Exploring “traces of intertexuality” and presenting interpretations through “informed misreading,” Księżopolska (Univ. of Warsaw, Poland) offers one of the best available discussions of most of McEwan’s major texts (p. 5). Finding support for her readings in McEwan’s papers, archived in Texas, she tends to read McEwan’s books from their endings and then seeks the moments of narrative ambiguity that hint at the narrative’s possible directions. Consequently, the surprise of Briony Tallis’s revelation at the end of Atonement, for instance, is questioned for being less surprising than initially imagined. Harold Bloom’s concept of “misreading” and Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism establish an interpretive methodology that is initially brought to bear on a handful of early stories before being employed in clear and careful discussions of seven novels (from Cement Garden to On Chesil Beach). Reviewing McEwan’s papers often reveals the gaps and memory lapses she finds in McEwan’s many public interviews and comments about his work. The section “Concluding Thoughts” seems tacked on and rapidly surveys the nine books, including Saturday and the most recent novel, The Lesson, which were not addressed expansively. Only The Cockroach, with its obvious debt to Kafka, is surprisingly left out.--B. Diemert, Western University
