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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
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
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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
Reflection on life, nature of love, ripples through relationships and families
challenging
emotional
reflective
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
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After a series of contemporary novels focusing on single issues Lessons sees McEwan return to the decade-hopping chronicle style of Atonement. Like that novel a formative sexual encounter casts a long shadow over a life: in this case restless drifter Roland, whose life we follow from a fifties childhood at the end of Empire to COVID and Brexit. We start somewhere in the middle, where Roland is trying to make sense of his wife Alissia’s sudden disappearance - the second defining moment of Roland’s life. From here we flash backwards to Roland’s teenage years at boarding school and the first: his growing fascination with music teacher Miriam who seduces him aged fourteen.
At times this novel can pin Roland’s life too neatly to the decades: sixties rebellion and travelling; flirtations with entrepreneurialism in the eighties and a comfortable circle of New Labour friends and families in the nineties. But it gathers momentum and intensity in its final third as Roland seeks confrontations with the teacher who abused him and with the wife who left him: both events that Roland turns over and over in his mind to try and construct a narrative of his life that fits. This is a baggy novel, at times meandering, and it’s fascinating to see a novelist whose work has been defined by tight control and style explore a much looser style of work. To return to the title, there are no easy Lessons to be drawn from these encounters.
At times this novel can pin Roland’s life too neatly to the decades: sixties rebellion and travelling; flirtations with entrepreneurialism in the eighties and a comfortable circle of New Labour friends and families in the nineties. But it gathers momentum and intensity in its final third as Roland seeks confrontations with the teacher who abused him and with the wife who left him: both events that Roland turns over and over in his mind to try and construct a narrative of his life that fits. This is a baggy novel, at times meandering, and it’s fascinating to see a novelist whose work has been defined by tight control and style explore a much looser style of work. To return to the title, there are no easy Lessons to be drawn from these encounters.
How do you rate a book that seemed to drag and tempt you with the DNF aura?
So, what’s it all about? Roland Baines, in his eighties now, looks back on the events of his life and surely must have drawn some lessons from his experiences.
This one grew on me at times. I was considering not finishing “Lessons,” it seemed to lumber along and at well over 400 pages I was not sure the commitment was worth it. Roland is taking us on his entire lifetime journey to see what lessons life has taught him. I rarely give up on a book, particularly one by a distinguished author, so I pushed through.
Ian McEwan portrays Roland’s life against the social events happening in his world. Backdrops include the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything (everything) through the Covid pandemic. It is epic, but it is a lot.
When Roland was 14 he was seduced by his 25-year-old piano teacher and it progressed to her pressuring for marriage by the time he was 16. What this experience did to him never really gels– he spends the rest of his life puzzled over the effects. Later, another woman in his life, his wife Alissa, walks out on him and their infant in order to pursue what turns out to be a celebrated literary career, a contrast to his frustrating writing efforts. The last important woman in his life, Daphne, dies just as she looks to be the one he finally connects with. These women all have strong, dominating personalities– something sorely lacking in wishy-washy Roland.
Author Ian McEwan has drawn up some great characters and, at times, this novel really moves along. Too often, though, the social and historical passages only serve to slow things down. Roland watches and reacts to these events in much the same way he can only observe and react to the relationships in his life.
As strong as it is in parts, I cannot recommend “Lessons.” I understand sections of this work are semi-autobiographical, but I would have enjoyed a more streamlined novel featuring any of the more riveting female characters we see actually participating in life here.
Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
So, what’s it all about? Roland Baines, in his eighties now, looks back on the events of his life and surely must have drawn some lessons from his experiences.
This one grew on me at times. I was considering not finishing “Lessons,” it seemed to lumber along and at well over 400 pages I was not sure the commitment was worth it. Roland is taking us on his entire lifetime journey to see what lessons life has taught him. I rarely give up on a book, particularly one by a distinguished author, so I pushed through.
Ian McEwan portrays Roland’s life against the social events happening in his world. Backdrops include the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything (everything) through the Covid pandemic. It is epic, but it is a lot.
When Roland was 14 he was seduced by his 25-year-old piano teacher and it progressed to her pressuring for marriage by the time he was 16. What this experience did to him never really gels– he spends the rest of his life puzzled over the effects. Later, another woman in his life, his wife Alissa, walks out on him and their infant in order to pursue what turns out to be a celebrated literary career, a contrast to his frustrating writing efforts. The last important woman in his life, Daphne, dies just as she looks to be the one he finally connects with. These women all have strong, dominating personalities– something sorely lacking in wishy-washy Roland.
