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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
70 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark, dangerous, twisted,
This review is from: The Comfort of Strangers (Paperback)
This is probably the most effective horror novel I've ever read. Not that there are demons, monsers, or flying body bits, but in that it lays bare some truly horrifying facets of human nature, and what they can cause people to do. It's haunting and not for the timid. Or the weak of stomach.Colin and Mary are lovers on vacation in Italy, increasingly bored and uninterested in one another. They amble around hotels and tourist streets without any genuine interest. Then they accidently bump into Robert, a seemingly friendly man with an unhappy family history and an initially harmless attachment to the couple. From there, Colin and Mary stay with Robert and his crippled wife Caroline, who seems friendly but oddly insistent that they stay for awhile. Colin and Mary rediscover their physical attraction to one another, but they also are increasingly uneasy with the forceful friendship of Robert and Carllin. And soon that friendship is revealed as terrible, erotic, and violent. Ian McEwan's books remind me of those movies where the skies are cloudy, the alleys are dank, and everybody is hiding secret motives. There is a sort of dark aura from the beginning on the book onward, as if tragedy is creeping up from page one onward. Despite this gradual buildup, and the increasingly horrific life stories that Robert and Caroline tell, the climax is a horrible shock. McEwan's writing swings freely between oddly dreamlike and shockingly vivid -- if anything, the vividity of his writing is more so because the weird stuff is written in such poetic prose. His dialogue is mostly good, except when the characters launch into philosophical ramblings about women and men and whether women want to be dominated. He is extremely talented in portraying the few characters -- Colin and Mary are bland but essentially harmless, while Caroline and Robert crackle with energy, but, they are extremely frightening. This book is not one for kids, it has a lot of sexual content, including some really twisted, frightening stuff. Heck, some adults may not like it. It's a quick read, took me only half an hour to read it. But it's dark and haunting, and not for thw weak of heart.
28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Toe-curlingly embarrassing,
By Scott Hannigan "Scott" (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Comfort of Strangers (Paperback)
I have been a great fan of Ian McEwan's novels for many years and I came across The Comfort of Strangers completely unaware that it was one of his early efforts. I started it full of the expectation which I naturally reserve for a favourite writer.
I hadn't got far into it before the alarm bells started ringing. Quick plot summary. Two very strange and stupid people go on holiday and meet two lunatics who do really horrible things to them for no apparent reason. Colin and Mary are on holiday in Venice. For some bizarre reason the name of the city is never mentioned, and given that there is literally nowhere else on this earth that it could possibly be, it comes across as a particularly pompous literary device. Anyway, Colin and Mary are not speaking and we never find out why. They are preparing for their ritual evening of cocktails followed by dinner. They seem vague, detached, disinterested and bored. At the time I thought that this could be interesting as there is so much not said but having waded through this turgid tome I don't feel it's much of spoiler to advise you not to hold your breath. Well, anyway, for no apparent reason they suddenly forgive each other and decide to make love (and what a lacklustre event this is) which delays their plans for the evening. Now here the author would have us believe that all the restaurants in one of the top tourist destinations in the world are closed by 9pm. Colin and Mary know this too but they go out anyway. They have been lost many times before but they don't take the maps. (What?) And what happens? Yes, they get lost! They meet a stranger called Robert who won't stop touching them - so much that they both ask him to stop. They go to a gay bar with him. There is no food in this bar (the cook is ill) so they drink several bottles of wine. Robert tells them his life story. Conveniently, Robert speaks English extraordinarily well which absolves Colin and Mary of the necessity of being fluent in Italian. His father and his beastly sisters were very unkind to him. They leave the bar and Colin and Mary, having not thought of the most obvious solution to their present problem, that is asking directions from Robert who is a local, let him simply walk away and they continue being lost. They sleep in the street. (What?) They wake up very thirsty and can't find a cafe in Venice. (What?) They go to the hospital because they might be able to get a drink of water. (What?) Nothing happens but now they don't appear to be lost so much so they decide to head back to the hotel via St Mark's Square. Hey presto, there are some cafes here! They are still very very thirsty (indeed Mary's lips are cracked) but the nasty waiter won't give them any water. (What?) He does tell them where there is a tap but they ignore this and stay and order coffee. Robert happens to walk past and he