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![Saturday by Ian McEwan 4th (fourth) Edition [Paperback(2006)] by Ian McEwan](https://assets.thestorygraph.com/assets/placeholder-cover-a3ae92250eb3301e32dc3eabf8d50576c2f047dda89f6ee7cfa9a859cb1fd746.jpg)
3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
Rating: 2.5
I always, unfailingly, speak highly of Ian McEwan. His brilliant, spellbinding prose is a delight to read. However, Saturday turned out to be disappointing. The writing is still likeable, the protagonist - not so likeable and his meandering thoughts were a bit too tedious to read. The tedious-ness makes the novel boring at several places, which a McEwan novel should definitely not be. I like McEwan's command over the language but the story was very passable and slow. Least favourite of mine by this author so far.
I always, unfailingly, speak highly of Ian McEwan. His brilliant, spellbinding prose is a delight to read. However, Saturday turned out to be disappointing. The writing is still likeable, the protagonist - not so likeable and his meandering thoughts were a bit too tedious to read. The tedious-ness makes the novel boring at several places, which a McEwan novel should definitely not be. I like McEwan's command over the language but the story was very passable and slow. Least favourite of mine by this author so far.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I struggled. I swore I would finish it. I collapsed 50 pages short of the end. Short summary: A day in the life of a narcissistic neurosurgeon. Characters so flat and lifeless they may as well have been cardboard. Stereotyping and cliche in spadefulls. I began to mentally vomit when Perone (aka God) decides to heroically operate on the home intruder, whose head injury he himself caused. Mr McEwan, stick to what you know. I am a doctor and no surgeon would EVER operate on someone that three hours earlier had tried to rape his daughter and that he himself had assaulted. Yeah I get the parrallels with the invasion of Iraq and the smug assurance of the invading Western powers. Very clever. But it doesn't make up for the hollow ring of this book and it's self-indulgent tone.
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore
This book put me off reading other Ian McEwan's works, every time I see one I remember this book and cringe.
Wow wow wow!!!! McEwan astounds me every single page is to be savoured
besides exploring the complexities, ambiguities, and ironies of being a medical practitioner (how can i prize being objective when my expertise is founded on uncertainties and deduction? etc.), mcewan's saturday is a love story. at times, it is a flawed one, where perowne's act of love is selfish, leaning into conflict to digest the tension brewing from the political sphere. yet, saturday is so full of heart despite conveying the failures in our mutual understanding of each other, caught between pragmatics (an objective reality) and emotions (a subjective one). at its core, the love between henry and his wife is startlingly interdependent; the relationship that the two have is frighteningly vulnerable and comforting in the best way. when i think of our love, i think it is like theirs.
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was surprised with how much I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is quite focused on current events, which is almost an immediate turn-off for me, but McEwan's writing is so spectacular and poetically simple that I could not put this one down for too long. The almost average day in the life of a successful middle-age man, his thoughts and daily observations, has never been so interesting. McEwan does a great job of illustrating how we life [b:in our time|280111|Holy Bible|Various|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173381163s/280111.jpg|6405907] and proposes interesting thoughts of terrorism--the kind we see in our personal lives set against the backdrop of the War on Terror.
Story itself was intriguing, especially when it picks up pace at the end. Most of the time I was praying for paragraph breaks. The overall style was not for me.