I'm truly undecided about Ian McEwan. I too read First Love, Last Rites, but I don't remember much about it. I also read "The Comfort of Strangers". I remember choosing that on one of my journeys back to Italy because it was based in Venice. This is yonks ago and don't remember much of the plot, if there is one because I think his work is based on relationships rather than action, and where the action is, it seems to leave a bitter taste in the mouth. He uses a lot of back story, on the lines of James Joyce, and very DH Lawrence in his sensual approach, though I think DH Lawrence is superb at it, whereas McEwan tends to dwell on the dark, heavy, negative sides of relationships. He goes into details about how a water bus anchors, for no reason at all if not to set the atmosphere, and says how elderly women sell flowers, magazines, crucifixes and statuettes outside a hospital... he seems intent to capture the dark, morbid atmosphere of a place which left me aghast because this is Venice he was talking about- the felicitous, vivacious, full of colour Venice- and felt he was totally out of tune... but then this is why Ian McEwan is Ian McEwan.
