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tillwyatt's review
4.0
A brilliant modern-day take of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (although not the same story).
This book ends with a moral imperative that humbled me.
Ill leave you with this passage on the last page:
"That hunger is his claim on life, on a mental existence, and because it won't last much longer, because the door of his consciousness is beginning to close, he shouldn't pursue his claim from a cell, waiting for the absurdity of his trial to begin. This is his dim, fixed fate, to have one tiny slip, an error of repetition in the codes of his being, in his genotype, the modern variant of a soul, and he must unravel, another certainty Henry sees before him."
This book ends with a moral imperative that humbled me.
Ill leave you with this passage on the last page:
"That hunger is his claim on life, on a mental existence, and because it won't last much longer, because the door of his consciousness is beginning to close, he shouldn't pursue his claim from a cell, waiting for the absurdity of his trial to begin. This is his dim, fixed fate, to have one tiny slip, an error of repetition in the codes of his being, in his genotype, the modern variant of a soul, and he must unravel, another certainty Henry sees before him."
sidharthvardhan's review
4.0
Now here is a book that would have failed miserably in hands of most authors. The book is just about a doctor in States going through his Saturday - something like McEwan was trying to write a modern version of Joyce's Ulysses; story of a man going through a normal day in his life. Except the problem is as with Bloom, Henry's day is full of too many coincidences. In here, Henry, a doctor, starts his day with a disturbance that provokes all kind of post-9/11 fears, gets in trouble with a ganster - twice, being saved first by having a Gregory House MD kind of Eureka moment and then by his daughter reciting a poem before finally going to treat the very same gangster as his patient. Those are only some of incidences that happen during his day.
I probably won't have enjoyed such a book but I think any McEwan book is bound to get three stars from me. He is an excellent observer of human behaviour but what I most love about reading his books is that he can make anything read like poems. He writes of such things as music and being raised by a mentally disturbed parent brilliantly (and also it seems repeatively) - better than most writers but those are subjects that most writers are always writing about. McEwan's genuis as a novelist is that not only can he teach himself to write about philosphise, politics and, also such dull things like medical surgeries; he can also write about them in a manner that those details didn't bore me for a moment.
(Actually the only thing that he has problems writing about, in my opinion, is two people having sex. He can describe the characters looking forward to it and thinking of it in retrospect but as for the actual action he seems to be struggle, might be him self-censoring so as to be sure not to seem vulgar but still)
In the end, the theme of the big picture seems to be struggles of an everyman trying hard to hold on to his tiny niche of happiness. The big picture is not very clear though which may explain the low average rating on Goodreads.
I probably won't have enjoyed such a book but I think any McEwan book is bound to get three stars from me. He is an excellent observer of human behaviour but what I most love about reading his books is that he can make anything read like poems. He writes of such things as music and being raised by a mentally disturbed parent brilliantly (and also it seems repeatively) - better than most writers but those are subjects that most writers are always writing about. McEwan's genuis as a novelist is that not only can he teach himself to write about philosphise, politics and, also such dull things like medical surgeries; he can also write about them in a manner that those details didn't bore me for a moment.
(Actually the only thing that he has problems writing about, in my opinion, is two people having sex. He can describe the characters looking forward to it and thinking of it in retrospect but as for the actual action he seems to be struggle, might be him self-censoring so as to be sure not to seem vulgar but still)
In the end, the theme of the big picture seems to be struggles of an everyman trying hard to hold on to his tiny niche of happiness. The big picture is not very clear though which may explain the low average rating on Goodreads.
lotta21's review against another edition
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
alineh's review
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
nickedkins's review
5.0
Right, I'm aware this makes me sound like a bit of a philistine, but I really enjoy reading about when someone's ordinary life is just going along nicely. If this whole novel was just about a man who played a heated game of squash, did a spot of surgery while listening to the Goldberg Variations, and came home and made a fish stew and thought about the specific ways in which he loved his family, I think I would have liked it the same amount. Fleishman Isn't In Trouble, if you like.
Baxter as antagonist is compelling, but I do feel that he is the character that McEwan has the loosest grasp of. The rest of the main cast are fully themselves as soon as they walk in, which owes a lot to how much time Henry, the protagonist, spends thinking about them while we're knocking around in his head, and less to their actual actions on the page.
We also get three entries into the "fictional media I wish was real list" with Theo's song and the poems by Daisy and John. Probably unwise of the audiobook narrator to have a crack at singing Theo's song though; it came out very bland.
Baxter as antagonist is compelling, but I do feel that he is the character that McEwan has the loosest grasp of. The rest of the main cast are fully themselves as soon as they walk in, which owes a lot to how much time Henry, the protagonist, spends thinking about them while we're knocking around in his head, and less to their actual actions on the page.
We also get three entries into the "fictional media I wish was real list" with Theo's song and the poems by Daisy and John. Probably unwise of the audiobook narrator to have a crack at singing Theo's song though; it came out very bland.
justmadelinem's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Honestly my rating doesn’t feel entirely honest. Enjoyment wise it was closer to a 2.5; however, I recognize that’s mainly because I didn’t connect with the material and not at all based on the author’s abilities. As a matter of fact, I was pleasantly surprised how much a few small well-written parts kept the book in my hands instead of tossing it aside. The internal reflection and constant stream-of-thought occasionally pointed out one of those small universal truths that we’ve all noticed but didn’t realize we collectively share. I think I would have enjoyed it more had it not invasively felt somewhat like an all too intimate peek inside the head of the average middle-aged man.
carmencolette's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5