

The very first story, Homemade, I really still don't like. It begins as a story of two adolesc...more Though I've been a McEwan fan since I first read Enduring Love, I've long avoided reading his debut collection of short stories. They've turned out to be everything I'd heard about them: perverse, disgusting, creepy, twisted, dark... and undeniably amazing.

I don't want to dwell on any individual story, or give all of the surprises away, but I'll try to explain why I liked them regardless of the content.

The very first story, Homemade, I really still don't like. It begins as a story of two adolescents who hatch a plan to pay a girl in thier class to flash them - simple enough - and somehow winds up being about the narrator's attempt to rape his sister. Not only was the latter half difficult to enjoy, but I kept wondering why it followed the first half at all.

But, making up for that, the next story Solid Geometry, made me laugh perhaps harder than I ever have laughed before. The twist is too good to give away, but let it suffice to say that it involves a mathematician, his annoying wife, a penis preserved in formaldahyde, and hidden spatial dimensions.

From there, the stories went up and down. Some, like Cocker at the Theatre or Disguises, seem light (and short) and not worthwhile. Others, like Last Days of Summer and Butterflies, are bizarre and dark, but wonderful. Butterflies, like the following story, Conversation with a Cupboard Man, actually do the most difficult thing of all - making you sympathize with a narrator who is a child molester, and another who is raised as a small child well into adulthood. These achieve the trancendancy of something like Lolita, where a skillful narrator can guide you into the dexterous and deviant mind of a sociopath, and better, make you nearly love them.

The title story - First Love, Last Rites - was well worth getting to. In it, two young lovers waste a summer away together, catching crabs (non-venereally) and hunting the rat that lives in their walls. It's the rare sort of story where nearly nothing seems to happen, and yet everything feels poignant. The final scene - again, can't give it away - took my breath away.

All in all, I'm glad I finally sucked it up and read it. It proves to me what I've always hoped - that, in the right hands, any material can find its way into beauty. I'm glad that Ian McEwan found other subjects - widely varied in his later career (which spans literary genres with ease) because it really is that incredible range that makes him such an incredible writer. Thinking on it now, even many of the great literary giants often seemed stuck in a particular mode or subject matter, be it hunting and fishing, the lives of the well-t0-do, or the sagas of mythical Southern counties... but I get the feeling McEwan could dive in and out of any of these arenas with mastery. And just as easily he could write about cross-dressers and street thugs and people from Mongolia. Sooner or later I'll make my way through the remaining McEwan novels (only a handful left) but now that I've gone all the way to the start, I feel more confident than ever that he is our greatest living writer.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 10, 2013 David Stephens rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ian-mcewan

After hearing Ian McEwan's first book of short stories described as being "taut, brooding, and densely atmospheric," I think I got a somewhat skewed vision of what these stories would be. I was expecting tales set in London that oozed a gothic atmosphere. Instead, while the stories contain quite serious and deathly situations, they are written in a more light-hearted tone that is closer to Nabokov than Poe. Passages of nasty violence and tawdry encounters are dealt with in such a casual manner t...more After hearing Ian McEwan's first book of short stories described as being "taut, brooding, and densely atmospheric," I think I got a somewhat skewed vision of what these stories would be. I was expecting tales set in London that oozed a gothic atmosphere. Instead, while the stories contain quite serious and deathly situations, they are written in a more light-hearted tone that is closer to Nabokov than Poe. Passages of nasty violence and tawdry encounters are dealt with in such a casual manner they almost escape their outlandish nature to seem quotidian and expected.

This isn't to say these stories are bad; it's quite the opposite. The dark yet comical events are embedded with a swirling mixture of emotions. They are simultaneously beautiful, sad, depraved, hilarious, and sanguine. The worlds McEwan builds are constructed around the idiosyncrasies of their characters, making each world unique and bizarre. For example, every situation becomes about feeling safe and secure for the overly sheltered narrator of "Conversation with a Cupboard Man." He even partially enjoys being trapped in an oven while he's cleaning it because it reminds him of his youthful confinement.

While the stories are diverse, many of them are linked by their salacious content. Just about all of the tales involve some kind of sexual encounter—usually an awkward one. There is really no conventional sex here either. Even when it's consensual, it might occur on stage, in a cupboard, or one of the partners might need to imagine monsters to get off.

The first one—and likely most controversial—is "Homemade," which involves a teenage boy who is continually persuaded by a friend of his to steal, do drugs, and discover various sexual pleasures. To unearth these pleasures and find out about the opposite sex, he is willing to go to extreme measures that most wouldn't even consider. I have never found myself laughing so much at such an extraordinarily uncomfortable situation.

