Reading Matters

'Saturday' by Ian McEwan

 

Fiction - paperback; Vintage; 282 pages; 2005.

On Saturday February 15, 2003 almost a million people took to the streets of London to protest against the impending war in Iraq. It was the biggest ever demonstration witnessed in the UK.

As someone who took part in the Stop the War march, I was keen to read Ian McEwan's Saturday because it is famously set in London on that very day. But the protest is a mere backdrop to a more deeply personal story, that of a day-in-the-life of a well-established and highly successful neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne, whose comfortable existence is rocked by a string of unforeseen events.

Perowne's normal Saturday -- playing squash with a colleague, watching his son's band rehearsal, shopping for food and then preparing a lavish family meal in preparation for his daughter's arrival home after a stint away -- gets slightly turned on its head when, first, in the early hours of the morning, he stands at his bedroom window and sees a burning aeroplane arc across the sky towards Heathrow Airport, and second, when he is involved in a very minor car accident that turns into a potentially life-threatening situation.

These dual events turn out to be thwarted catastrophes, but there's an air of menace that permeates Perowne's thoughts and deeds throughout the day. In many ways, his deeply personal -- and somewhat selfish -- fears echo that of the country's citizens at large who are determined to stop the Government heading into a war that no-one wants. But Perowne lives a fairly sheltered existence where the harsh realities of the wider world rarely intrude. Even the anti-war demonstration, from which he views at a distance, only serves to irritate him.

For much of this novel, the reader could be excused for thinking that not much seems to happen in Saturday. Perowne's dull routine is punctuated by a series of unexpected incidents, but McEwan tends not to focus too much on the actual events but on what Perowne thinks about them. It's a very cerebral book (quite clever when you consider that the lead character makes his living operating on people's brains) until you come to the unexpected, and somewhat shocking climax, which takes the action up a gear or two.

I've made no secret that I think McEwan is a brilliant writer. In this book, much hyped at the time of release, he delivers a carefully considered and distinctly British view of the modern world, where terrorism has begun to intrude on every day lives. This book is essentially about a rich and successful man coming to terms with the fact that money does not buy everything -- not even your peace of mind.

'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan

Fiction - hardcover; Jonathan Cape; 176 pages; 2007.

This is one of those delightfully languid books that should be read in one sitting -- and at just 176 pages you can comfortably achieve this without frittering half your life away.

Set in England in 1962, it tells the story of two young, some might say emotionally naive, people who marry for the first time. Neither of them are sexually experienced and so the wedding night -- in a hotel on the Dorset coast -- holds particular significance for both parties.

Yet both Florence and Edward have different expectations -- and fears -- about "the moment, sometime after dinner, when their new maturity would be tested, when they would lie down together on the four-poster bed and reveal themselves fully to one another". Edward is concerned that he'll disappoint his new wife by the absurdity of the sexual act and his over-excitement, while Florence does not know how to explain that she is dreading the whole experience because the thought of it disgusts and repulses her.

This inability to communicate their concerns with one another has unforeseen consequences. As melodramatic as it sounds, what happens on their wedding night will alter the course of the rest of their lives...

This is a short, quick novel of remarkable depth. McEwan knows what makes people tick and is a master at capturing the moments, thoughts, feelings and misunderstandings that occur between humans.

He is also superb at conveying a sense of time and place. In this book, the mood of the early 1960s, where marriage and the relationships between men and women were dictated by a strict moral code, practically resonates off the page.

The only cricitism I have of On Chesil Beach is that the last part feels somewhat rushed, as if McEwan suddenly ran out of energy and decided to condense what could have been a 400-page book into less than half of that. But if you are looking for a quick but insightful tale about romance gone wrong then this could be the one for you.

'Atonement' by Ian McEwan

 

Fiction - paperback; Vintage; 372 pages; 2002.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2002, part one of this novel features some of the best fiction I have ever read. Set on the hottest day of the summer of 1934, it evokes very richly the individual lives of a family living in a lavish country house, and the preparations they undergo to stage a welcome home dinner for their eldest son. But the happiness and excitement of the festivities soon turns on its head when a tragedy occurs on the estate and the finger of blame is pointed at the wrong person. This is something which 13 year-old Briony Tallis spends the rest of her life trying to atone.

Unfortunately, I found that parts two and three of the book did not live up to the promise of the first (it didn't help that I had guessed the perpetrator of the crime). While McEwan's writing is gorgeous, with a deep undercurrent of suspense running throughout, I found that the 'tricks' he played on the reader towards the end were mean-spirited and disappointing.

'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan

 

Fiction - paperback; Vintage; pages; 2001.

Following a fatal hot-air ballooning accident in the Chiltern Hills, a witness to the incident, Joe, suddenly finds himself embroiled in a deeper mystery; why was the victim in the area in the first place and why is another male witness, Jed, now stalking him?

In this well-crafted suspense novel, McEwan explores the notions of science versus religion; the meaning of love and stability in the midst of disruptive circumstances; and the damage which can ensue when a disturbed personality suddenly develops a 'thing' for you. Towards the end, it goes a bit over-the-top, but generally McEwan deftly balances the story so that you are never quite sure whether the stalker is real or merely a figment of Joe's imagination.