My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m still split on how much I enjoyed Black Dogs by Ian McEwan.
First of all, I definitely liked it. The idea behind it seemed very clever: the contrast between the communist intellect and the spiritual belief symbolized by a separated, irreconcilable but still married couple AND then two major German historic events (the atrocities of world war 2, then the horror and overcoming of the Berlin wall) seen from the perspective of the same English family. All this in turn re-told by the son-in-law who sorts and analyzes the events, including the incident of the big black dogs and their symbolic meaning of evil in the world.
Really very clever, but then maybe too clever, too theoretical, too forced? Might depend on the mood if it’s 3 or 4 stars for me.