The Cement Garden

Book Description

In this tour de force of psychological unease--now a major motion picture starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Sinead Cusack--McEwan excavates the ruins of childhood and uncovers things that most adults have spent a lifetime forgetting--or denying. "Possesses the suspense and chilling impact of Lord of the Flies."--Washington Post Book World.

Customer Reviews:

Short and bittersweet.......2007-09-06

I just, like three minutes ago, finished reading this book for the second time. As I did so, I was surprised at how little I had noticed about it the first time.

As you are no doubt aware, one of the major themes in this book is sibling incest. Even though it's not consumated until very, very late in the book, the overtones go throughout it.

But I was surprised to find that, even though that was the focus of my attention the first time I read it, the second time I didn't even really notice it.

No, what I noticed instead is the slow disintegration of the lives of four children, particularly the youngest, as they try to cover-up the death of their mother (fearing the state would take them away). It's interesting also to read about how the house itself starts to reflect the mental states of all four kids, living their insular lives inside this home, hardly venturing out for anything but food.

During this second read, it was actually Tom's infantilism that caught my attention. First he begins dressing as a girl because he thinks life will be better, and then starts acting more and more like a baby. To me that was far more unhealthy than what Jack and Julie had going on.

As I mentioned before, the sibling incest (sibcest?), draws a lot of attention, and many people seem to think that, had their parents not died the older kids wouldn't have gotten up to what they got up to. Pretty clearly, it likely would've happend anyhow once their father died. Their mom was clearly a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and they were basically raising themselves before she died. Even if she had lived, I think a great deal of the book would've turned out the same.

Anyhow, the only real complaint I have about the book is that it was quite short (more of a novella, really), and ended on a rather uncertain note. I wouldn't mind finding out what became of the characters, but I don't think that's likely. Meantime, I'll just hope the DVD of the movie goes back into print soon. Ironically, it took me longer to watch the film than to read the book.

A Twisted Tale.......2007-07-16

Having been introduced to McEwan recently, this book officially made me a McEwan addict!

Jack and his siblings are suddenly orphaned. They take drastic measures to maintain the only life they know, which is a life together. McEwan makes even the most bizarre circumstances seem completely justified. A quick read, but a lot of depth beneath the surface.

kids without parents.......2007-07-16

This just gets a four from me. It was an enjoyable read, as all McEwan books are, if only for the prose. But the depth he gives to the initial situation of the father's personality, and the children's attitudes concerning his death, is immense. I felt sad while reading most of this book at the neglect of the children and wondered at the extraordinary cold selfishness of the narrator, Jack. The abnormality of the children's behaviour becomes seemingly normal in the claustrophopic sense of there being very little of the outside world with which to compare it; rather like an abused child's life seeming normal, if unpleasant, to the child itself. It is more a themed book rather than a plot-driven one. I'd advise you buy and enjoy the prose and the theme.

The Cement Garden/Our Mother's House.......2007-07-01

While reading a review of The Cement Garden, I had the uncanny feeling that I'd read this book before, then found the name of the book I was thinking of in a customer review at Amazon--Our Mother's House, by Julian Gloag. I had to order them both to read/reread/compare. Both are books about kids whose mothers die of unnamed wasting diseases who decide to dispose of the bodies and continue living as a family. On one hand, this is the set-up of a fairy tale... because the first general rule of a fairy tale is that your mother dies. But these are Gothic stories, with a house, a virgin and a secret.

Our Mother's House older, published in the seventies, the story of seven--seven!--kids. "Mother" was a vicar's daughter, a keeper of a neat, harmonious household in a decaying neighborhood. There was a husband, unknown to the kids and condemned by the mother. Support comes from monthly checks that one of the younger boys, an artistic genius, endorses in his mother's hand. The story is told in tightly focused third person, and Hugh is the point of most of the focus. Hugh craves (and helps to create a semblance of) order. Two of the other kids embrace religion feverishly when their mother dies, and commit some gross evil in the name of righteousness, the tragic results of which bond the kids even further in the name of complicity. They were blameless in the death of their mother but they do not remain blameless, and so their chance of asking for help has passed. The kids are worried about a neighbor, the housekeeper and gardener (who they fire), and a nosy teacher, Miss Deke, who puts her head in now and then, demanding to see their mother. For a while they are helped by an adult who is really just helping himself to their money and home. They live for over a year until, well, the inevitable. Because discovery is inevitable, right? Discovery is rescue, and we can't stand for kids to live in parentless squalor forever, their sheets unwashed, their hair matted, their lives degenerating.

