SOURCE: Feeney, Joseph J. Review of Black Dogs, by Ian McEwan. America 170, no. 15 (30 April 1994): 22-4.

In the following excerpt, Feeney offers praise for Black Dogs, lauding its “scope, depth, and unity,” and its treatment of such themes as politics, religion, the quest for family, and European political oppression.

London booksellers are brave: They display works of quality along with best sellers. Not too long ago, on their laden tables, I found three superb new novels—one British, two Irish—that are now available in American editions and deserve an American audience.

Ian McEwan's Black Dogs is brilliant, with a scope, depth and unity that belie its brevity. Beginning as a quest for family, the novel gradually encompasses England, Berlin, Poland and southern France, brings in politics, rationalism and religion, involves mythic dogs and ancient dolmens, and ends as a symbol of Europe from World War II to the...