Camilla's review
The Cement Garden
by Ian McEwan
It's a motion picture too. I thought it was a young Charlotte Rampling in the sister role but it's a not-so-young Charlotte Gainsbourg. Because Parisian lounge-royalty are the best at playing the working-class English. Who can forget Brigitte Fontaine as the council flats virago in the early Mike Leigh films?
Is it a good film?
Haven't seen it. Certain levels of trauma, e.g. the last five pages of that book, are best kept imaginary.
Camilla's review
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
Camilla's review
rating:
So far, I think I feel pretty much the same about all of McEwan's books, this one being no exception. They are dark and clever, fast reads, and seem almost designed to become major motion pictures. 'Atonement' and 'Enduring Love' already are, after all, though 'Black Dogs' might've been more difficult. They are literary books, to be sure, but somehow his characters and their plights rarely seem to capture me. It is as though they are being viewed from behind a pane of glass. (Voyeurism is definitely an undercurrent, too.) I never really understood the motives of the characters in this book-- perhaps they weren't meant to understand their own motives, but it resulted in leaving me rather cold, though not unentertained.
It's a motion picture too. I thought it was a young Charlotte Rampling in the sister role but it's a not-so-young Charlotte Gainsbourg. Because Parisian lounge-royalty are the best at playing the working-class English. Who can forget Brigitte Fontaine as the council flats virago in the early Mike Leigh films?
Is it a good film?
Haven't seen it. Certain levels of trauma, e.g. the last five pages of that book, are best kept imaginary.