The four Cement Garden kids are more isolated, living in a neighborhood where most homes were condemned for a never-built roadway. Their parents are offered up in more detail. The father is a difficult character, the mother yielding and excusing of his fussy, demanding, rigid ways. The narrating character, Jack, is in collusion with his two sisters. They all look after his younger brother, Tom, treating him less like a child than a simple-minded, small peer. The older three children have responded to the general air of repression and frustration in their home with sex games that fuel Jack's longing for his older sister, Julie. Though Jack is a social outcast going through a particularly pimpled adolescence, it is less the sex that thrills him and more the sense of collusion, of togetherness in a world in which they have their own secrets. This sense is lost when their parents die. Each child spirals off into his or her own private world, mimicking their parents' isolation from each other and their kids.

This made me think about how, as kids, parents seem to exist as something to unite against. They are the safety net and the oppressors, security and prison all in one. In following what happens to the kids in these books, I guess Lord of the Flies sets the expected pattern. I expected that some kids would want to follow the old rules, while others would descend into "savagery." But these kids don't want to be detected, so the old forms must be followed.

In Our Mother's House, the older girl Elsa (age 13) becomes the mother, firmly insisting that the rules and patterns must abide. Dunstan, the oldest boy, installs himself as a religious martinet (though lying, drinking, snooping and death are all terrifying to the kids, religion is the only great Evil in this book). The mother in this book was loving and present. The life she's created for her kids is full of love, pattern, small rituals, physical affection, order. As a result, her kids actually fare better, psychologically. They are lost and grasping without that love, but at least they had it at one point. It's clear that their needs had been met, that they had been loved.

The Cement Garden kids are not as fortunate. They operated in unison against their parents. They were belittled by their father, and their father was protected by their mother. When the parents die, the kids are splintered, there is no more unity because there is nothing left to unite against. They follow separate, strange, eerie paths to self-definition and preservation. I don't want to wreck either book for possible readers, but the Cement Garden kids fascinate me. Every step they take is so wrong, and yet inexorable. Inadequately parented kids are inadequate to the task of parenting themselves--or each other. Especially each other. Julie's attempts devolve into grotesquerie.

In both these books, the confusion and yearning for order and care are followed by an occasional Bacchanalian sense of celebration that there is none. Comparisons have been made to Lord of the Flies, but I don't see those as apt for two reasons; one, despite what blurbers have to say, there is no chilling, inexorable evil (aside from religion, which is discarded by Dunstan) asserted in either book, and two, adults, and the civilizing forces they represent are always available to both families. They are not lost on islands, there are neighbors, friends, various busybodies aplenty in both books. The isolation is chosen. This gives an interesting element to both books--in the element of choice, and in the examination of the parents involved. How did they set up their kids for this particular choice?

I've been looking at the books, trying to figure out the key to the parenting. I think I've found it in the gardens. The garden in Our Mother's House is shaggy, untamed. There's a pile of old yellow brick near a hole that's been dug, a promised "sunken garden" for the kids. Swing, trees, a large patch of Lilies of the Valley, under which they will bury their mother. When they dig, they find the earth is full of stones. Their garden stands in direct contrast to their neighbor Mr. Halpert's garden, tidy and boxed and in possession of an automatic sprinkler. But it's a welcoming place for children, where they can play and exist and be kids. it goes wild after the mother dies, it becomes a contained but salvageable wilderness around the reminder of her grave. The garden, like the children, can recover. But the plans for the titular cement garden are in effect the blueprint for the lives the children will live after their parents die.

To quote:

"He had constructed rather than cultivated his garden according to some plans he sometimes spread out on the kitchen table while we peered over his shoulder. There were narrow flagstone paths which made elaborate curves to visit flower beds that were only a few feet away. One path spiralled up round a rockery as though it were a mountain pass. It annoyed him to see Tom walking straight up the side of the rockery, using the path like a short path of stairs. "Walk it properly," he shouted out the kitchen window. There was a lawn the size of a card table raised a couple of feet on a pile of rocks. Round the edge of the lawn there was just space for a single row of marigolds. He alone called it the hanging garden. In the very center of the hanging garden was a plaster stature of a dancing Pan. Here and there were sudden flights of steps, down, and then up. There was a pond with a blue plastic bottom. One day he brought home two goldfish in a plastic bag. The birds ate them on the first day. The paths were so narrow it was possible to lose your footing and fall into the flower beds. He chose flowers for their neatness and symmetry. He liked tulips and planted them well apart. He did not like bushes or ivy or roses. He would have nothing that tangled. On either side of us the houses had been cleared and in summer the vacant sites grew lush with weeds and their flowers. Before his first heart attack he had intended to build a high wall round his special world."

