Christina Reviews *The Cement Garden* by Ian McEwan

         Four siblings are left to fend for themselves after the death of their mother.  Their father died of a heart attack shortly before.  They don’t want to be separated, so they keep their mother’s death a secret by hiding her body in the basement.  Before their parents’ deaths, the kids were a little naughty, if you will, but now, with no one around to make sure they behave themselves, things get altogether out of control. 

       In the hands of a bad writer, this story would have been Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead sprinkled with a dash of Flowers in the Attic.  In the hands of Ian McEwan, the ingredients of this novel come together to create a concoction more in line with what you would get if you mixed orange juice with milk, and then sprinkled in some fleas for extra flavor.

        I didn’t particularly enjoy the book.  It was too macabre, and not just due to the subject matter, though the subject matter was pretty macabre as well.  It was the whole dreary atmosphere that made this feel like The Lord of the Flies on downers. 

      By the way, here’s an interesting piece of trivia you probably could have lived your entire life without knowing.  The spoken words at the beginning of the song “What It Feels Like For a Girl” by Madonna were actually Charlotte Gainsbourg’s lines in the movie adaptation of The Cement Garden.