Black Dogs in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 06, 2017 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel-the-world, 1001

The narrator of Black Dogs, Jeremy lost his parents at 8 years old, latches onto his friends' parents, then his wife's. The story takes place during the Berlin Wall, November 1989. Jeremy is fascinated by his Wife's parents and their unusual relationship: they love one another, but are unable to live together. Their extreme ideologies make it difficult to live together. This is another McEwan that I really liked ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2009 Laura rated it liked it

I really liked this book in parts, but not in very many parts. I think McEwan is a brilliant writer all-in-all, but I found this pretty dry and lifeless for the most part. It was just okay, and I really only kept on because it's a pretty short book. I've also been reading Atonement along with this one. That one is light years ahead of Black Dogs in terms of pace and style. His language is so much more beautiful in Atonement too. The one element this one has in common with Atonement is McEwan's a ...more

Like · see review

Jul 17, 2014 Bogdan rated it really liked it

Shelves: brits

It is one of those novels that makes you think. On the background of post war Europe and up to the Berlin wall fell, two major themes are explored: the dissolution of a marriage and the fate of Europe. Both are interesting topics and without a clear, definitive answer. This is also part of the beauty of this read.

I also believe that there are chances again to have another kind of Evil in Europe. This is what the black dogs metaphor stands for, symbolizing the scars left by Nazism and Cold War on It is one of those novels that makes you think. On the background of post war Europe and up to the Berlin wall fell, two major themes are explored: the dissolution of a marriage and the fate of Europe. Both are interesting topics and without a clear, definitive answer. This is also part of the beauty of this read.

I also believe that there are chances again to have another kind of Evil in Europe. This is what the black dogs metaphor stands for, symbolizing the scars left by Nazism and Cold War on this continent. Along with this the dissolution of the marriage between Bernard and June with their opposite view on life, one believing science can solve humanity's problems and the other accepting the mystic, the unknown in life, make up a possible cause of Europe's destiny. This is one of the most profound premises I encountered and this is why I will rate it with a 5.

Regarding the form, I liked the author avoided potential lengthy passages with analyses of causes for his premise or why this is true. He wrapped this message in an apparently domestic story about a couple broken marriage despite they love each other. In my opinion it was a good choice so I will rate it with a 5 for form.

In terms of originality, I don't believe there are too many novels on this topic, but also it is not the first one. What I liked more is the way the main theme is embedded in the story, which I think is fairly original. So I will give it a 4 for the level of originality.

The main characters are very well individualized. The others are just developed enough for the story to have a meaning. I liked this minimalism without hindering the main story. I'll rate it for this with 4.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, I felt the novel is fairly difficult as the major theme is not easily accessible at a superficial reading. In terms of complexity, the story line is not linear but it is split into three parts each with the view from one of the three main characters. This eases out the lecture and for all these, I will rate it with a 3 for complexity and difficulty.

In terms of credibility, I agree with the main book message which seems (to me) very credible. The book overall story is also not outside the common sense we would expect. Therefor my rating for credibility is 5.

The last criteria is edition. Unfortunately, this ebook was full of misspelling or incorrectly recognized characters. I think it was made by using a OCR software on a scanned copy of the printed work and the proof reading after that was awful. I must rate it with a 1, as so many errors it hindered the pleasure of reading.

To summarize, I enjoyed this novel with a fairly original message and a great way of delivering it. All in all, my final rating for this novel is 3.86, which I will round it to a 4 on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Credibility | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 3.86 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+