Tripp's review
Black Dogs: A Novel
by Ian McEwan
Tripp's review
Black Dogs: A Novel by Ian McEwan
Tripp's review
rating:
recommended for: Literary fiction lovers
McEwan's Black Dogs was written in 1992 and follows up the Cold War Innocent with a story that includes both the beginning and the end of the War. It is far more metaphorical than its predecessor, using the story of a failed marriage to show how we react to horror. In 1946, a young pair of newly married socialists travel to France where the bride has a run-in with a pair of malevolent black dogs. Their contrasting reactions destroy their marriage. These reactions, in one case spiritual and in other hyper-rational are stand ins for societal reaction to pure evil. And in their cases, the evil is the suffering caused by World War 2. The black dog manifest itself in the story in other ways, such as the all too common recourse to violence.
We learn about the details of their lives from their son-in-law who lost his own parents at a young age. He wants to write a biography of these people, perhaps, because he never knew his own parents. As usual with McEwan, he captures the inner lives of...more
We learn about the details of their lives from their son-in-law who lost his own parents at a young age. He wants to write a biography of these people, perhaps, because he never knew his own parents. As usual with McEwan, he captures the inner lives of...more
