First Love, Last Rites, by Ian McEwan, is a collection of eight short stories and the author’s debut. The dark tone adopted brought to mind early Iain Banks, particularly The Wasp Factory, although the Scottish author published that work...
First Love, Last Rites, by Ian McEwan, is a collection of eight short stories and the author’s debut. The dark tone adopted brought to mind early Iain Banks, particularly The Wasp Factory, although the Scottish author published that work a decade or so after this – perhaps any inspiration should be reversed.
The protagonists and narrators within this collection are mostly young men and exhibit their supposedly typical predilections in thought and deed. The female characters come across as literary ciphers, interesting creations but there to enable the male characters to be developed alongside plot progression. An eclectic and often disturbing range of sexual activity is indulged, as is a degree of animal cruelty. Sympathy is evoked through backstory but this is rarely enough to excuse behaviour.
The collection opens with Solid geometry in which an unhappily married man avoids his equally unhappy wife, Maisie, by escaping to his study where he peruses his great-grandfather’s diaries. The man’s egotistical tendencies make clear why his marriage is failing, and this is well portrayed through both his actions and curiosity over his forebearer’s life. What I found most of interest was the mathematical thread, and the lack of concern over how he dealt with Maisie.
Homemade is another story with a protagonist so engrossed in his own life trajectory that he appears entirely void of emotional intelligence. Narrated by a man looking back at his adolescence, it recounts how he attempted to lose his virginity. An intensely dark recollection, not for the faint-hearted reader.
I had to set the book down after these two tales and consider what I had just read. The lightness of the skilfully rendered prose belies the deeply disturbing actions and undercurrents.
Next we have Last day of summer in which a twelve year old orphan is living in the family home with his older brother, who has rented out rooms in an attempt to establish a small commune. A new resident arrives and balance is shifted. Although the denouement is tragic, and child neglect as a repeating theme in the coming stories is introduced, I found less darkness here.
Cocker at the theatre takes a dig at the pretensions of ‘artistic’ creators in a small theatre. It begs the question why actors ever agree to certain sexual exploits demanded of them by directors.
Butterflies returns to darkly disturbing territory with the story of a ten year old girl who dies from drowning in a city canal. The narrator is a young man living alone, a misfit who observed the child entering the water and called the police. As the last to see her alive, suspicion falls on him.
Conversation with a cupboard man features another misfit and loner, albeit one whose issues are clearly caused by severe emotional abuse from his early years. There is much to consider in what he reveals of his upbringing, and subsequent inability to walk away from workplace bullying. A careful balance is created between sympathy and condemnation of anti-social behaviour.
The titular tale is in some ways more nuanced although still focusing on a young man whose life choices are unlikely to lead to socially acceptable outcomes. He and his girlfriend are living day by day, with sex their focus although with side-lines in how to earn enough necessary money. The state of their flat attracts a rat, the creature providing a metaphor for their unmaintainable existence.
The collection closes with Disguises. Again, the protagonist is a young boy who is orphaned and ends up in a home that is far from nurturing. Henry is a compliant child, taken in by his aging Aunt Mina, a failed actress. Even now, Mina’s life is a performance in which she must be the star. She requires that Henry be her supporting actor. At first he acquiesces, separating this strange new home life from that which he enjoys at school with friends. Darkness descends when Mina’s demands enter more physically abusive territory. The denouement is horrific yet impressively foreshadowed.
I cannot say I enjoyed reading these disturbing stories, despite recognising the skill with which they are written. The author’s dark imagination had me questioning what goes on in some men’s heads. Sex acts proliferate but lack wider pleasure. Matriarchal figures are rarely kindly portrayed.
An interesting foray into the early writing of an author, some of whose later work I admired and enjoyed. It would be interesting to reread these now that I have experienced the direction in which his imagination first travelled.
My copy of First Love, Last Rites was published by Picador in 1991.