Ah, well. Pointless, paved over, smashed down, this is a garden where nothing will ever bloom. Of the two, Cement Garden is the better book, but it's also the sadder book.

Beware the child-welfare agencies!!!.......2006-08-25

As a good Christian and upstanding Republican it warmed my heart to read this book and its charming story of four resourceful children wisely heeding the dying wishes of their parents not to notify authorities of their orphan-hood. Indeed, had they run to the authorities they would have been separated from each other and not experienced the oneness and unity which concludes this book in the best finishing scene since "The Waltons" back in the seventies. And yes, as many have pointed out, this book is a ripoff of that heartwarming scouting tale "Lord of the Flies". Yeah, so Led Zeppelin's "the Lemon Song" is also a ripoff of Howlin' Wolf's "the Killing Floor". Some things bear repeating.

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CEMENT AND CONCRETE IN HOME AND GARDEN
ALGERNON WINCANTON
Manufacturer: WELLS, GARDNER, DARTON & CO LTD
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S34UL4

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CEMENT AND CONCRETE IN HOME AND GARDEN.

Manufacturer: Wells Gardner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CIEMS

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The Cement Garden
Ian McEWAN
Manufacturer: Simon and Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPAM7W

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The Cement Garden

Manufacturer: Recorded Books LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 1402539940

Product Description

First, Father dies. Then Mother, wilting away in her bed, stops breathing. Suddenly 14-year-old Jack and his three siblings are left alone in the family house. They are free to live however they choose, but without parental guidance, they quickly descend into a nightmarish world of depravity. Facing an uncertain future, they preserve a terrible secret that could shatter their existence.

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The Cement Garden
Ian McEwan
Manufacturer: Berkley Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000TZ4EUI

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Cement Garden 1ST Edition Us
Ian Mcewan
Manufacturer: SIMON & SCHUSTER
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SO0IG4

Jardin De Cemento / The Cement Garden (Andanzas / Adventures) (Andanzas / Adventures)

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Jardin De Cemento / The Cement Garden (Andanzas / Adventures) (Andanzas / Adventures)
Ian McEwan , and Antonio-prometeo Moya
Manufacturer: TusQuets
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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VOICE FROM THE CEMENT GARDEN
Mary Mendola
Manufacturer: Helios Book Pub.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KBC7BO

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The Cement Garden
Ian McEwan
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0224016288

Amazon.com

Bestselling author Debbie Macomber continues to delight readers with her heartwarming Heart of Texas series with Return to Promise. Back on familiar ground, Macomber reintroduces us to favorite characters from earlier volumes, including Cal Patterson and his wife, Jane. Married for several years, Jane has severely cut back her medical practice to raise their two small children while Cal continues to ranch. But when Jane and the children take an extended trip to California to nurse her ailing father, Cal becomes the target of an attractive newcomer in town, hot-to-trot Nicole Nelson. Jane returns to Promise as rumors surface about the time Cal spent with Nicole while the cat... uh, Jane... was away. Disagreements and doubts escalate, leading to Jane and Cal's separation, Jane heading back to her parents' home in California with their children. Alone, Cal is forced for the first time in his marriage to think, really think, about what he wants and needs his life to be. The prolific Macomber answers fans' cries for "more, more, more" Promise, Texas, with her true and sometimes painful portrayal of life and love after the initial rush of hormones passes.--Alison Trinkle

Customer Reviews:

I don't think so either.......2005-07-06

I have read other books by Debbie Macomber and thoroughly enjoyed them. However, in my opinion this one did not measure up to her previous works. Maybe if I had read the previous titles in this series I might have liked "Return to Promise". However I found the childish misunderstandings and lack of communication between Cal and Jane quite ridiculous. In my opinion, this book read like a soap opera.

I agree with the reader review from May 19, not worth it.......2005-06-20

The review entitled "I don't think so" pretty much nailed it on the head. I was disappointed. Check out The Shop on Blossom street for a really good read by Debbie Macomber.

Glad they returned!.......2004-10-09

This book is a great beach book and hard to put down. Although
you know from the beginning who where what why when. Glad I read it and look forward to reading the first one!

Pretty Good........2002-06-13

This was an enjoyable book, but I can't give it 5 stars because the whole book was all about 2 Dr Jane and her Husband. But, worth reading.

A Marriage is Tested.......2002-06-11

Cal Patterson and Jane have been married for several years and have two children.Jane is called back to her family in California resulting in her staying longer than expected.When Jane returns to her home in Promise,she is met with disturbing awarness that her marriage is being tested.

