Lessons by Ian McEwan
Lessons by Ian McEwan centers on a man by the name of Roland Baines. We follow Roland through his life: his major romantic relationships, his various familial relationships amidst the backdrop of various historical events, World War II, the Suez Canal, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the recent pandemic.
First of all, I would like to mention how much I respect Ian McEwan, and no part of this review is easy. McEwan’s name carries some serious weight in literary circles (my circles), and Atonement is on the list of 100 Books To Read Before You Die According to the BBC. Criticizing this literary legend doesn’t bring me any joy. My words feel like footsteps, echoing in the halls of greatness.
So, shall we rip the band aid off?
The writing style of this book is archaic. For example, the formatting of this book just does not work. The paragraphs are gigantic, huge, page-long paragraphs. Short-term memory only lasts between 15 and 30 seconds. However, these paragraphs are so long that you can’t even remember the beginning of the paragraphs.
Lessons is very character driven versus plot driven, and I don’t connect with character-driven books. Additionally, the book flows as a general stream-of-consciousness. There are chapters in the book; however, they are not labeled with a word.
The best illustration that I can give you is if you watch YouTube videos. In the first video, the person is what we call a “talking head.” This person just says anything that comes into their head. After a few minutes, you don’t feel like you are missing anything, and you click off. In the second video, you watch “8 Reasons The Lost Apothecary Disappointed.” You watch the video all the way to the end because you don’t want to miss out on the last reason.
McEwan should have better organized this book. Also, he went far, far too broad in this book. He tried to cover so many relationships, so many historical events. He went wide instead of deep. Lessons would have been better if he had focused on one historical event and perhaps one relationship. I found it very difficult to really connect with the many different characters.
Personally, I didn’t like Roland Baines. He was boring. He might have been interesting, but McEwan tries to cover so many years in this book that he didn’t go deep enough. Roland reminds me of Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye because some horrible things have happened to him in his life; however, he doesn’t adjust well to the losses.
The topic of aging is important and relevant. This is coming from someone who rubs her face twice a day with a jade stone in the hopes that my chin will somehow appear 20 years younger. Roland is very flat emotionally, and I wasn’t moved by him.
Further, if I was the editor of this book, I would have suggested McEwan rewrite it in the first person. I wanted to feel the emotions of Roland, what he felt in those moments. Instead, this was told in a very detached, cold way, almost like the events happened a long time ago. They don’t have that urgency, that sense of excitement, the sense of living in the moment with that character.
Additionally, this book did not feel very original. Without spoiling anything, there was a book which came out not too long ago, discussing the main topic of this book, and it was far superior.
Mr. McEwan – I would be happy to read any of your work in the future and provide feedback. My door is always open to you.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.
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