I used to like Ian McEwan. When I was travelling around Europe by train in the early 80s I would often have one of his books in my backpack - First Love Last Rites, The Cement Garden, In Between The Sheets.
The books of the 90s didn't do it for me. I decided to risk the slim On Chesil Beach to see if we have become reconciled, but we haven't. The writing is very skilled, but the content - both theme and characters - is not. It's an uninteresting story about two unappealing, tedious people.