Although I have been unable to finish Ian McEwan’s Saturday, I respect his work so much that Lessons was an obvious request for a Christmas present gifted to me some five-and-a-bit months ago.
As ever, McEwan’s work is really well-written and with a style that appeals – at least in part because in some respects it chimes with my own. Indeed, there is something in Roland’s journey in Lessons which mirrors that of Liam in my own The Opposite of Remembering – not that I’m drawing direct parallels you understand…
So the book did what I expected it to do; it performed as I anticipated it would. I might have preferred it a little shorter (and the hardback is so heavy!), but that is more the complaint of someone who would ideally like to get through as many books as possible in the shortest possible time. It’s probably an age thing…
Ian Gouge - Writer 