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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is an ambitious book my McEwan that is sure to be studied by literature students for years to come. There are many layers and it's a bit meta at points.
Where McEwan truly shines is in storytelling. Roland's story and family history is at points captivating, happy, sad, boring, complex...all things real life can be. It's messy and real. Though Roland is sharing his life from his perspective, McEwan deftly demonstrates there multiple sides to every story, and just as in real life, motivations behind decisions that aren't always clear.
Reading this book feels like sharing a drink with someone you're getting to know intimately. He ambles through his life, in many ways starting from his 'birth.' There are memories and people referenced I was occasionally interested to hear more about, but it wasn't my story. Roland either got there in his own time or instead talked about what he wanted the reader to know. Significant historical events - WWII, fall of the Berlin wall, COVID - all mark time in his life.
I was extremely satisfied with how this tome concluded, and the structure of the last chapter especially. I found myself wondering throughout how much of Roland is McEwan and vice versa due to a small bit of proselytizing. More prominent throughout, however, is beautiful and lyrical prose. These are the pieces I want to keep with me.
I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review of this novel.
Where McEwan truly shines is in storytelling. Roland's story and family history is at points captivating, happy, sad, boring, complex...all things real life can be. It's messy and real. Though Roland is sharing his life from his perspective, McEwan deftly demonstrates there multiple sides to every story, and just as in real life, motivations behind decisions that aren't always clear.
Reading this book feels like sharing a drink with someone you're getting to know intimately. He ambles through his life, in many ways starting from his 'birth.' There are memories and people referenced I was occasionally interested to hear more about, but it wasn't my story. Roland either got there in his own time or instead talked about what he wanted the reader to know. Significant historical events - WWII, fall of the Berlin wall, COVID - all mark time in his life.
I was extremely satisfied with how this tome concluded, and the structure of the last chapter especially. I found myself wondering throughout how much of Roland is McEwan and vice versa due to a small bit of proselytizing. More prominent throughout, however, is beautiful and lyrical prose. These are the pieces I want to keep with me.
I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review of this novel.
Persoonlijke geschiedenis gemengd met die van de wereld. In de periode van 1960 tot 2005. Cubacrisis, ijzeren gordijn, en Thatcher voeren de boventoon. Gefundenes Fressen voor de lezer die geboren is in 1966. McEwan kan schrijven, dus het verhaal boeit van begin tot eind, en her en der moet een traantje worden weggepinkt.
De hoofdpersoon verdoet zijn leven. Tenminste, volgens de calvinistische moraal. Hij doet maar wat, koude-grond-psychologisch verklaard door een relatie met zijn pianolerares toen hij veertien was. De 'lessons' uit de titel, al moeten we die natuurlijk ook lezen als lessen uit de geschiedenis. De kortstondige vrouw van de hoofdpersoon verlaat hem (en baby) om een wezenlijk leven als schrijver te leiden. Zij sterft beroemd en eenzaam. Hij heeft vrienden. Welke levenslessen zullen we daar eens uit trekken?
Hoewel aangenaam om te lezen, is dit boek mij te moralistisch. Te makkelijk. Voor een schrijver als McEwan.
De hoofdpersoon verdoet zijn leven. Tenminste, volgens de calvinistische moraal. Hij doet maar wat, koude-grond-psychologisch verklaard door een relatie met zijn pianolerares toen hij veertien was. De 'lessons' uit de titel, al moeten we die natuurlijk ook lezen als lessen uit de geschiedenis. De kortstondige vrouw van de hoofdpersoon verlaat hem (en baby) om een wezenlijk leven als schrijver te leiden. Zij sterft beroemd en eenzaam. Hij heeft vrienden. Welke levenslessen zullen we daar eens uit trekken?
Hoewel aangenaam om te lezen, is dit boek mij te moralistisch. Te makkelijk. Voor een schrijver als McEwan.