This is followed by "Solid Geometry," a comical tale in which a husband makes use of geometry to make his wife disappear. The somewhat mundane "Last Day of Summer" plays out more like a standard story of a childhood summer; although, it does take a sudden dark turn at the end. "Cocker at the Theatre" is a brief and amusing interlude. The more disturbing "Butterflies" recounts the death of a young girl by a reclusive and deranged man. "Disguises" tells the story of an acting-obsessed aunt who forces her young nephew to dress up for in-home performances.

The best one, though, is the title story, "First Love, Last Rites." It follows a young couple who live in an old nondescript apartment four stories up from a quay. They mostly want to avoid interactions or feelings about the world, but even in their isolated and quasi-romantic abode, they begin to sense the inevitability of the conventional routines of life. The settling conformity they feel seeps into the environment around them. When the male character is out eel fishing, he notes the following: "I was amazed at how soon the clean white rope from the chandlers had become like all other rope near the river, brown and hung about with fine strands of green weed."

And, if there is one story here that suggests there are monsters or evil things lurking just beneath the surface of reality, it is this one. All throughout its duration, the characters seem to fear some unknown scratching and clawing noises that emanate from a presumed monster, which may or may not be imagined. Eventually, the fear of this creature seems to represent a fear of pregnancy, of bringing another life into this world they are desperately trying to avoid. Still, even with all its menacing qualities and cynicism, the story ends on an ambiguously hopeful note. Leave it to McEwan to embed scraps of hope in an otherwise dismal world.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 17, 2012 Tfitoby rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit, short-stories

Yes yes it was well written stuff I suppose but really I found myself losing interest quite rapidly towards the end. What started out feeling like a more verbose version of early Martin Amis quickly turned in to something quite dull I suppose. The final two stories felt like they would last FOREVER.

The writing of these stories of everyday people doing everyday things before the perverse or shocking (not in the sense that it was a surprise) twist was a novel idea that kept me reading and interest...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 25, 2012 Mark rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarre, first-person-narration, short-stories, never-again

Yeuch. These are, in the main, frightful stories which leave a really horrible taste in the mouth. Thakfully I have read enough of his other stuff to know that I quite like some of it. When he wrote these he was one weird man. There is murder, incestuous rape, child abuse by a neighbour in one story, an aunt in another and a mother in another. These are foul stories with, to my mind, no real value other than showing how shocking McEwan thought he could be. They do not address issues, they simply...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 20, 2009 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed-from-someone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Apr 12, 2012 Tom O’Connell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The problem with compiling stories like these is that the themes lose their confrontational weight after about three stories. After that, the reader starts to expect a final act curve ball, which of course gravely undermines their impact. The inclusion of (I hazard the term 'lighter') stories like 'Last Day of Summer' and 'Cocker at the Theatre' adds balance, and 'Solid Geometry' is similarly great, though a little ill-fitting.

It's fortunate then that the force of McEwan's prose (even here in th...more The problem with compiling stories like these is that the themes lose their confrontational weight after about three stories. After that, the reader starts to expect a final act curve ball, which of course gravely undermines their impact. The inclusion of (I hazard the term 'lighter') stories like 'Last Day of Summer' and 'Cocker at the Theatre' adds balance, and 'Solid Geometry' is similarly great, though a little ill-fitting.

It's fortunate then that the force of McEwan's prose (even here in this fledgling state) is so arresting that it qualifies any subject matter as superb short story fodder. Not that the subject matter here is lacking in any way. I've heard readers dismiss McEwan's early work as 'perverted' and 'lacking substance'. Not so. The focus of these stories (and, heck, even 'The Cement Garden' and 'The Comfort of Strangers') never falls on the taboo, the obvious; there is always far more going than meets the eye.

Unlike Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk – who have made careers out of shock value for shock value's sake – McEwan's stories are as effective as they are because he humanises his dysfunctional characters. No one in this collection is two dimensional, and the justifications – as subtle and aching as they are – are never less than understandable. McEwan taps into core human emotions (loneliness, lust) and stretches them to where most wont let them go. This is particularly effective here because most of the main characters are children, or young adults who have been retarded by their upbringing. Adolescence is the stage in a person's life where boundaries and filters are still being defined – therein it is not impossible for the extreme scenarios here to actually happen.

There is no distance between us and our protagonists, even in the most cloying stories ('Disguises' and 'First Love, Last Rites'). Combine this with McEwan's penchant for precise details and you have the reader hook, line and sinker. McEwan's talent is in the way he provides such searing detail with so few words. So often does he walk a delicate tightrope between providing compelling characterisation and slithering off into irrelevance. In some of his later works ('Saturday' and 'On Chesil Beach' come to mind), the balance is sometimes compromised. But here, in his short fiction, the stories are taut and full of vigour.

I believe each of these stories is memorable in its own way. They primarily deal with the themes of death, sexuality, and childhood or burgeoning adulthood. 'Butterflies' is the only story that let me down, and that's really because it came so late in the collection (see my opening paragraph). 'Homemade' and 'Conversation with a Cupboard Man' explore just how confusing and terrifying childhood can be – particularly if it is warped by circumstance. Compared to the other stories, 'Last Day of Summer' is quite a different beast, one that put me in the mind of Sallinger's short fiction, particularly his Glass family stories. 'Cocker' is short fiction in its truest sense. It's a little more disposable than the rest, but only because its scope is so much smaller (it's social commentary disguised as a one liner).

'First Love, Last Rites' contains some real gems (I'd get into 'Disguises' – truly one of the best short stories I've ever read – but I don't want to spoil anything). It's for the open-minded reader who's willing to dig to find some of the deeper meanings. Though it's not without flaws, I'm certainly glad I read it. These stories have emotional resonance; I feel they will linger in my mind for weeks to come.(less)

like · see review

Nov 12, 2012 Tarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ian McEwan has a way of making each sentence feel more real to you than your own lived experience. More tangible than the couch you sit on, more emotionally meaningful than your last interaction. To me, this is what makes his books both affecting and important--the best of what art can do--but also, at times, deeply problematic. Because you are intertwined with his stories, woven into the fabric of not just the sensibility, but the plot itself, you are also complicit in them. And this works extr...more Ian McEwan has a way of making each sentence feel more real to you than your own lived experience. More tangible than the couch you sit on, more emotionally meaningful than your last interaction. To me, this is what makes his books both affecting and important--the best of what art can do--but also, at times, deeply problematic. Because you are intertwined with his stories, woven into the fabric of not just the sensibility, but the plot itself, you are also complicit in them. And this works extremely well in books like "Saturday" and "Atonement," for example, where your life is complicated and convicted by the deep internal debates and tragedies, the national and personal heartbreaks, that plague everyday life.

But in his collection "First Love, Last Rites," you are wrapped in(to) a series of vignettes in which you are no longer a complicit participant, but a compromised voyeur. It may be, in part, the brevity of these stories that makes it harder to find the moral center (by which I do not mean some certain shared morality), but it's also the subject matter--more male-focused, for one, and suggesting that (male) sexuality is shameful, dangerous, and, frankly, creepy. The stories largely focus on men/boys who can only express themselves and/or their sexual/personal awakenings (and these are coupled in these stories) in a variety of unhealthy ways--the most troubling of which are through rape, incest, and violence against women. The stories haunt you in part part because of McEwan's ever-haunting prose, but also in part because the stories they are telling are somewhat shock-value stories, stories that seem morally empty, or, in a way, surprisingly incomplete.

It matters to me, too, that the stories in which boys/men rape, assault, or kills girls/women don't seem to be problematized at all--and the girls/women themselves are largely symbolically (and in one case, literally) erased from the narrative.

***vague spoilers below***

A different story serves as a good counter-explanation of what I mean: in one story, an older, charmingly eccentric (possibly bi-polar) Aunt creates a world of silly decorum for her nephew (the point-of-view), who suffers the idiosyncrasies of his Aunt and her world, but dare not share them with his friends. But one day, when he goes to "dress" for dinner as he always must, the outfit is that of a girl, and the Aunt's outfit that of a boy/man. The nephew is confused, ashamed, angry, but compliant, and when the Aunt asks him to sit on her knee, the narrative fully expresses his discomfort and reluctance, painting a scene of an-almost-sexual-assault that does not happen (she doesn't actually cross any lines here), but that DOES happen on the emotional level. It does this while never fully victimizing the nephew or demonizing the Aunt. It's a delicate balance, and a powerful stroke of storytelling.

The stories where a girl is raped by her brother, or where a girl is first assaulted and then (sort of accidentally) murdered by a neighbor boy, or where a nagging wife is folded into non-existence by her theorizing husband, these, on the other hand, lack the nuance in which both characters get to be real, or in which there is moral complication about what is being done TO women and girls, or that they are anything more than the canvasses on which sexual shame and make fantasy get played.

