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Sat 03 Mar 2007Eternal student of extremesThough his prose is as surgically precise as ever in his new novel, Ian McEwan, like his work, has become less intimidating and more humane, as Eileen BattersbydiscoversAmbivalence is a territory that British writer Ian McEwan understands with a chilling clarity. That, and the thin line between the sinister and the vulnerable; as well as the invariably violent and often sexual obsessions and anxieties that make up modern life. It is Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of the American/British invasion of Iraq, not that the citizens pushing past the slow-moving tourists on London's streets appear to be thinking much about the war. Most of us have taken to sighing - funny how anger burns itself out and settles into irony. McEwan shudders slightly at the reminder of the date and says "oh is it?" with a mild half-smile. As the son of a career soldier, he knows a good deal about conflict. He was born in the aftermath of the second World War, grew up at a succession of military camps and has lived through the threat and reality of global upheaval.