Blackwell Reference Online

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Rising above his early reputation as an author fixated on the grotesque and perverse, Ian McEwan has established himself as one of the world's most celebrated prose fiction writers in English, enjoying both critical approbation and commercial success. While he frequently employs the self-conscious and experimental techniques associated with the postmodern period, he also prides himself on his work's compellingly readable quality and strong moral sensibility, characteristics familiar to his readership from the tradition of the great English novels of the nineteenth century. His writing has won many awards, and several of his texts have been adapted for the screen, the most famous being the Oscar-winning film of Atonement. McEwan was born in 1948 in Aldershot, England, spending part of his youth living on army bases in Singapore and Libya. He studied at the University of Sussex before pursuing a master's degree at the University of East Anglia, where he was mentored by the English authors Angus Wilson and Malcolm Bradbury, and was influenced by the work of contemporary writers such as Iris Murdoch, Saul Bellow, and Norman Mailer. At the age of 24, he began a career as a professional writer, quickly becoming, along with his friend Martin Amis, one of the enfants terribles of the British literary scene. As a young writer, he became active in various political causes, including the ... log in or subscribe to read full text