A reread of the first book I read that turned me on to McEwan. Still a great read.
McEwan does a brilliant job of taking an idea or conflict of ideas and giving it flesh in terms of real characters with real lives. This book is actually a political allegory, though I see it more clearly this time than I did years ago. The essential conflict of ideas at the heart of the book is between rationality or reason, and spiritual or religious ways of being in the world. Interestingly enough, at the end of the book, when June confronts the black dogs of the title, it is this spiritual/religious way of being that chases them away. At the time of the attack, rationalism is busy studying caterpillars... The author makes it very clear at the end, that the black dogs (left behind by nazis after the war) are a symbol of fascism and all it entails. Bernard's career, first as a member of the Communist party, and then as a Liberal MP, gets short shrift in terms of significance or value.
An author you can reread for sure.
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