Absolutely not a pick-me-up read, First Love, Last Rites is a collection of some of McEwan's earliest works. He dwells here mostly on the morbid and the macabre and the disturbing, and for a developing author, doesn't do too badly on pulling it off—one or two of the stories are genuinely effective. He often tries too hard for a Shocking Denouement, however, which for me had the opposite effect to that which he no doubt intended (and I found his Oh So Daring explorations of incest and child abuse less disturbing than I did his framing of women/femininity). The dialogue (even in the best of the collection, 'Strange Geometry') was also dreadfully clunky at times. So-so. ( )

A lot of people will probably view this collection as incredibly bizarre, considering that the subject matter has mostly to do with sexual perversion. Some of the stories were just TOO weird for me, for example "Disguises" and "First Love, Last Rites."

I did love several of them, though, even though their subjects were often disturbing. I found "Homemade," "Solid Geometry," "The Last Day of Summer," and "Butterflies" all to be superbly excellent.

All in all, a great collection, though I do wonder at the inspiration. ( )

sensitive and funny. not for Muswell Hill residents ( )

A collection of short stories, mainly about teenagers and little kids experiencing first love and sex. Very interesting stories, but also very bizarre. Not for the faint-hearted. Nothing gets spelled out explicitly, you have to come up with your own solutions to many of the stories, so when I finished the book, I went somewhat “Ahem, oooookay, do I feel stupid or what?” If you are into the somewhat quirky, try it…. ( )

This is a great collection of short stories. I picked it up off my wife's bookshelf when I had nothing better to do, but really got into it. ( )