Saturday [Paperback]

It was surprising to find so many 1- and 2-star reviews here at Amazon. "Saturday" has a lot going for it. Much has been made of the technical impressiveness of McEwan's prose; his meticulous research into multiple topics; the attention to detail in the stream-of-conciousness narration of the central character, whose constantly calculating approach to life seemed entirely fitting for a brain surgeon (sorry, "neurosurgeon").

I found the meditations on the state of society and current affairs of 2003 particularly satisfying. One of the best sections was the argument between Daisy and Henry about the rationale for the Iraq war, youthful moral absolutism on the one hand and sloppy pragmatic consequentialism on the other. (My own position on this issue has oscillated between the two over the last six years.) There were some gripping moments (I won't spoil things by going into detail) and, perhaps, some clever allegorical points being made - invasive brain surgery being contrasted with invasive military action, for example. And I'm pretty sure that learning how Henry thinks has, in a small way, changed how I think, for the better.

On the other hand, it was equally surprising to find serious critics absolutely bowled over by this novel; words like "dazzling" and "stunning" seem to crop up a lot in reviews. They all seem to ignore the novel's most obvious flaw: a family of uniformly high achievers will not only be not particularly likeable, but, when the achievements are *this* impressive, almost certain not to exist. Yes, there's probably an 18-year-old kid somewhere who is currently being feted by the British Blues scene as our next greatest guitarist - but you can be sure that his sister isn't our next greatest poet, his dad one of our greatest surgeons, his mum one of our greatest media lawyers, his grandfather one of our greatest current poets and his poor grandmother "only" a "county champion" swimmer. How could McEwan go to such lengths with the details only to get the big picture so absurdly wrong? Some characters who actually act like human beings in a real family (occasionally stopping achieving things to make each other laugh, or drive each other up the wall, perhaps) would give the reader something to relate to. (One wonders if the reviewers would have been so gushing if they had been unaware of the identity of the author.)

There's lots more to be said but you probably have better things to do with your time. So in summary:

It's a brussels sprout of a book. You feel you ought to consume it, because you know it's good for you and you see everyone else doing it; and while you might not enjoy it much at the time, you'll feel slightly better for it afterwards.

This is my first ever review, but im sorry to say, I found this novel disappointing.

Firstly it was too descriptive, with a really slow pace. It took me many sitting to finish this book (as I do not believe in not finishing).

The plot was effectively the self glorification of a successful man, with pointless banter and jargon from his life, as a hospital physician myself I found the medical references dull, repetitive and unnecessary, it feels as though the author was trying to show off how many phrases and terms they could use from a medical dictionary, why?

I am not claiming that I can write a novel, but it does concern me when I read books which feel to be a nonsensical combination of waffle, the plot was pointless. The main character left his wife after a major crime to perform an operation on the perpetrator at the end, which is socially and professionally questionable. Also a man with an early neuropsychiatric illness being swayed by a reading of poetry, was the icing on the cake, I could not even comprehend such words and find their beauty let alone an irrational man.

Whenever I read anything fact or fiction, I always try to reflect and gain a learning point from it, but I am struggling to come up with one for this book. Perhaps: don't use inappropriate jargon as it can be unnecessary and pointless.

I have not read any other books by this author but I hope they are much better than this.

Why is Ian McEwan so successful? Is it because his rich understanding of literature and science create a vital lens on our times? Or is it because the literate classes can so easily identify with his firmly middle-class viewpoint (see every main character for the last ten years). Like Atonement, the main character (Perowne, a neurologist) has that mixture of vague musing about how the less fortunate live and barely disguised fear of Baxter, a maladjusted type, this time 'with Simian features'. Honestly, how much closer can you get to dehumanising the less fortunate? Obviously this elevates Perowne to the paragon of man, flexing his mind and his muscles in a squash game while Baxter spends his time lounging in Spearmint Rhino. This is every male, middle-class professional 's fantasy version of himself, with all base urges assigned to the 'lower class' character. Like Atonement, Saturday includes scenes of hard-to-swallow heroism from Perowne and his arty children (yeah right) when by that point I was on Baxter's side, hoping he'd set fire to their Oriental rug or something. Of course, McEwan chooses to bring him close to raping the daughter instead, just to underline that he's no better than an animal. But instead he reads the daughter's poetry, gets all emotional about it and doesn't do any damage. This must be one of the most laughable moments in the history of literature, and epitomises this writer's problem. Instead of keeping one foot in the plausible, McEwan uses the dramatic climax to champion the transforming power of literature. But since its effect is attributed to Baxter's neurological and emotional condition, McEwan is just subtly and smugly stating that the 'lower classes' are otherwise morons and no better than animals. There is no awareness of Baxter's cultural alienation from poetry, or his lack of opportunity to indulge in it like the Oxbridge daughter. The reduction of Baxter in this way is compounded by the fact that he's no more than a sounding-board for the Perowne character to muse on neurological conditions. I'll admit this leads to some finely researched writing, but does 10 obscure scientific terms per page add up to literature? Or is it just pandering those middle-class readers again, who are just too busy these days to read novels (unless it can be categorised under 'mental self-improvement' activities).
When are we going to see a writer emerge who can really speak for the millions of Londoners who don't live in Highgate and Notting Hill? In the meantime, this book's only good for a laugh at the myopic ivory tower types.