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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I am a huge Ian McEwan fan and even though this book had beautiful passages and chapters that made me think about how our personal lives and historic political events intertwine, the book felt dull compared to his other novels.
The prose is often breathless, sometimes going on over several pages without saying much at all. Despite the complicated and traumatising relationship to his former teacher the main character lacked depth and even after over 400 pages I couldn’t quite grasp him. Still an enjoyable read, but if I could give it 3,5 stars, it would be a more accurate rating.
The prose is often breathless, sometimes going on over several pages without saying much at all. Despite the complicated and traumatising relationship to his former teacher the main character lacked depth and even after over 400 pages I couldn’t quite grasp him. Still an enjoyable read, but if I could give it 3,5 stars, it would be a more accurate rating.
dark
emotional
informative
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
It look me a long while to get to this piece. I first saw it advertised whilst living in the Hague in 2021. I knew then that it'd be a great book, but it wasn't till 2023, that I gave it to George as a birthday present. Even then, it was only by chance that I picked it up. I mistakenly left my Niall Ferguson at home, and so had the chance to start Lessons whilst cycling through Ireland.
It took me about sixty pages to understand the current of McEwan's prose, but from then on I was hooked. I don't think I've read a piece before that has so convincingly shown a link between macro-political forces (the Stasi in communist East Germany say) and the effect on the lives of relatively non-political little people. This is an emotional piece, with heartbreaking moments, abuse, plenty of depressive imagery. But it's also a piece with love, tenderness, friendship, and a full span of life. I'd recommend this book to anyone.
My least favourite element of the book was the occasional atheistic rant that Roland shows. For me, this was just a cheap way for McEwan to shoehorn his theology into the work. I don't think it really added or made sense alongside the rest of the narrative.
It took me about sixty pages to understand the current of McEwan's prose, but from then on I was hooked. I don't think I've read a piece before that has so convincingly shown a link between macro-political forces (the Stasi in communist East Germany say) and the effect on the lives of relatively non-political little people. This is an emotional piece, with heartbreaking moments, abuse, plenty of depressive imagery. But it's also a piece with love, tenderness, friendship, and a full span of life. I'd recommend this book to anyone.
My least favourite element of the book was the occasional atheistic rant that Roland shows. For me, this was just a cheap way for McEwan to shoehorn his theology into the work. I don't think it really added or made sense alongside the rest of the narrative.
Roland's life is defined by two major moments: a fling with his older piano teacher when he was 14 and being abandoned (along with his young son) by his wife who wanted go off and write famous novels. Usually, I find it difficult to really care about fictitious characters and their made up lives and problems. To suck me into Roland's world and evoke the depth of feeling that it did is testament to the author's skill as a writer. I would not say that I enjoyed the book as it forced me to revisit various aspects of my own past as well as face my headlong race to death and decay, but I can't deny the roller coaster of emotions that the story released. The research was meticulous but the writing did tend occasionally to drift into the overly detailed and adopt a lecture-like format, but all is forgiven for the thoughts, ideas and lessons that it threw up.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Through the first two chapters of the book there is seemingly nothing but tween masturbation, sexual predator behaviors, and inevitable daddy issues. While I was willing to give it time to get to something more substantial, I simply had to give this one up.
This book was disappointing. There were portions that were engaging and then large portions that were not. I found myself scanning and skipping paragraphs at a time because the story was not moving along. Disappointed in the lack of insight of the protagonist.
Unsettling at times, heartrending and irresistably humane - Lessons is an emotional rollercoaster and not always the pleasant one. McEwan has taken the life of his protagonist Roland Baines and turned it into an existential tapestry of human experiences, trials and tribulations intertwined with politics that shaped the background for the baby boom generation. As if living its own life, the novel doesn't have even pacing: it rushes throught some chapters and then lags through others. Sometimes McEwan's narratives turns Lessons into an irresistable pageturner, while sometomes it almost lulls you to sleep with meandering thoughts. It might be considered a flaw, yet at the same time it feels like an inherent quality of life itself that the author was trying to capture on pages.
Then there's. It gets uncomfortable very quickly and it stays so till the moment when - it gets arguable worse. It might easily be the reason to drop the book all together and the one that will bind you to the book until you know the issue is resolved. In any case it's a curious insight into the mindset of a generation which didn't use to care much for abuse as it was either swept under the rug or simply disregarded as anything traumatizing. We might despise the approach nowadays but we can't deny it existed not so long ago.
Overall, Lessons paints a portrait of boomers as the lucky generation despite all the political tensions of the second half of the twentieth century. Debates on the right and the left and Roland's adventures in East Berlin bring in a lot of sluggishness to the novel as they generally lack the thrilling anticipation of the unravelling of Roland's personal drama with his piano teacher and his wife. Most probably they're there as just one more example of close politics came to ifluence everyday lives back in the days but it still doesn't diminish the fact that creativity-wise these chapters are not the best ones as well as those which relate Roland's later years.
Lessons is a great example of how a book doesn't have to be perfect to be enjoyable.
Then there's
Spoiler
the molesting plot lineSpoiler
the molestor is given the opportunity to defend her caseOverall, Lessons paints a portrait of boomers as the lucky generation despite all the political tensions of the second half of the twentieth century. Debates on the right and the left and Roland's adventures in East Berlin bring in a lot of sluggishness to the novel as they generally lack the thrilling anticipation of the unravelling of Roland's personal drama with his piano teacher and his wife. Most probably they're there as just one more example of close politics came to ifluence everyday lives back in the days but it still doesn't diminish the fact that creativity-wise these chapters are not the best ones as well as those which relate Roland's later years.
Lessons is a great example of how a book doesn't have to be perfect to be enjoyable.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced