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.

'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...

'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.