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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another piece of amazing literature from one of my favorite writers. The depth of character McEwan is able to achieve is unparalleled. I laughed, I cried, I contemplated - everything a novel of this nature should be.
Difficult to rate and difficult to categorize.
It's a fictional biography of an Englishman but it imitates life in that it's sometimes about one thing and sometimes about another. The focus meanders with the subject's life from new interests and loves to revisiting old ones. Even the titular Lessons are not the entire focus of the story, but what, in retrospect, tipped the subject's life in the direction that it took.
It's literary in its descriptions and is continually compelling but for different reasons and in different ways as it goes along.
It's a fictional biography of an Englishman but it imitates life in that it's sometimes about one thing and sometimes about another. The focus meanders with the subject's life from new interests and loves to revisiting old ones. Even the titular Lessons are not the entire focus of the story, but what, in retrospect, tipped the subject's life in the direction that it took.
It's literary in its descriptions and is continually compelling but for different reasons and in different ways as it goes along.
Such an ambitious book, with a great prose. I loved following Rolland Baines’ life story from the 1950s until now, with so many historical events unwinding in the background. Some parts felt a bit dull, but overall I really enjoyed it!
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Roland Baine is a man all at sea. His wife Alissa has mysteriously left him out of the blue, and he finds himself in sole care of their baby son Lawrence. Exhausted, Roland's sleep-deprived brain forces upon him the memory of the first time he met his piano teacher Miriam at the age of eleven - the woman who later took charge of his sexual awakening at fourteen and shaped the course of his life.
As the years go by the story follows Roland through his trials and tribulations, moving back and forth between the present and his recollections of the past. All the while, major world events play out in the background as he tries to make sense of the hand life has dealt him.
This is a complex novel, not easily summed up in a brief review, and it touches on so much about the intricacies of human relationships, delving into how childhood experiences shape expectation, and what happens when the wrong people get involved with each other. The scope of this novel is really quite breath taking, but McEwan's skill as an accomplished author keeps all the far reaching threads in perfect control.
As Roland tells the unflinching story of his life, McEwan deftly bleeds the present and the past into each other to show us the significant moments of his and his family's history that are pertinent to the truth he is trying to get to about how and why events play out like they do. In particular, you find Roland going back over the events of his sexual encounters with Miriam, and as he does he gradually comes to realise that rather than being involved in a love affair, he was the victim of calculated abuse.
On the whole, the characters in this story are quite difficult to like, and they all suffer from self-absorption. Many of them are also victims of control, manipulation, abandonment, and rejection. There is a lot of sadness, bewilderment and frustration in this story, which makes it a difficult read at times, but there is also love, hope, tenderness, and dark humour that pulls you in and keeps you going through the hard-hitting moments.
My favourite thing about this book is the way McEwan weaves a really intimate story rife with dysfunction against the backdrop of wider historical events. The periodic references to the incredibly powerful episodes of history occurring in the background are used beautifully to echo and enhance what is happening in Roland's story, and in a wider sense to show how they impact on the attitudes of Roland and everyone around him. Each one evokes the perfect atmosphere and emotion, from early events in Roland's life, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, through to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and right up to the recent Covid pandemic. I also find myself supremely impressed with the way McEwan uses the theme of 'lessons' throughout, asking questions about what we can learn from our own lives, as well as global events. It is all really rather brilliant.
The writing is a joy to consume, and even with the high toll on your emotions, for a book as a smidge under 500 pages the story absolutely flies by. I easily polished off this novel in a couple of days, and thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the work of a master wordsmith. This really is something of a literary epic, and is sure to become a modern classic.
As the years go by the story follows Roland through his trials and tribulations, moving back and forth between the present and his recollections of the past. All the while, major world events play out in the background as he tries to make sense of the hand life has dealt him.
This is a complex novel, not easily summed up in a brief review, and it touches on so much about the intricacies of human relationships, delving into how childhood experiences shape expectation, and what happens when the wrong people get involved with each other. The scope of this novel is really quite breath taking, but McEwan's skill as an accomplished author keeps all the far reaching threads in perfect control.
As Roland tells the unflinching story of his life, McEwan deftly bleeds the present and the past into each other to show us the significant moments of his and his family's history that are pertinent to the truth he is trying to get to about how and why events play out like they do. In particular, you find Roland going back over the events of his sexual encounters with Miriam, and as he does he gradually comes to realise that rather than being involved in a love affair, he was the victim of calculated abuse.
On the whole, the characters in this story are quite difficult to like, and they all suffer from self-absorption. Many of them are also victims of control, manipulation, abandonment, and rejection. There is a lot of sadness, bewilderment and frustration in this story, which makes it a difficult read at times, but there is also love, hope, tenderness, and dark humour that pulls you in and keeps you going through the hard-hitting moments.
My favourite thing about this book is the way McEwan weaves a really intimate story rife with dysfunction against the backdrop of wider historical events. The periodic references to the incredibly powerful episodes of history occurring in the background are used beautifully to echo and enhance what is happening in Roland's story, and in a wider sense to show how they impact on the attitudes of Roland and everyone around him. Each one evokes the perfect atmosphere and emotion, from early events in Roland's life, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, through to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and right up to the recent Covid pandemic. I also find myself supremely impressed with the way McEwan uses the theme of 'lessons' throughout, asking questions about what we can learn from our own lives, as well as global events. It is all really rather brilliant.
The writing is a joy to consume, and even with the high toll on your emotions, for a book as a smidge under 500 pages the story absolutely flies by. I easily polished off this novel in a couple of days, and thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the work of a master wordsmith. This really is something of a literary epic, and is sure to become a modern classic.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
Lent i pausat, molt ben escrit, també moltes ganes d'acabar-me'l i treure-me'l de sobre. Rellegir quan et facis vella.
For seven decades, we intimately follow Roland Baines through his life. From his awkward abandonment at a boarding school 2000 miles from home at 11 years old, through his relationships, ranging from toxic abuse to desertion by his wife and mother to his son, Roland struggles to reach the peaks that his young self considered easy goals.
McEwan reveals Roland through his daily activities, his aimless fumbling through monumental world events, his thoughts and conversations. Roland’s passivity, as he unveils shocking events in his life that he barely processes, is intoxicating to read. It is like meeting some low key friends for wine and conversation in a quiet
tavern on a gray afternoon. And, softly, slowly, absolute bombshells of disclosures are discussed as the wine flows.
I love/hate Roland. But I love/love his story. Lessons is pure McEwan, abundant with grace and charm, art and depth, war and history, with intimately dissected relationships and repressed emotion.
McEwan reveals Roland through his daily activities, his aimless fumbling through monumental world events, his thoughts and conversations. Roland’s passivity, as he unveils shocking events in his life that he barely processes, is intoxicating to read. It is like meeting some low key friends for wine and conversation in a quiet
tavern on a gray afternoon. And, softly, slowly, absolute bombshells of disclosures are discussed as the wine flows.
I love/hate Roland. But I love/love his story. Lessons is pure McEwan, abundant with grace and charm, art and depth, war and history, with intimately dissected relationships and repressed emotion.