Author Ian McEwan has drawn up some great characters and, at times, this novel really moves along. Too often, though, the social and historical passages only serve to slow things down. Roland watches and reacts to these events in much the same way he can only observe and react to the relationships in his life.
As strong as it is in parts, I cannot recommend “Lessons.” I understand sections of this work are semi-autobiographical, but I would have enjoyed a more streamlined novel featuring any of the more riveting female characters we see actually participating in life here.
Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
I am grateful to NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
‘Lessons’ is the story of Roland, the protagonist and narrator of Ian McEwan’s latest novel. Roland reflects on his 1960s boyhood and then later as he grows up, his life from the 1970s until the present day. While it is set mostly in England, world and regional events as well as more local events, provide the background to the story and in part, explain actions, decisions and choices made by the characters. Events such as the threat of nuclear war, the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, Islamic terrorism, European and American political upheavals and finally a global pandemic.
These events, while global, are portrayed as having meaning beyond simply background to the plot. They colour Roland’s memories and in essence, his life. The books beginning is based mid-life for Roland, with Alissa, his German-born wife suddenly disappearing. Eventually we come to understand she has abandoned her son and husband to pursuing a career and life of her own.
Subsequent chapters take us through Roland’s early life, in particular his time at an English boarding school and an affair with a piano teacher. This key event is presented as having influenced much of his subsequent life and choices, particularly the bad ones, he has made. Later chapters take us through Roland’s life, outcomes from decisions good and bad, up to the disappearance of his wife and beyond to the present day.
Themes recur throughout the book, in relation to Roland’s and Alisha’s lives and the lives of their parents. Lost or missed opportunities, issues of work and education, family responsibilities, individual choices. Along the way, the reader learns details of the parents lives, in particular their experiences before, during and after World War Two. Plenty of blame is apportioned to the parents for difficulties in Roland and Alissa’s lives. Justified or not, the reader can make their own decisions.
Roland’s youthful, indeed underage affair with his piano teacher, is recalled frequently throughout the book, in part to explain his actions, thoughts and behaviours. The question arises whether he is a victim of a crime and damaged for life. Or possibly a willing participant, eager to blame his later misfortunes on events during his boarding school days. Roland ponders has status as victim and considers this as the reason for his shortcoming in life. Roland also ponders his ex-wife who has gained the type of success and acclaim he may have achieved had circumstances been different.
Earlier chapters of the book are engrossing. Factual events recalled often needed a detour to google more information. German resistance organisations and certain European artistic movements, all play a role in the story or at least as background event to lives.
The later chapters of the book, tell the story of growing older, and ageing, at first with regard to their parents, then later to Roland and Alissa themselves. Once again, their lives are played out against a background of world events, both present day and in the past. The author chooses to denigrate British Prime Minister Thatcher in one of the final chapters of the book, blaming her for misfortunes not only during her time as PM, but also for events decades after her death.
Although the book sometimes takes a tangent to the main plot, these side stories provide interesting reading and are thought provoking. For example, the divided city of Berlin, before the fall of the Soviet Union, is the scene of several events. Given the current war in Ukraine, it is timely to remember just how widespread, intrusive and cruel the Soviet system was to ordinary people in East Germany. The author rightly questions the admiration of the Soviet Union from the United Kingdom’s political Left during the 1970s and 1980s. One cannot help but think of parallels with the relationship between Germany and Russia over recent decades which has contributed to war in Ukraine today.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I can recall enough of the global events to appreciate the significance they might have brought to someone at the time. It is a book that makes you stop, or at least slow down, think, take stock and continue reading. A thoughtful, provocative and memorable book. For younger readers, the books characters and plot possibly may not resonate, with background global events being in the far distant past. However, on reflection, current day events in Ukraine and Russia certainly provide a parallel of sorts to historic concerns of nuclear war and Soviet aggression.
While the main characters are not particularly pleasant, their lifestyle choices are intriguing as are their motives, thoughts and relationships. Roland and Alissa are memorable and believable. They both apportion blame widely for misfortunes. While both wasted or squandered opportunities for better or at least different lives. Individual choices for each of them have made their lives what they are, ending up in vastly different places and circumstances. For better or for worse.
The background events, relationships and lifestyles of the characters, combined with the incidents portrayed, make this book a real pleasure to read. I wish the author every success with publication.
‘Lessons’ is the story of Roland, the protagonist and narrator of Ian McEwan’s latest novel. Roland reflects on his 1960s boyhood and then later as he grows up, his life from the 1970s until the present day. While it is set mostly in England, world and regional events as well as more local events, provide the background to the story and in part, explain actions, decisions and choices made by the characters. Events such as the threat of nuclear war, the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, Islamic terrorism, European and American political upheavals and finally a global pandemic.
