Comments on Ian McEwan's Brother

2004 link goes nowhere.

Many, many years ago, when I was twenty-three, I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be.
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red, my father fell in love with her, and soon they too were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law and really changed my life,
now my daughter was my mother, cause she was my father's wife.
to complicate the matter, even though it brought me joy,
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad,
and so became my uncle, though it made me very sad.
for if he was my uncle, then that also made him brother
of the widow's grown-up daughter, who, of course, was my stepmother.

Father's wife then had a son who kept him on the run,
and he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son.
my wife is now my mother's mother, and it makes me blue,
because, although she is my wife, she's my grandmother, too.

Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I'm her grandchild,
and every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild,
cause now I have become the strangest case you ever saw
as husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa!

The link to the Sean Nelson article:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=17555

Sorry about that--link's fixed now.

Gurldoggie, we must be related, 'cause only my family knows that song.

Yeah, this is old news. I think even one of the dateline/20-20 TV newsmags did something on it (though probably it was a repurposed BBC piece). Kind of got lost in the war coverage at the time.