Comfort for strangers

Author Name: Ian McEwan

"Comfortable with Strangers" proves that literature and the social sciences, together, offer a new understanding of what is called "the literature of social density," offering analyses and treatments of the individual's preference for the rare over the common (or vice versa), and the intimate honesty that flows from him with a stranger beyond his family and friends; of his fleeting, everyday relationships (both in connection and in separation); and of his feeling of lightness as long as his identity is unknown to those around him. Life among strangers in the street, the market, and the neighborhood is a new civic experience in human history, producing new types of social relationships and reshaping others, in keeping with the new power inherent in the individual's hand resulting from the weakening of the bonds between him and people and their relationships. It is the story of Colin and Mary's travel during their vacation, and their confinement together inside their intimate capsule in a strange country overrun by tourists. They feel they don't know each other, and each of them becomes concerned with his appearance and clothing as if someone were waiting for him outside. One day, they meet a suspicious man with a strange story to tell, and they are drawn into fantasy worlds of love, passion, and unbridled sadism.