First Love, Last Rites By Ian McEwan - a collection of short stories
First Love, Last Rites is Ian McEwan's first collection of short stories and was originally published in 1975.
This collection was Ian McEwan's first published work and comprises a collection of eight short stories, all of which are summarised individually on this page.
All of the stories in First Love, Last Rites are linked with the central themes of sex, death and obsession and all bar one have a supplemental theme of adolescence (or at the very least young adulthood). All the stories are seen from a male perspective.
The stories are all on adult themes and contain references to sexual behaviours and violence which may disturb some readers.
"First Love, Last Rites" won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976.
"First Love, Last Rites" By Ian McEwan - Contents
Ian McEwan - First Love, Last Rites
- Review Of First Love, Last Rites By Ian McEwan
- Solid Geometry by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- Homemade by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- Last Day Of Summer by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- Cocker At The Theatre by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- Butterflies by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- Conversation With A Cupboard Man by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- Disguises by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
- More About The Author - Ian McEwan
- "First Love, Last Rites" - Feedback
- More Short Stories By Ian McEwan
Review Of First Love, Last Rites By Ian McEwan
Book review of First Love, Last Rites
First Love, Last Rites was Ian McEwan's first published work and for those readers who may be familiar with McEwan's later (and more famous) works, such as Atonement or Amsterdam, this is a very different Ian McEwan to the polished commercially successful writer he eventually became.I don't know if it was McEwan's intention to shock at the time he wrote these stories in the early 1970's, but well over thirty years later, some of the subject matter will undoubtedly offend and even upset some readers. The themes used include murder, rape and child abuse - bold topics for any era, but in some of these stories you can see the spark of "greatness" that enables McEwan to transcend mere unpleasantness...but he doesn't succeed with all these stories.
Two of the stories stand out from the others for negative reasons.
Homemade is a very nasty tale about a very nasty boy. It's a tale of selfish wickedness and neither the story or it's main character has any redeeming qualities. It's an unsatisfying tale in as much as the reader can't help but feel repulsed by the actions of the main character and naturally looks for some kind of retribution that does not come. The story just left me feeling uneasy and that's not a good feeling to evoke in a reader...
Cocker At The Theatre - I've read some rubbish in my time and this tale is right up there near the top of the list of "Things I Wish I'd Never Read". To say this story is weak, is putting it mildly. It's an absurd story and how it got included in this collection is a mystery to me. Dreadful.
The story that stands out in this collection is Last Day Of Summer. An elegant, bittersweet, beautifully written and evocative tale of affection, as intricate and fragile as a spider's web. Touching, poignant and sad, it's one that will stick in your memory.
The other tales are a mixed bag ranging from "not too bad" (Butterflies, Disguises and Conversation With A Cupboard Man) to "not too good" (Solid Geometry and First Love, Last Rites).
All of the stories are briefly summarised below.
Would I say this collection is worth reading? On the whole, yes, although as I said, the themes used are bold and will clearly not be to everyone's taste. The young McEwan certainly knew how to provoke a reaction, but whether he provokes the "right" reaction in many readers is down to the perception of the individual. He went on to have an exceptionally successful career as a writer, so this collection certainly didn't do him any harm...
Buy First Love, Last Rites Poster (illustrated above) From Art.com
Solid Geometry by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
A dark tale of a man who finds a novel solution to the demands made on him by his neglected wife...
Ultimately the diaries provide him with an unusual way to remove his annoying wife from his life permanently...
Homemade by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
An unpleasant tale about a very unpleasant teenage boy...
He panics when it seems his friend knows more about sexual matters than he does.
He decides that at any cost, he will be the first to lose his virginity...
Last Day Of Summer by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
Bittersweet tale of a young boy who finds someone to love...
Jenny is kind and funny and grows very close to the boy and his young niece Alice who is somewhat neglected by her mother.
The boy likes to take Jenny and Alice out in his rowing boat on the Thames, and on the last day of the school holidays, the three take one final boat trip before the summer ends...
Cocker At The Theatre by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
Very short tale set in a theatre...
Rehearsals are interrupted when the director realises that one couple aren't acting...
Butterflies by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
A lonely man turns into every parents worst nightmare...
On one of his walks into the rougher part of the town he lives in, he meets a little girl who seems interested in talking to him. Grateful for her company, he lets her walk along with him. However, the child is spoilt and manipulative and she cajoles the man into buying her a doll she sees in a shop window. He gives into her pleas and buys her the doll. The child is content and self-satisfied that she's got her own way and feels that she has some kind of control over the young man.
They walk onwards, but as the journey progresses, the child realises far too late, that far from having the upper hand in her new relationship, the young man has taken her into a situation which is way beyond her control...
Conversation With A Cupboard Man by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
Mother love gone badly wrong...
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
A young couple finds their idyllic existance threatened...
Disguises by Ian McEwan (from First Love, Last Rites)
A tale of cross-dressing...
First Love, Last Rites On Wikipedia
Wikipedia article about First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan
First Love, Last Rites is a collection of short stories by Ian McEwan. It was first published in 1975 by Jonathan Cape and re-issued in 1997 by Vintage.
