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IMAGINING THE TERRIBLE: Ian McEwan

© Diana Adams

Although Ian McEwan did not win the Booker Prize for his latest novel Atonement, many people feel that his latest book is so well written that it does not matter. With or without that prize McEwan has earned the title of master craftsman of contemporary literature. He has in fact gone beyond the Booker. McEwan did win the Booker Prize in 1998 for Amsterdam, which was met with some criticism for being too short and not weighty enough. Atonement makes up for all of the short comings of Amsterdam, and he once again delivers us yet another examination of evil, with a heavy dose of the macabre.

The element of the macabre runs throughout many of McEwan's books. Horrific images, dismemberment, and violence lurk on the pages. Perhaps his most chilling book The Cement Garden, the reader is forced to read the terrible story of the death of a mother and her consequent burial by her children in cement; she is then stored in the basement of the family home. In Enduring Love we are offered in detail a tragic ballooning accident that has been coined 'a radical, Picasso-esque violation of perspective.' Black Dogs chills us to the bone with a scene of a woman up against two very deadly Gestapo dogs. In Amsterdam we coolly watch two characters lead themselves to assisted suicide. The evil in Atonement is very different, for he tackles issues of lies, youth and of war.

The Guardian went as far as to label McEwan , "English literature's leading expert on evil." Perhaps because of his ability to imagine the terrible, McEwan had been asked to comment on the horrific events of September 11. People look to the artists in an effort to try to understand incomprehensible violence. McEwan's response in the Guardian discussed that part of the terrorists' crimes was due to failure of the imagination. "If the hijackers had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of the passengers, they would have been unable to proceed. . . . Imagining that it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality."

How does McEwan render his tales with such dark intensity? The success of his writing lies in the exacting control of language and character. Although his books may read seamlessly, beneath each word on the page is an intricate network of nouns, verbs, double meanings, and endless devices that create his web of art. His characters a very real: we know them. Take Molly in Amsterdam for instance, we have all met another Molly before the in her Joycean apparel.

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