Reviews - Lessons | The StoryGraph

1.01k reviews for:

Lessons

Ian McEwan

3.86 AVERAGE

joesb's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

natashak1's review against another edition

2.0

emotional 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

melis_petrieux's review against another edition

4.0

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

redbearde's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

frasersimons's review against another edition

3.0

When Roland was 11 his piano teacher, a woman, molested him, altering his life in indiscernible ways, even when looked upon by him at a much older age. For much of it is essentially a dual timeline story at the point of which is wife has left him with their son and his story from 11 old is told until it catches up. It didn’t feel completely strict on audio, more as though certain moments would suddenly dovetail into boyhood.

And then are (annoyingly) ruminated upon as he gets further old. I’m sure it’s helpful for some readers to get a refresher; it is a fairly long novel. I would have rather just had his story purely linear and Bildungsroman, womb to tomb. It is intentionally overwritten, which works for it in some instances. There is so much detail on many things, I imagine only some will be of interest, not all.

It did work for me that in retrospect, Roland, in going through his journals, finds no specific themes or flourishes of writing; he’s exceptional at a thing or two and not much else. He is very ordinary and his story still is worth reading about and knowing. But I have to agree that it isn’t exceptional above and beyond the amount of detail summoned to ink the character and bring his life to the page. He was always believable and easy to empathize with and understand. So much verisimilitude present must connect the reader to something they care about, I think. Especially with prose work that are quite good.

There’s a lot to like, nothing extraordinary about the novel, for me.except for narration, which was impeccable. Highly recommend the audiobook format for this one.