Eigenlijk 3,5 ster! De eerste 200 pagina’s deden me niet zoveel. Vond het karakter Roland niet super interessant en dacht steeds: gast ga ff wat doen. Maar dan blijkt eigenlijk dat de rede waarom hij zo is, zoveel invloed gehad heeft op zijn leven, en naarmate hij ouder wordt hij met zo’n interessante manier terugkijkt op zijn leven dat het boek me toen toch ineens mega pakte. Laatste 283 bladzijdes namelijk echt in een ruk uitgelezen. Raakte me ook, omdat het een heel leven besloeg en de zinnen die hij op het laatst formuleert dan ineens zoveel zeggen. Het boek zet je ook steeds op een ander been, wat betekenen beslissingen voor later? Zijn er juiste en onjuiste beslissingen, of is alles sowieso een rommel? Maar dan mooier opgeschreven ofzo. Ook vet hoe je langs al die momenten in de geschiedenis gaat door de ogen van 1 personage, de val van de Muur, Koude Oorlog, Covid, etc. Vond de beschrijvingen vanaf dat hij ongeveer 40/50 was echt prachtig, dat hij ‘saai’ was - maakte juist dat perspectief gek genoeg ook weer interessant, toch echt van dit boek genoten!!!
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The lessons of the title are, as neatly pictured on the cover, the piano lessons that Roland Baines takes when he starts at boarding school in the 1950s. The effects of those lessons tumble through his life. Before this he’s lived a seemingly idyllic childhood with his parents on a British army base in Libya. It’s a sweeping saga of a book that keeps returning to the effects of those piano lessons and his piano teacher on his life.
I liked the wide scope of the book. It’s a long fictional autobiography and there are many pages and masses of minor characters. They way these are introduced and forgotten makes it feel like a real life. Some characters returned into Roland’s life after many years, others just walked by never to be seen again, others seemed to be minor and grew into greater roles. It’s a tangle, as is anyone’s life, but it’s entertaining. It’s the sort of book you can get lost in and I got more and more absorbed by it as the book went on. I read the final section in one several hours long stint one sunny afternoon whilst I was sat on a bench in the churchyard. It was a nice place to hang out and read and I should do that kind of thing more often.
I hadn’t realised how both many of McEwan’s books I’d read (this is the eleventh), and also how many I hadn’t read (it looks like he’s published eighteen full length novels and counting). Though I’ve certainly liked some a lot more than others, that’s fine by me, and I think at this point I’m probably planning on reading the lot as and when I come across them.
challenging
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Abandonment
Though this novel is absolutely brilliantly written, it's also extremely middle class. The heroes are middle class and do middle class things, like writing literature, trying to be a poet, freelancing in various ways and so on. Also, the good guys are liberals, saving the world as scientists etc. The main character is even the center of an increasingly happy family.
T0wards the end of the book the class thing became very clear to me. Being middle class and left leaning I do not particularly object to this, but it did not feel totally right. I felt a bit caught revelling in my favorite bubble.
Being British, this book is also very much about sex. It is rather dominated by the exclusively physical relationship between a 14 year old and his piano teacher. A bit of a wet dream and rather improbable, so maybe it really happened. Not sure what this was supposed to convey ( in literature, as opposed to life things are supposed to mean something, that's what stories are about ).
As the story spans the main character 's whole life and b0th the author and I are close to the end, kind of, this fine novel is also about closing the book: were the choices made worth it ? I Should add that the main character doesn't make a lot of them, but in the end he winds up being happily married, well loved by his offspring and even wherit's a place of his own, without a lot of deferred gratification. And his career has only amounted to being a tennis trainer and a piano player in a posh London hotel.
His first wife, who abandons him and their toddler son to pursue a literary career,becomes hugely successful but dies alone, of cancer. Quite a contrast. It might help accept all those who might not reach their full potential to deal with this aspect of their fate. ( The hard part here is that you cannot assess your full potential until you're close ).
T0wards the end of the book the class thing became very clear to me. Being middle class and left leaning I do not particularly object to this, but it did not feel totally right. I felt a bit caught revelling in my favorite bubble.
Being British, this book is also very much about sex. It is rather dominated by the exclusively physical relationship between a 14 year old and his piano teacher. A bit of a wet dream and rather improbable, so maybe it really happened. Not sure what this was supposed to convey ( in literature, as opposed to life things are supposed to mean something, that's what stories are about ).
As the story spans the main character 's whole life and b0th the author and I are close to the end, kind of, this fine novel is also about closing the book: were the choices made worth it ? I Should add that the main character doesn't make a lot of them, but in the end he winds up being happily married, well loved by his offspring and even wherit's a place of his own, without a lot of deferred gratification. And his career has only amounted to being a tennis trainer and a piano player in a posh London hotel.
His first wife, who abandons him and their toddler son to pursue a literary career,becomes hugely successful but dies alone, of cancer. Quite a contrast. It might help accept all those who might not reach their full potential to deal with this aspect of their fate. ( The hard part here is that you cannot assess your full potential until you're close ).
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated