First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan

First Love, Last Rites is a collection of short stories, unsurprisingly (or maybe not) about first loves and death. It's made up of eight different stories with subject matter ranging from a man who makes his wife disappear after reading his great-grandfather's diary to a boy who makes friends with a larger lady only to witness her drown to a couple having sex on a stage in a rehearsal of an orgy or something (for my money, the weakest of the collection).

Absolute stand-outs for me were Conversations with a Cupboard Man about a man desperate to crawl back inside the uterus after a lifetime of being infantilised at the hands of his own mother and Disguises, the story of Henry, a young boy sent to live with his decidedly odd aunt who makes him wear different costumes and indulge her in roleplay after his mother dies. I felt the instant urge to reread these two stories after I'd reached the end of them.

The subject matter of the stories in this collection of short fiction is often unpalatable (incest, murder, child abuse (you can see the development of McEwan's later novel, The Cement Garden in these tales.)) but each story's unique narrative voice make for compelling reading. It's atmospheric and absorbing stuff.

This was Ian McEwan's first published work and "brought him instant recognition as one of the most influential voices writing in England today". It also won an award of some sort or another. I reckon it's worth all the hoopla.