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jetchristopher 's review for:
Saturday
by Ian McEwan
Picked this up at a used bookshop hoping it would come close to the genius of "Atonement." Nope.
This book is enjoyable, but it's no "Atonement."
In "Saturday" McEwan focuses on his favorite idea - that seemingly minor or inconsequential events and decisions can actually turn out to be really important or even life-altering. Interesting premise. And, as always, well-written overall, but just painfully slow and low-key depressing.
There was also, for me, one big plot hole toward the end of this book. I feel like McEwan is a pretty smart guy and I'm not quite sure how the actions of his protagonist in the final scenes of the book didn't raise the same red flag of logic for him that they did for me but apparently, he didn't see a problem with it, because it's not addressed.
Overall, this is a worthwhile read, but I was not riveted. (In fact, I stopped about two-thirds of the way through and set it aside for two weeks before picking it back up.) That said, McEwan's writing is lovely from page to page, but his premise was more interesting to me than the actual development and execution of the plot and characters.
This book is enjoyable, but it's no "Atonement."
In "Saturday" McEwan focuses on his favorite idea - that seemingly minor or inconsequential events and decisions can actually turn out to be really important or even life-altering. Interesting premise. And, as always, well-written overall, but just painfully slow and low-key depressing.
There was also, for me, one big plot hole toward the end of this book. I feel like McEwan is a pretty smart guy and I'm not quite sure how the actions of his protagonist in the final scenes of the book didn't raise the same red flag of logic for him that they did for me but apparently, he didn't see a problem with it, because it's not addressed.
Overall, this is a worthwhile read, but I was not riveted. (In fact, I stopped about two-thirds of the way through and set it aside for two weeks before picking it back up.) That said, McEwan's writing is lovely from page to page, but his premise was more interesting to me than the actual development and execution of the plot and characters.