Review Of "First Love, Last Rites" By Ian McEwan
- Bibliofemme: First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan
- Bibliofemme review of First Love, Last Rites
"First Love, Last Rites" By Ian McEwan On Amazon UK
"First Love, Last Rites" collection of short stories by Ian McEwan
Amazon reader review
"This book of short stories is from the early part of McEwan's career and there is an almost constant emphasis on the Dark Side of Existence that comes close to making the book seem a little juvenile. However, the stories are so consistently well-written that everything in them is convincing in their own terms, whether they depict mundane cruelty and tragedy or show the more imagnitive side of McEwan as in the opening story, 'Solid Matter' and 'Conversation with a Cupboard Man'. 'Homemade' and 'Butterflies' are the two most distasteful, tales of sexual abuse told by the abuser, but both are compelling and memorable. It's in 'First Love, Last Rites', however, the story which provides the book's title, that McEwan really shows the promise that flowers in his novels, an intensely atmospheric narrative that deftly draws the reader in."
"First Love, Last Rites" By Ian McEwan On Amazon USA
"First Love, Last Rites" collection of short stories by Ian McEwan
First Love, Last Rites: Stories
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Amazon reader review
"Approaching Ian McEwan for the first time, it seemed only natural that I begin with this collection of eight short stories, his first published work. I must say that McEwan leaves quite an impression on the reader. In fact, these stories are quite unlike anything I have ever read. One is hard pressed to determine just how to feel about the stories told here, attempting to integrate shock, sympathy, understanding, depression, ennui, enlightenment, and all manner of other reactions into some sort of vision of enlightenment. The first thing that becomes apparent is McEwan's boldness and unique vision; he uses some words that never find themselves into the published works of most other writers, but his employment of them seems to be a matter of craft rather than an act of gratuitousness..."
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More About The Author - Ian McEwan
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Ian McEwan - British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, And Screenwriter
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Ian McEwan has been writing fiction since the 1970's and has written many bestsellers and received numerous literary awards and glowing critical acclaim. It is difficult to sum up Ian McEwan's writing...a few words and phrases spring to mind...
"First Love, Last Rites" - Feedback
Have you read "First Love, Last Rites" By Ian McEwan? Would you like to? Share your thoughts here!
More Short Stories By Ian McEwan
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In Between The Sheets By Ian McEwan
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"In Between The Sheets" is a collection of short stories by award-winning author Ian McEwan, first published in 1978 Like McEwan's earlier short story collection, "First Love, Last Rites", the individual stories in "In...
Novels By Ian McEwan
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The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
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The Cement Garden" is the first novel written by award-winning British author, Ian McEwan. It was originally published in 1978. The Cement Garden is a beautifully woven, but very dark tale of childhood and lost innocence... The plot of The Ce...
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The Child In Time By Ian McEwan
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"The Child In Time" is Ian McEwan's third novel, first published in 1987. The Child In Time deals with the tragic theme of child abduction. Stephen Lewis, a children's book author, takes his 3-year-old daughter Kate on a routine Saturday morning sh...
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"Black Dogs" is a novel by multi-award winning British author Ian McEwan, first published in 1992. In 1946, a young couple, Bernard and June, set off on their honeymoon. Fired by their ideals and passion for one another, they plan an idyllic holiday...
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The Innocent By Ian McEwan
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"The Innocent" is Ian McEwan's fourth novel, first published in 1989. "The Innocent" is centered around Leonard Markham, a young, idealistic English electronics engineer sent to Germany during the Cold War to work on an Anglo-American intelligence p...
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The Comfort Of Strangers By Ian McEwan
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The Comfort Of Strangers is Ian McEwan's second novel, first published in 1981. A bored couple journey to an un-named city in search of excitement. There they meet an enigmatic stranger who entangles them in a web from which there may be no escape.....
Novels By Ian McEwan
Other books by Ian McEwan...
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Atonement By Ian McEwan
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"Atonement" is a novel by award winning writer, Ian McEwan, first published in 2001. The plot of "Atonement" follows the life of Briony Tallis, from naive teenager to elderly woman. In 1935, Briony 13 years old, an aspiring writer and the youngest...
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Amsterdam By Ian McEwan
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"Amsterdam" is a novel by multi-award winning author Ian McEwan, first published in 1998. The plot of "Amsterdam" follows two old friends, Clive, a composer and Vernon, a newspaper editor, who attend the funeral of a woman who had been a friend and...
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Enduring Love By Ian McEwan
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"Enduring Love" is a novel by award winning writer Ian McEwan, first published in 1997 On an ordinary spring day, while he is enjoying a picnic with his girlfriend, Clarissa, the calm, organised, ordinary life of science writer Joe Rose is turned up...
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On Chesil Beach By Ian McEwan
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"On Chesil Beach" is a novel by multi-award winning author, Ian McEwan first published in 2007 On a summer evening in 1962, two newlyweds sit down to dinner in the honeymoon suite of a Dorset hotel. Edward and Florence are both aged 22, both virgins...
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Saturday By Ian McEwan
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"Saturday" is a novel by multi-award winning author, Ian McEwan, first published in 2005. "Saturday" is the story of a day in the life of a 48 year old London neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne. The novel is set on Saturday, 15th February 2003. Henry wake...
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