The Cement Garden
(Ian McEwan)
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
If certain fictional works fall victim to clichéd taglines such as ?impossible to put down?, then Ian McEwan?s Cement Garden should be regarded as a novel that unashamedly glues itself to the scruff of your neck. From the very outset of the novel, the reader?s attention is transfixed by the enigmatic mysticism that surrounds the undeniably risqué story line. The family unit, and its inevitable breakdown, is certainly one of the key themes that McEwan is addressing in this novel along with escapism and isolationism. The novel is also a fictional interpretation of how family values and identities adopt new meanings when placed under untold pressures.The story is predominantly set in a run-down, gloomy,suburban house and is narrated through the eyes of a mildly narcissistic teenage boy named Jack, whose central preoccupation is frequent masturbation and the maintenance of low-level hygiene. The archetypal teenage boy I hear you cry! Drifting through life in a haze of solitude and apathy, Jack?s only significant connection with reality manifests itself in the form of his family- his parents and three siblings. Julie, his older sister, is arguably the only person with whom Jack truly bonds. The rest of his family constitute background anomalies in his wildly isolated, escapism-fuelled existence. However, when both parents die in a series of unrelated, separate incidents, the struggle of family life undertakes a far more significant role. Harassed by the pressures of financial constraint, social depravity and an over-baring sense of culpability, the protagonists spiral towards a truly debauch and unforgettable conclusion.
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