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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It's giving Any Human Heart
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After a slow and suspicious start, the book wormed its way into my heart. McEwan resists some of his more Gothic gimmicks in favor of showing history through the eyes of someone who struggles against his own ambivalence.
That said, we have to address MY biggest ambivalence, which is how McEwan treats the sexual exploitation of a minor. I won't get into the tiresome debate regarding art vs. censorship, but I keep asking myself, if the thrust of the book is the passage of time and a Schrodinger's cat of our own choices, was that particular plotline necessary? I can see the argument for yes, but I'm uncomfortable all the same.
That said, we have to address MY biggest ambivalence, which is how McEwan treats the sexual exploitation of a minor. I won't get into the tiresome debate regarding art vs. censorship, but I keep asking myself, if the thrust of the book is the passage of time and a Schrodinger's cat of our own choices, was that particular plotline necessary? I can see the argument for yes, but I'm uncomfortable all the same.
Very few novels spoke to me so intimately as this one in recent years. Even though the lives of the characters are very different from mine, I feel I know them so well, personally. This is the greatest achievement of a character-driven novel, and this one succeeds spectacularly.
I loved the narrative style -- locally nonlinear, yet having an overall chronological trajectory. McEwan's language is exquisite, so often, I had to stop and rethink the sentence to realize their depth and complexity.
It is an epic that covers the protagonist's entire life and follows hundreds of connections, like branching rivers, allowing us to float along them wherever they lead. Personally, the time span it covers starts slightly before my time, but not by that much. So the world events that are mentioned, except for the World War, are things I also experienced, making them extremely relatable.
The most intriguing aspect of this book is how it connects the trajectory of its characters to major world events. It is easy to imagine that these big world events happen in the backgrounds of our lives, and our personal lives meander independently of them. This book made me think deeper and ask how my life could have been different if some of these events did not happen.
There are just a few incidents in this novel that are a little too dramatic and less believable. I wish the author had avoided them. The book is great because nothing much happens, which is the essential quality of most lives.
I loved the narrative style -- locally nonlinear, yet having an overall chronological trajectory. McEwan's language is exquisite, so often, I had to stop and rethink the sentence to realize their depth and complexity.
It is an epic that covers the protagonist's entire life and follows hundreds of connections, like branching rivers, allowing us to float along them wherever they lead. Personally, the time span it covers starts slightly before my time, but not by that much. So the world events that are mentioned, except for the World War, are things I also experienced, making them extremely relatable.
The most intriguing aspect of this book is how it connects the trajectory of its characters to major world events. It is easy to imagine that these big world events happen in the backgrounds of our lives, and our personal lives meander independently of them. This book made me think deeper and ask how my life could have been different if some of these events did not happen.
There are just a few incidents in this novel that are a little too dramatic and less believable. I wish the author had avoided them. The book is great because nothing much happens, which is the essential quality of most lives.
When he asked himself if he wished none of it had happened he did not have a ready answer. That was the nature of the harm. Almost seventy-two and not quite cured.
from Lessons by Ian McEwan
Life happens. It sears its brand into our skin and we can’t ignore its legacy. We choose our way or are buffeted about by the storms of life–and by love, that relentless tyrant that enslaves us. Every generation is captive by the times with its wars and conflicts, the threats to health and life. We are always wrestling with ourselves and with the world.
Nothing forces public events on private lives like a war.
From Lessons by Ian McEwan
As a teen, I resented the intrusion of the world into my life, complicating the process of growing up with war and rebellion, social upheaval. I became pregnant during a time of hope only to despair when wars and collapsing towers and school shootings bookended my son’s childhood.
Still, I was lucky. I was never victim, was given freedom to chose between love and dreams and was content with my decision.
Lessons by Ian McEwan is a remarkable novel. Disturbing, yes. Long, yes. Beautifully written, yes. It has left a lasting impression on me with it’s immersive story and panoramic view of history and insight into how we fail and how we endure.
It’s the story of a man’s life spanning from the Suez Canal Crisis to the Bay of Pigs to the Covid pandemic, the relentless march of history deeply intertwined into his story. As it was in his parent’s lives, and his wife’s parent’s lives, taking us back to WWII. Every time the world seems to correct itself, advancing to a fabled golden age, our dark angles push us back into fear and division.
By what logic or motivation or helpless surrender did we all, hour by hour, transport ourselves within a generation from the thrill of optimism at Berlin’s falling Wall to the storming of the American Capitol?
from Lessons by Ian McEwan
The novel begins when Roland and his seven-month-old son are abandoned by his wife who chooses a career as a writer over love and family. Their love affair had been intense, an addictive relationship that Roland had been seeking to recreate since he was a child, groomed and sexually abused at school by his piano teacher. He was sixteen when she proposed they marry, and when he rebelled, she sent him packing, warning he would spend his life seeking what they had.
This once promising child, who could have been a concert pianist, never finished his education. He wastes his youth and talent, settles for survival, flees a healthy relationship until nearly too late. And, in his golden years, discovers a deep love in the form of a child.
