A review by sophdickinson
Lessons by Ian McEwan

5.0

Lessons is the story of a lifetime, quite literally. We follow Roland Baines from childhood, all the way through to his old age in the present day of the pandemic. But really, Lessons isn’t just about the general aspects of life - love, relationships, children, work, social class, politics. Rather, it uses all these aspects to capture something colossal, & illustrate an entire existence. As someone who enjoys 20th century history, lessons appealed to me so much because of how it uses these grand scale politically events &, in doing so, shows how they penetrate the life of the everyman. How one event miles away from your life can cause turmoil, decisions you could never have predicted. It was so concrete & realistic to read of these events coming to fruition in the life of Roland. 

Despite being a novel of Roland’s life, his own life is framed by anything & everything but himself. It’s framed by his various relationships and their degrees of success (or, failure). It’s framed by the success of his runaway wife, the experience of his friends in foreign countries under siege, by grief & love, & so much more. In Lessons, we are watching Roland simply grapple with being Roland, but it is so much more. It’s a sprawling novel at 450 or so pages, yet it’s effortlessly seamless, following a natural course of history which we’re familiar with, in a truly day to day way.

We also have the initial subject of Lessons: Roland’s underage relationship with his Piano teacher as a child. McEwan sensitively & realistically deals with this morally dubious, juvenile experience & is expert in uprearing real and honest feelings of confusion & betrayal - something which Roland takes nearly a lifetime to realise. 

Lessons may be one of the purest, rawest portrayal of how upbringing truly defines your place within the world & yourself, & how formative experiences are so fundamental, even outside of your natural bubble. 

It goes without saying that this was an easy 5 star read for me.