Like all his work I have read, his prose are masterful. Over what they have mastery, however, is the central issue here for me and what that ethical obligation is to the characters the author draws into life, or, in the case of the women/girls, into half-life. One must not paint morality tales to address issues of sex, violence, rape, and incest, but when the complications of these actions are only seen as they affect (or don't) the male psyche, the stories themselves (as opposed to the plot) become complicit in a culture of the general erasure of women, an erasure that, of course, leads to violence, rape, and incest against women. We're all complicit in that culture in our lived lives; I look to fiction, particularly that of someone as effective as McEwen, to consider that, complicate it, question it, reveal something about it, say *something* about it... not just to participate in it.(less)

like · see review

Oct 28, 2011 Zee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: shortstories, contemporary, booksread2011

"Oh my. Ian McEwan, you are a sick @&%*! But bloody hell can you write..."

This was my first response to these lean, mean sickening stories of ennui, sexual perversity and emotional absence. McEwan manages to abridge the two opposing poles of sexuality and mortality in these scary little urban tales. Besides this over-arching theme McEwan seems to write each story from the perspective of the perpetrator rather than the victim - something I never actually got comfortable with considering all...more "Oh my. Ian McEwan, you are a sick @&%*! But bloody hell can you write..."

This was my first response to these lean, mean sickening stories of ennui, sexual perversity and emotional absence. McEwan manages to abridge the two opposing poles of sexuality and mortality in these scary little urban tales. Besides this over-arching theme McEwan seems to write each story from the perspective of the perpetrator rather than the victim - something I never actually got comfortable with considering all his protagonists are murderers, incestuous rapists, pimpish theatre directors and paedophiles.

What I suppose I liked about these stories was how McEwan took a day out of an ordinary person's life, and showed us how quickly it could be degraded, how by degrees an average person could manage to commit an 'accidental' crime, sometimes through idle suggestion alone. There is a very precise psychology around these stories and I'm pretty sure anyone who has followed the news over the past 10 years can name at least ONE incident that bears an incredible resemblance to one of the fictions within this slim book.

The taboo subjects in this novel are the things that we tend to shudder and condemn within our circle of family and friends. These are things that we would never dare identify with because it's outside 'normal' accepted social behaviour. The acts themselves are the type that once committed, puts one on a 'road of no return'. They are acts of self-condemnation and moral ruin, and I sense it is McEwan's intent to make us feel how close we really are to becoming such monsters. After all, no one is born a rapist or a murderer, and something has to happen to make them that way. And sometimes that something can be a subtle domestic happening that grows to sinister proportions until it finds an awful outlet.

The narrative itself is written in a deceptively straight-forward and often jolly manner which means we instantly fall into the habit of identifying with the narrator. And as readers that is what is expected of us. However, the trap is laid, and when things start getting nasty I personally found I couldn't 'disassociate' myself with the protagonist as I wanted to, and ended up being given a pay-off of disgust and distress.

I have often found McEwan's writing to be like a 'small quake', the events he writes about have a quiet devastation to them. They live long within you like a seismic echo. One of his most loved novels 'Atonement' is a classic example of this which makes 'First Love, Love Rites' little miniature versions of such calamities.

The stories that stood out the most were 'Solid Geometry' and 'Conversations With a Cupboard Man'. The former is a borderline gothic tale of spousal enmity and the occult of mathematics. The latter deals with the turbulent past of a retarded man, and looks at the horrific psychological damage done to people who do not receive proper social care.

Despite my glowing review I gave this book 3/5 stars because I have read better by McEwan and hope to discover more novels of the caliber of 'Atonement'. (less)

like · see review

Jan 24, 2011 Laysee rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First Love, Last Rites is the first published work of Ian McEwan and the first collection of his short stories to win the Somerset Maugham award. I must say I prefer the work of the more mature McEwan. This collection of stories is extremely disturbing and I had to take a break after the third story (a first for me for a McEwan book). Why can't his characters be permitted to enjoy a perfect summer? I could barely stifle a scream of revulsion at the close of many of the stories. In them you find...more

like · see review

Aug 11, 2011 Todd Kashdan added it · review of another edition

Anyone who wants to write stories about people should read this book. Ian knows how to capture the pain of the human condition and he makes erotic horror out of seemingly mundane scenes. You want sick, perverted parenting and a cute love story between kids rolled up in one? Check out Disguises. You want to dance with apathy, death, and insecurity that will slowly take the wind out of you lungs bit by bit? Check out Last Day of Summer. You want a picture perfect story of how loneliness and boredo...more

like · see review

Aug 09, 2012 John Meddick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to John by: Jenny Wood