The temptation of the old, born into the middle of things, was to see in their deaths the end of everything, the end of times.
from Lessons by Ian McEwan
I am seventy this year. I think a lot about my life and its choices, and for the first time I fear the end of this body and being in this world. My old optimism that the world always rights itself again is fraying. I morn the destruction of this planet. The novel spoke to me.
Roland learns that life turns out right, no matter what our choices. Alissa contributed amazing, lasting, literary masterpieces although she died alone. He accomplished nothing of note, but has a loving son and granddaughter.
The end of the novel finds Roland reading to his granddaughter, considering the deeper meaning. “Do you think the story is trying to tell us something about people?” he asks her. She responds, it’s about cats and dogs, not people. “A shame to ruin a good tale by turning it into a lesson,” he thinks. As she leads him by the hand, he knows he is “passing on to her a damaged world.” But this child with all her innocence offers hope. To Roland, and to us.
I was given a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
from Lessons by Ian McEwan
Life happens. It sears its brand into our skin and we can’t ignore its legacy. We choose our way or are buffeted about by the storms of life–and by love, that relentless tyrant that enslaves us. Every generation is captive by the times with its wars and conflicts, the threats to health and life. We are always wrestling with ourselves and with the world.
Nothing forces public events on private lives like a war.
From Lessons by Ian McEwan
As a teen, I resented the intrusion of the world into my life, complicating the process of growing up with war and rebellion, social upheaval. I became pregnant during a time of hope only to despair when wars and collapsing towers and school shootings bookended my son’s childhood.
Still, I was lucky. I was never victim, was given freedom to chose between love and dreams and was content with my decision.
Lessons by Ian McEwan is a remarkable novel. Disturbing, yes. Long, yes. Beautifully written, yes. It has left a lasting impression on me with it’s immersive story and panoramic view of history and insight into how we fail and how we endure.
It’s the story of a man’s life spanning from the Suez Canal Crisis to the Bay of Pigs to the Covid pandemic, the relentless march of history deeply intertwined into his story. As it was in his parent’s lives, and his wife’s parent’s lives, taking us back to WWII. Every time the world seems to correct itself, advancing to a fabled golden age, our dark angles push us back into fear and division.
By what logic or motivation or helpless surrender did we all, hour by hour, transport ourselves within a generation from the thrill of optimism at Berlin’s falling Wall to the storming of the American Capitol?
from Lessons by Ian McEwan
The novel begins when Roland and his seven-month-old son are abandoned by his wife who chooses a career as a writer over love and family. Their love affair had been intense, an addictive relationship that Roland had been seeking to recreate since he was a child, groomed and sexually abused at school by his piano teacher. He was sixteen when she proposed they marry, and when he rebelled, she sent him packing, warning he would spend his life seeking what they had.
This once promising child, who could have been a concert pianist, never finished his education. He wastes his youth and talent, settles for survival, flees a healthy relationship until nearly too late. And, in his golden years, discovers a deep love in the form of a child.
The temptation of the old, born into the middle of things, was to see in their deaths the end of everything, the end of times.
from Lessons by Ian McEwan
I am seventy this year. I think a lot about my life and its choices, and for the first time I fear the end of this body and being in this world. My old optimism that the world always rights itself again is fraying. I morn the destruction of this planet. The novel spoke to me.
Roland learns that life turns out right, no matter what our choices. Alissa contributed amazing, lasting, literary masterpieces although she died alone. He accomplished nothing of note, but has a loving son and granddaughter.
The end of the novel finds Roland reading to his granddaughter, considering the deeper meaning. “Do you think the story is trying to tell us something about people?” he asks her. She responds, it’s about cats and dogs, not people. “A shame to ruin a good tale by turning it into a lesson,” he thinks. As she leads him by the hand, he knows he is “passing on to her a damaged world.” But this child with all her innocence offers hope. To Roland, and to us.
I was given a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
Ik vind het te chaotisch geschreven, je kan als lezer echt niet volgen uit wiens perspectief het geschreven is want het verandert zodanig veel. Het is ook zodanig poëtisch geschreven dat ik soms niet meer volg over wat het nu echt gaat. Het begin was nochtans goed.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
It felt generous giving the book a 4, but I don’t think it deserved a 3. At its core it was a really interesting story, essentially a biography of a passive, unaccomplished man with an interesting life. There were plenty of riveting scenes from Roland’s childhood with his parents, in Berners Hall, and in Erwarton. I found least compelling the fact that the story began in media res, as I didn’t care for the interactions with the detective and Jane’s journals. The descriptive style of the book was good at casting Roland in a passive light, but also made some passages very dry. I also didn’t find all the historical context too effective; sometimes it was good when it acted on Roland to make choices, but oftentimes the effect that history had on Roland was disjointed and insignificant to the greater narrative. The final part was also quite riveting, as Roland aged and we got to see him confront Miriam, Alissa, and Peter. The message I got was that even as he struggled with SA, abandonment, and serial passivity, he was able to lead a meaningful though undistinguished life, and in an era where people often feel powerless against political events and institutions, I think that message resonates. All in all, I found the narrative interesting, though dry and long at times, and its realist/grounded/passive style makes it quite a unique read.