Amazon.com

Due to popular demand, veteran author Debbie Macomber returns once more to Promise, the fictional town in the Texas hill country, site of Macomber's celebrated Heart of Texas series. Characters who have become like readers' old friends appear again, along with new faces including Annie Applegate, Gordon Pawling, and Nessa Boyd, who find romance when they least expect it. Love, intrigue, and tragedy are well known to the citizens of small-town Texas, where the past, present, and future collide as they are wont do in all our lives. Perhaps it is here that the secret of Macomber's distinction lies; she elucidates so clearly the extraordinary nature of the most ordinary lives. Readers will hope that Promise, Texas, continues to experience a population explosion, thanks to Macomber's fluent crafting and her understanding of the human heart. --Alison Trinkle

Customer Reviews:

Enjoyed this book as the 7th in the series........2007-03-27

I loved reading more about the people of Promise, Texas that I had met in previous books of this series. I was sorry to miss two of the books which I was not able to obtain. Promise seems like a town almost anyone would enjoy living in if they wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities a lot of us live in.

Very Good.......2002-06-13

This was a very good book. I plan to keep it to read again in the future.

I want more.......2001-04-08

This was one of the best books I have ever read. I couldnt put the book down until i had finished it. Then I was disapointed as I could have read more but there was no more to read.... It doesnt really matter what Debbie Macomber writes all her books are wonderful to read.

Who says you can't go back again?.......2001-03-05

This Debbie MacOmber story is a pleasant revisit to the Heart of Texas series. It is wonderful to visit old friends and meet some new ones. If you haven't read Debbie's first six books about Promise, Texas, you must put them on your wish list.

In this story, like the others about Promise, commitment and trust are woven into love and respect. Family is important and so are friends. I recommend all seven of these Promise books for younger readers since the heart and soul of these stories leaves the love scenes to the imagination.

Enjoy! You can do nothing else in Promise, Texas.

Good to be back.......2000-07-14

I was so glad Ms. Macomber wrote this book. I had read all the other Heart of Texas books and was a little sad at the end of the last one. I felt like I was leaving Promise and all my friends behind. This book was an answer to my prayers. I think all the plotlines keep this book interesting. After all if you've read the other books you are catching up with old friends and making new ones. This is a delightful read from beginning to end. Caution: you won't be able to put this book down once you pick it up. If you've read the others you've got to go back to Promise, Tx. If you've not read the others stop by and say hello!

Texas Neighbors: The Key/The Promise/The Neighbor (Heartsong Novella Collection)

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Fun and entertaining
Sappy Romance

Texas Neighbors: The Key/The Promise/The Neighbor (Heartsong Novella Collection)
Debra White Smith
Manufacturer: Barbour Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1597891118
Release Date: 2006-04-15

Product Description

Contemporary Romance: New neighbors. Reunited neighbors. Overlooked neighbors. Three Texas couples come together amidst mystery, chance encounters, and heartbreak that try their faith. Allissa Carrington plans to spend vacation time fixing up her new home, but her neighbor has just dug up a mystery in his back yard. Can she trust that he is not part of a murderous plot? When Brendy Lane's old flame walks into her coffee shop, Zeke brings with him a flood of sweet memories. Can Brendy take a chance on giving Zeke priority in her full life? Burned by love, Kent Lane only has energy for his two children. Can he ever recognize the love offered by a family friend?

Customer Reviews:

Fun and entertaining.......2007-05-02

Reviewed by Kelli Glesige for Reader Views (4/07)

"Texas Neighbors" is a compilation of three stories about three couples and how they come together amidst heartbreak, mystery and chance.

"The Key," (2003), is the story of Brendy Lane and her long-ago high school sweetheart, Zeke Blake. Thirty-three years previously, Brendy had promised to wait for Zeke when he went off to Vietnam, but circumstances change, and Brendy picked up and married Mack while jilting Zeke. Now Brendy is in need of a locksmith, and Zeke has been called to help Brendy. As the two reacquaint, the years seem to drop away, and Brendy and Zeke realize they still have feelings for each other.

"The Promise," (2003), finds Kent Lane, Brendy's son, struggling with his own life due to his wife leaving him and their two children, Pete and Pat, for a doctor. Kent had given up his lifelong dream of becoming a physician and chose instead to become a nurse to appease his wife's wishes, for the time needed to become a physician was imposing upon her, leaving her with too many domestic duties. Now Kent is left alone with his two beautiful, but spoiled, children and a mother who does not want to over discipline her grandchildren. Sylvia Donnelley helps Brendy run her coffee shop, and she dearly loves and helps out with the children whenever needed, for the children love Sylvia and the attention she gives them. Could Kent ever think as much of Sylvia as his children do?

"The Neighbor," (1998), is a mystery for Dr. Alissa Carrington and her gorgeous neighbor, Brad Ratner. Brad is having a pool installed in his backyard, and human bones have been uncovered. Alissa is a dentist and had planned to spend her vacation fixing up her new home, but Brad's attention has distracted Alissa. Soon, what appear to be accidents begin happening to Alissa, and her life is in danger. What is even more perplexing is that Brad seeks Alissa's attractions and then begins pushing away. Alissa is confused and in danger and must find out what is going on.

The three stories included in "Texas Neighbors" are fun and entertaining to read. The stories also have the underlying message that in all things big or small, look to God and pray, for therein you will find the answers you seek. If you enjoy romance with a Godly message, I recommend "Texas Neighbors" to all.

Sappy Romance.......2007-03-29

It is my own fault, really. I'm not a sappy, romance novel type of person. I was cooped up with a cold, and I borrowed this book from my mother. I did finish the book, which is about three different love stories, with all the stories based in Texas. I found the characters to be 2 dimensional, and I found the murder mystery actually very silly. I also found several grammar mistakes. I would not recommend this book.

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Fulfilling its Promise
I have long waited for this book to see life in paperback!

A Place with Promise
Edward Swift
Manufacturer: Hawk Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Family Saga | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1930709102

Book Description

A Place with Promise is a magical, generation-spanning fable about everything we think we've lost-except, as the denizens of Camp Ruby learn, it's all still there, if we only know where to look for it.

Customer Reviews:

Fulfilling its Promise.......2000-11-26

A PLACE WITH PROMISE is filled with the characters that Edward Swift loves. In this book, Edward Swift weaves memory with wonder and satirical jabs that will be appreciated long after he is gone from this earth. Mr. Swift loves the people who populate his mind and his memory. In A PLACE WITH PROMISE, Mr. Swift causes us to join him in caring deeply about the people whom he translates well from his mind to the pages of his books. Mr. Swift first did this with the people in the East Texas town, which was the setting of his first book, SPLENDORA. He also caused us to care deeply for the people in CAMP RUBY, CHRISTOPHER PARK REGULARS and MY GRANDFATHER'S FINGER, which is actually a memoir of his early years with his mother who created his magical world for him and taught him to appreciate the humor in the eccentricities of those around him. Mr. Swift's books cause us to want to read them again and again and to share them with all our friends. We truly feel that his books grow more meaningful with time and we also feel that Mr. Swift is now entering the time in which he was born to live.

A PLACE WITH PROMISE will zing you with humor and zap you with the pathos of the inner lives of the characters. You'll find yourself and all your friends within these pages and you'll love your world and your friends more after you have read it.

I have long waited for this book to see life in paperback!.......2000-10-09

Way back in 1988, I obtained a publisher's copy of htis book in hardcover and it promptly made the circuit of my book-reading friends. Dog-eared as it was, it always made its way back to me numerous times after a high praise review from that pal. Many compared it to Marquez's Hundred Years in Solitude. I loved this story so much. It is funny, heartbreaking and so deserving of an audience. Edward Swift's books have always flown beneath the radar but certainly enjoy a cult status. This is one of my alltime favorites though. I would love to see this book added to the Oprah Book Club shelf at my local bookseller. And with Oprah in mind, I can see it as a film with the eye Spielberg used in his Color Purple.

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Wild Texas Promise
Victoria Thompson
Manufacturer: Zebra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0821730908

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Promise Texas

Manufacturer: Mira Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739404962

DREAMS AT DAWN # 1 (Texas Promises, Book 1)

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DREAMS AT DAWN # 1 (Texas Promises, Book 1)
Marie Lindquist
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0553262890
Release Date: 1987-01-01

The Gospel of Matthew: Jesus as the Fulfillment of God's Promise TEACHING GUIDE (Baptistway Bible Study of Texas)

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The Gospel of Matthew: Jesus as the Fulfillment of God's Promise TEACHING GUIDE (Baptistway Bible Study of Texas)

Manufacturer: Baptistway of Texas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 193106007X

HIDDEN LONGINGS #3 (Texas Promises, No 3)

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HIDDEN LONGINGS #3 (Texas Promises, No 3)
Marie Lindquist
Manufacturer: Starfire
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0553266683
Release Date: 1987-07-01

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A History of Texas - Land of Promise
J.L. Clark
Manufacturer: Heath, D.C.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H4KSTM

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