First Love, Last Rites is powerful. The reader experiences a lifetime of personal trauma through a variety of characters which are remarkably real and decisively original. Permeating through each story is a clammy, understated fear - seen, for example, in the sentimental end to Summer and, more obviously, in the advantages taken by adults over those less able or aware of the norm. This strikes in the reader, who endures some heart-rending scenes of depravity, a terror that is difficult to shake,...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 08, 2013 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3-4 stars.

I think this book's short stories will stay with me longer than perhaps I thought they would while reading them. There is something there in most of them that will nag and gnaw away at you!

One could come away with a feeling that the stories are designed, in some cases, simply to shock and that there is something of a naffness to that sort of writing. But you have to consider that these works date from the mid-70s, so I imagine they may well have been pretty cutting edge at the time....more

like · see review

Jun 13, 2011 Rosie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I understand what McEwan was doing here; he was finding his style and strengths, and perhaps those who reviewed him and called him sick or fucked up should work on their imaginations. You do not need to be a child molester to write stories about it, the same way you do not need to be a serial killer to write murder fiction. Even the most well rounded person is capable of imagining horrific things, and I feel that it is little more than guilt that prevents many people from writing such things dow...more

like · see review

Jan 31, 2011 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

There are some pretty messed up things that happen in these stories, but there's a certain element of sweetness also. Most of the characters are lonely and disturbed, in a way almost innocent, even when they are doing things like raping their underage sisters or murdering little girls. McEwan writes about these and other tragedies in a very matter-of-fact way that contributes to this feeling. This creates an interesting tone that allows some very unpalatable characters to remain sympathetic.

The...more

like · see review

Mar 31, 2009 Siria rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, british-fiction, short-stories

Absolutely not a pick-me-up read, First Love, Last Rites is a collection of some of McEwan's earliest works. He dwells here mostly on the morbid and the macabre and the disturbing, and for a developing author, doesn't do too badly on pulling it off—one or two of the stories are genuinely effective. He often tries too hard for a Shocking Denouement, however, which for me had the opposite effect to that which he no doubt intended (and I found his Oh So Daring explorations of incest and child abuse...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 31, 2011 Chip rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The teaser on the back cover says "... as terrifying as... Stephen King..."

Uh, no. Not at all.

Gruesome? A little. Perverted? Yeah. Sheer horror? Hmm, missed that. A "splendid magician of fear"? Whoops, missed that one too. McEwan is morbid, I'll grant you that, but macabre? Nope. Maybe I'm too jaded by what passes for entertainment these days. The prose is okay, but "crafted with a lyricism and intensity that compel us to confront our secret kinship with the horrifying..."? It failed to do that...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 05, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

All of these stories are strange and sad. A couple of them are laced with disturbing ideas and images that will haunt you for days to come...so if you don't like that sort of thing, for the love of God, stay away. In the course of reading some of the stories - namely, "Homemade" and "Butterflies" - I felt a bit like a girl trying to watch a horror movie through a crack in her fingers, too scared to look at it full on, yet unable to look away.

The story that made it all worth it was "Last Day of S...more

like · see review

Nov 24, 2012 Mavic added it · review of another edition

Shelves: erotic, essays

Thanks to my friend who makes it a point to buy me Ian Mcewan books whenever prices and time allow her to. In this book, Ian Mcewan's style was dark and beautiful. I don't have a very good memory but up to this day, I still remember the story of two siblings who had sex out of curiosity, the man who loved a mannequin, a teenager who pushed a girl to the cliff out of impulse. Some say his stories were bordering on crazy. But crazy as it may, I like his style because he included the human fiber in...more

like · see review

Feb 03, 2011 Darren Cormier rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the reviews on the back cover of First Love, Last Rites reads, "There's an assured and terribly macabre depravity about Ian McEwan's short stories..." I would have to agree with this statement. However, McEwan saves what could be a read about despicable people by coloring them with a sense of innocence, of curiosity. Most of their horrific deeds (including trying to have sex with one's younger sister, a husband and wife who make Taylor and Burton in Virginia Woolf seems like the Bradys, d...more

like · see review

Apr 03, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can sum up this collection of eight stories in one word: disturbing. I have some more words for it though, if you're interested: macabre, beautiful, crafted, horrific, and tragic. But even better than my words are Ian McEwan's words, quoted frequently below.

