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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
I think this is a typical Ian McEwan book, in that it describes a short, fairly tragic, period of time in a family's life in intricate, sometimes lovely, and sometimes downright boring detail. I liked the characters and the story well enough, but I also wanted it to be over, already--too many pages for a single day for me (Ivan Denisovich is another story).
I'm always amazed at how quickly I get through McEwan, even though it seems so dense. I love his writing, how he can take a day, an evening, a moment, and amplify it. I also love how he writes about writing, and I enjoyed the theater/surgery parallels here.
Beautifully written but very slowly developed. A little pretentious.
The best chewy fiction read for me this year. Taut, controlled writing; interesting and well-researched characters; real location and events used to springboard the plot. The timing was brilliant for me in that I was also re-reading Mrs Dalloway at this time and Saturday is like this and another ground-breaking work, Ulysses, in that its events occur over the span of one day (the idea being that all of life occurs or is present in each day of every life). Like Ulysses, McEwan's subject matter and location are contemporary/topical and the events centre around the London protests against the invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s. McEwan manages to weave in and out of this plotline many thoughts, philosophical and mundane, about contemporary living, modern technology, rich vs poor, urban London living, inter-generational concerns and much more, without it being burdensome. You are also treated to some highly technical descriptions of brain surgery, but don't worry, he wears his learning lightly and it's all driving the story home. I personally loved the detail of Henry travelling around his local streets in Fitzrovia and enjoyed checking his exact path in my A-Z or online. I really miss living in London and this level of true detail was so enjoyable. Another fun thing I intend to try is his fish stew recipe (yes, you can find it in many literary cooking blogs!) which is cleverly alternated with monitoring news reports in the text. It's not the lightest read, but that is part of its attraction. Sometimes you get fed up with junk food and just need a good old nutritious roast dinner to work through. Highly recommended.
Felt a little dated - haven't we heard a lot of arguments about Iraq and the war? Haven't we seen the fall out?. The parts of this book, where McEwan uses the central character, to exhort the necessity of war, felt out of place for a reader in 2015.
The human elements of the book were the saving grace - each character of the Perowne family and his/her interactions with others in this clique feel solidly real. The prose is classic McEwan - floaty, dreamy and poetic at times.
The human elements of the book were the saving grace - each character of the Perowne family and his/her interactions with others in this clique feel solidly real. The prose is classic McEwan - floaty, dreamy and poetic at times.
tense
medium-paced
I had to get used to the pace of this book - it felt like living in someone else's head for 24 hours, all the thoughts, judgments, tangents, etc. Ian McEwan books are like pickles to me - really good, but I only want to read one a year.
My pal Anne recommended this to me as a starter book for old Ian. I did like it. Heavy on exposition, but when he hits you with the heavy conflict put everything else aside. It absorbs you then.
I found this book quite uninspiring. To date, the only Ian McEwan book I have enjoyed reading was Enduring Love.....