These events, while global, are portrayed as having meaning beyond simply background to the plot. They colour Roland’s memories and in essence, his life. The books beginning is based mid-life for Roland, with Alissa, his German-born wife suddenly disappearing. Eventually we come to understand she has abandoned her son and husband to pursuing a career and life of her own.
Subsequent chapters take us through Roland’s early life, in particular his time at an English boarding school and an affair with a piano teacher. This key event is presented as having influenced much of his subsequent life and choices, particularly the bad ones, he has made. Later chapters take us through Roland’s life, outcomes from decisions good and bad, up to the disappearance of his wife and beyond to the present day.
Themes recur throughout the book, in relation to Roland’s and Alisha’s lives and the lives of their parents. Lost or missed opportunities, issues of work and education, family responsibilities, individual choices. Along the way, the reader learns details of the parents lives, in particular their experiences before, during and after World War Two. Plenty of blame is apportioned to the parents for difficulties in Roland and Alissa’s lives. Justified or not, the reader can make their own decisions.
Roland’s youthful, indeed underage affair with his piano teacher, is recalled frequently throughout the book, in part to explain his actions, thoughts and behaviours. The question arises whether he is a victim of a crime and damaged for life. Or possibly a willing participant, eager to blame his later misfortunes on events during his boarding school days. Roland ponders has status as victim and considers this as the reason for his shortcoming in life. Roland also ponders his ex-wife who has gained the type of success and acclaim he may have achieved had circumstances been different.
Earlier chapters of the book are engrossing. Factual events recalled often needed a detour to google more information. German resistance organisations and certain European artistic movements, all play a role in the story or at least as background event to lives.
The later chapters of the book, tell the story of growing older, and ageing, at first with regard to their parents, then later to Roland and Alissa themselves. Once again, their lives are played out against a background of world events, both present day and in the past. The author chooses to denigrate British Prime Minister Thatcher in one of the final chapters of the book, blaming her for misfortunes not only during her time as PM, but also for events decades after her death.
Although the book sometimes takes a tangent to the main plot, these side stories provide interesting reading and are thought provoking. For example, the divided city of Berlin, before the fall of the Soviet Union, is the scene of several events. Given the current war in Ukraine, it is timely to remember just how widespread, intrusive and cruel the Soviet system was to ordinary people in East Germany. The author rightly questions the admiration of the Soviet Union from the United Kingdom’s political Left during the 1970s and 1980s. One cannot help but think of parallels with the relationship between Germany and Russia over recent decades which has contributed to war in Ukraine today.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I can recall enough of the global events to appreciate the significance they might have brought to someone at the time. It is a book that makes you stop, or at least slow down, think, take stock and continue reading. A thoughtful, provocative and memorable book. For younger readers, the books characters and plot possibly may not resonate, with background global events being in the far distant past. However, on reflection, current day events in Ukraine and Russia certainly provide a parallel of sorts to historic concerns of nuclear war and Soviet aggression.
While the main characters are not particularly pleasant, their lifestyle choices are intriguing as are their motives, thoughts and relationships. Roland and Alissa are memorable and believable. They both apportion blame widely for misfortunes. While both wasted or squandered opportunities for better or at least different lives. Individual choices for each of them have made their lives what they are, ending up in vastly different places and circumstances. For better or for worse.
The background events, relationships and lifestyles of the characters, combined with the incidents portrayed, make this book a real pleasure to read. I wish the author every success with publication.
I love McEwan but I just couldn’t get into this
The first scenes with the piano lesson and the striking moment that kicks off the novel are gripping and white hot with shock. But, after that, I found the sheer number of rolling events with the global politics, childhood, and also adulthood with more different global politics just too much to follow all at once. I don’t normally struggle with that kind of thing.
I just got the feeling that if I persevered it would be a good book but not a great book. This is a ‘meh’ dnf, not a ‘I hated it’ dnf. I just kept not picking it up
I wasn’t sure what the novel was driving at, so I didn’t really feel incentivised to keep reading
The first scenes with the piano lesson and the striking moment that kicks off the novel are gripping and white hot with shock. But, after that, I found the sheer number of rolling events with the global politics, childhood, and also adulthood with more different global politics just too much to follow all at once. I don’t normally struggle with that kind of thing.
I just got the feeling that if I persevered it would be a good book but not a great book. This is a ‘meh’ dnf, not a ‘I hated it’ dnf. I just kept not picking it up
I wasn’t sure what the novel was driving at, so I didn’t really feel incentivised to keep reading