Contemporary Reads: The Cement Garden

I know, this is my third post about an Ian McEwan book in a very short period of time. I promise it will the last for, at least, a few weeks. In my next few posts, I will be discussing The Book of Evidence by John Banville, Beyond the Black by Hilary Mantel, Jack Maggs by Peter Carey and Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald (although not necessarily on that order).

Going back to The Cement Garden, this short novel was the first published by McEwan in 1978. It tells the story of four siblings: Julie, Jack, Susie and Tom and their breavement after both their parents die in short sucession. After their father dies of a heart attack, their mother becomes very ill. She dies in the house and Jack and his sisters decides to bury her in the cellar. They are afraid they'll separated and taken into care.

The children live in the house undisturbed until Julie's boyfriend, Derek, is introduced. He becomes very suspicious about the strage smell coming from the cellar and soon finds out the truth. This is not revealed to the reader until the final chapter. In is also in the chapter than the sexual tension latent from the start between Julie and Jack is resolved when the lie together naked and he penetrates her. Derek, having witnessed the scence goes to the cellar to unbury the cadaver and calls the police.

Very disturbing but masterfully written as always. No wonder the writer used to be called Ian Mcabre early in his career.

Other books I have read by this author: Saturday, Atonement, Enduring Love.