invites them to his place. They accept and leave in a boat with him before their coffee arrives (still presumably dying of thirst). [If I may just interrupt here to say that I have been to Italy several times (including Venice) and the standard response when you ask for water is 'Si, Signore, aqua minerale o naturale?' - 'Yes sir, mineral water or natural?' Also this business of being lost is just not credible - of course you can get momentarily confused in those little streets but the Grand Canal is only ever a stone's throw away from anywhere, and I am mystified as to how McEwan can possibly expect the millions upon millions of people who have been there to believe that these two had to resort to sleeping in the street.] Colin and Mary wake up in Robert's house and they can't find their clothes. (What?) Mary does some shoulder stands anyway with nothing on. (What?) She finds a nightie so she goes on a tour of the house leaving Colin naked and alone. She meets Robert's wife Caroline (for the first time) who gives her many sandwiches to eat. Mary doesn't mention Colin who is still alone and naked in the bedroom and who apparently hasn't eaten anything for about 36 hours. The two women discuss murder. (As you do). Colin joins them wearing only a handtowel. Caroline tells them she has been looking at them while they were asleep and naked. (What?) She invites them to dinner and they accept. (What?) During drinks before dinner Robert punches Colin in the stomach and he collapses on the floor. (What?) Colin does not question this. (What?) They continue with cocktails during which Robert fondles Colin's shoulders. (What?) After dinner Caroline invites them to return and they accept. (What?) She explains that she can't leave the house because she is so badly injured. No-one asks what happened to her. (What?) It turns out later that she has masochistic tendencies and she never really got over that last broken back (Huh?) Colin and Mary return to their hotel and, inexplicably, indulge in a 4-day frenzy of sex and gluttony. (What?) At meal times they have 1½ courses each and 2 bottles of wine each. Not one hangover or bout of vomiting is mentioned. (Now, I don't know about you but I reckon Colin must be made of very stern stuff if he can consume such a vast amount of alcohol and still manage to ravish his girlfriend several times a day for four days). They discuss orgasms. Colin reveals that he has an aching emptiness somewhere between his scrotum and his anus. (Good grief! Do we really need to know this?) The next morning Mary reveals that while they were at Robert and Caroline's for dinner she saw a photo of Colin that Robert showed her. She apparently didn't ask Robert how he came to have this, nor did she didn't mention it then to Colin or during the next 4 days. (What?) She is very frightened. Colin would understandably be a bit spooked too but his reaction isn't mentioned. On a completely overcast day (the sky is described as being black!) Colin and Mary decide to go to the beach. Just before they leave Colin sticks his finger deep inside Mary, (What?) but they remind each other they are going to the beach and they pull apart to pack the towels. They have a bitch of a time finding a spot on the beach but they do and then Mary nearly drowns. Well, no actually she wasn't drowning at all - she was just having a lovely swim but Colin was absolutely certain she was in peril and spent ages stroking out to save her, nearly drowning himself in the process. (What?) On the way back they decide not to go all the way round the island so they get off the boat at a different stop and who should they run into? That's right. Those two loonies. So what do they do in their infinite wisdom? They go into their house. (Oh God almighty!) Need I go on? The grisly denouement is just as bizarre as the rest of it and will leave you scratching your head with mystification.
31 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Early McEwan,
By H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Comfort of Strangers (Hardcover)
Many of the trademarks we have come to expect in McEwan novels are already here in this early novel published in the U. S. in 1981, the ironic title, the complexity, the psychological tension, the ambiguities, the questions left unanswered. I was handicapped in reading this novel in that I had already seen the movie so it was impossible not to see Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson getting lost in those maze-like alleys in Venice. (Nowhere in this slim novel, however, does McEwan name the city where the sinister action takes place.} On the other hand, since I knew the outcome, I could look for and admire the clues the author gives as to what will happen. McEwan does an excellent job of setting the tone for what ultimately occurs early in the novel. As early as page 17: "Colin and Mary had never left the hotel so late, and Mary was to attribute much of what followed to this fact." There are lots of references to the sexual tension between men and women in addition to many homoerotic allusions throughout the book that prepare you, at least in part, for the shattering climax of this horrific little novel.McEwan always gives the reader a story that appeals both to the intellect and the emotions. As usual, he doesn't disappoint us. One of the joys of living in these times is awaiting a new McEwan novel.
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