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A review by tweep
Lessons by Ian McEwan
5.0
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 ).