But first, in general, note that I have to be rather opaque in my descriptions of these stories. Odd and poignant things happen in all of them (usually at the end), and I’d be loathe to spoil them for you, should you be brave enough to with...more

like · see review

Dec 21, 2009 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

After reading 'Atonement' over the summer, I really really wanted to love this collection. McEwan is clearly just gaining traction at this particular moment, though, and I felt that the stories--one after another, almost without fail--succeeded only on the strength of some gimmicky twist at the end. This isn't to say that they weren't unexpected turns, thrilling ones at times, but that without these turns, the stories would have been meandering and oftentimes mediocre. The first story is pervers...more

like · see review

May 07, 2008 Keerthik rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent!! A sort of textbook prescription on how to write short stories. Tight, elemental and filled with nuanced observations. Most of the stories have a fair share of morbidity, perverseness and shock value. However, within such a universe - that McEwan creates tender portraits of boys obsessed with female genitalia, of incest, of grotesque obesity et al. What is really neat is the self-control of the prose, just as the plot line and the heart of matter threatens to spin out of control. This...more

like · see review

Apr 04, 2013 Srikanth Mantravadi rated it 1 of 5 stars

McEwan writes the most appalling things with beautiful, precise prose. This is a sick, twisted book with overlapping themes of inexplicable perversion and adolescence. Like all short story collections, there are a few hits and misses. Some of them are a little underdeveloped underscoring why the novella is the best suited medium for McEwan to bring his narrative arcs and themes to fruition; the short story is too tight for this. I did not enjoy this book.

like · see review

Mar 22, 2008 Briynne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well. This collection was very much not what I expected. I wouldn't say that it was bad - it was certainly compelling - but it wasn't really my cup of tea. Some of the shall we say "thematic elements" of the stories were disturbing to the point that they seemed unnecessary. Others were disturbing in a way that was train-wreck fascinating, like "In the Cupboard".

Did any of you have the feeling every now and again as a kid that you actually were too young to have read something, and that it made...more

like · see review

Sep 11, 2011 James MacIntyre rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Certainly not McEwan's best, but interesting to see the early forming of many ideas he would revisit in more depth in some of his first full-length novels.

Most of these ideas are grotesque, with the end of childhood innocence often blurring into menacing adulthood throughout.

McEwan plays around with narratives frequently, but the voice is already in the marked style of his; educated and able to describe with detached gusto the debauchery at hand.

like · see review

Jul 16, 2011 Andy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Ian McEwan

Shelves: 2011, short-stories

I definitely have a love-hate type relationship with Ian McEwan. This collection of short stories veers closer to the hate end of the see-saw. The content isn't the most savoury, dealing with a variety of unpleasant acts and people (think rape, incest, paedophilia, child murder and abuse, neglectful parents, often in the same story). However, his writing is lovely, sparse and clearly defined as usual. He also manages to grasp the underlying humanity (and often mundanity) of the troubled people w...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (31)

More editions...

Genres

Short Stories

78 users

Literature

11 users

European Literature > British Literature

9 users

Contemporary

8 users

Literature > 20th Century

4 users

Sexuality

3 users

Horror

2 users

Anthologies

2 users

Novels

2 users

Literature > English Literature

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan was born on 21 June 1948 in Aldershot, England. He studied at the University of Sussex, where he received a BA degree in English Literature in 1970. He received his MA degree in English Literature at the University of East Anglia.

McEwan's works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 for his first collection of short stories First Love, Last...more

More about Ian McEwan...

Books by Ian McEwan

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About First Love, Last ...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from First Love, Last Rites

“Me pregunta usted qué hice cuando vi a aquella chica. Bueno, pues se lo diré. ¿Ve usted ese armario de ahí, que llena casi toda la habitación? Vine corriendo hasta aquí, me metí dentro y me hice una paja. No vaya a creer que me la hice pensando en la chica. No, no podría soportarlo. Retrocedí en mis recuerdos hasta que medía tres pies de altura. Eso me hizo terminar antes. Veo que piensa que soy sucio y retorcido. Pues después me lavé las manos, cosa que no todos hacen.” — 1 person liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: First Love, Last Rites
avg rating	preview: First Love, Last Rites Goodreads rating: 3.66 (1993 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/468746.First_Love_Last_Rites?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356872319l/468746.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/468746.First_Love_Last_Rites?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan[/url]

First Love, Last Rites

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website