Saturday

published	2005 by Nan A. Talese
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0385511809 (isbn13: 9780385511803)
pages	289
literary awards	2005 Booker Prize Longlist
description	From the pen of a master — the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Atonement — comes an astonishing novel that cap...more [close] From the pen of a master — the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Atonement — comes an astonishing novel that captures the fine balance of happiness and the unforeseen threats that can destroy it. A brilliant, thrilling page-turner that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Saturday is a masterful novel set within a single day in February 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man — a successful neurosurgeon, happily married to a newspaper lawyer, and enjoying good relations with his children. Henry wakes to the comfort of his large home in central London on this, his day off. He is as at ease here as he is in the operating room. Outside the hospital, the world is not so easy or predictable. There is an impending war against Iraq, and a general darkening and gathering pessimism since the New York and Washington attacks two years before. On this particular Saturday morning, Perowne’s day moves through the ordinary to the extraordinary. After an unusual sighting in the early morning sky, he makes his way to his regular squash game with his anaesthetist, trying to avoid the hundreds of thousands of marchers filling the streets of London, protesting against the war. A minor accident in his car brings him into a confrontation with a small-time thug. To Perowne’s professional eye, something appears to be profoundly wrong with this young man, who in turn believes the surgeon has humiliated him — with savage consequences that will lead Henry Perowne to deploy all his skills to keep his family alive. [close]
date added	03-26-07 edit book

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Philip rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

01/26/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Philip by: My friend Mark, but I don't hold it against him.
recommends it for: no one

Many of my friends are unaware of my fondess of Rodeo Sports. (This is, I promise, a review of SATURDAY. Just go with me for a moment.) But it's true, perhaps it's my childhood in the American Southwest, or maybe some remnant love of the game seeping into my ancestral subconcious through my grandfather and namesake, the New Mexican sports announcer. Or maybe, I just like the look of those cowboys all squeezed into their denims and chaps.

For whatever reason--and PETA be damned--I love me ...more Many of my friends are unaware of my fondess of Rodeo Sports. (This is, I promise, a review of SATURDAY. Just go with me for a moment.) But it's true, perhaps it's my childhood in the American Southwest, or maybe some remnant love of the game seeping into my ancestral subconcious through my grandfather and namesake, the New Mexican sports announcer. Or maybe, I just like the look of those cowboys all squeezed into their denims and chaps.

For whatever reason--and PETA be damned--I love me some rodeo. Living in Chicago, however, a good rodeo's hard to come by, and I find myself having to get by with captured pieces of filmed rodeos at local bars and Mexican dives. While the man v. nature thrill of the sport suffers when filtered through the decidedly inhuman and un-natural television screen, I'll take what I can get. Often, between gulps of tonic or overlagre bites of chimichanga, I'll catch an announcer go on and on about the ferocity of the bull about to be mounted and released from its holding pen. As the cowboy--all chapped, and hatted, and encased in a leatherized bullet vest--is strapped onto the back of this beast, I'll hear the color guards expound on the virtues of the monster about to be released into the ring:

"Oh, Cougar is a true champion bull. Last week, this bull bucked three time Budweiser Champion winner, Elias Butler in less than three seconds, before stomping him repeatedly in the chest. That was--what was it?--four broken ribs for Butler?"

"I think so, Cody. And our best wishes to Butler tonight in the county hospital. We know his family's watching from his hospital bed wishing his little brother, Zeke Butler, happy riding as tonight he attempts to take on the bull that sent his older brother to the ER."

"That's right folks, now don't take your eye off of Cougar the bull. He was almost retired from the game for his umatched ferocity, but Zeke--I guess with something a grudge to settle--insisted he ride this monster. Let's watch. . . "

Or something to that effect. I mean, the announcers will go on and on about the bull. And, usually, the gate lets fly, the bull springs out like a shot, and man and bull are at once a great tilta-whirl of 4H sportsmanship.

But, every once in a while, every once or twice in a true cowboy's life. . .nature surprises even the rodeo. Though no rider likes to talk about it, sometimes this bull, this monster, this beast with so much promise. .. does nothing. No one can say why this happens, why a Cougar with notches in his hide from multiple cowboy slaughters will for no apparent reason turn gentle-hearted Ferdinand on the field, sniffing flowers and warming nicely to the frustrated cowpoke sitting pretty on his back. Perhaps most bulls are only awaiting the perfect rider, one who fits nicely on their hump and, surprisingly, improves their back with their presence. Perhaps every once in a perverted Bucking Bull's life, despite the murderous backstory, enjoys the cowboy and takes comfort in letting him sit, conflict free, and motionless on its body, not weighing it down, not causing it trouble, just sitting there, both of them, while the clock runs, and fans stand up and hiss.

And once, while watching this happen on the televsion screen at my local carneceria, I actually witnessed with my very own eyes, a giant unbucking bull squat in the middle of the ring--shame-eyed cowboy on it's rump-- and drop a dump right there in the dirt. You guys, it pooped!

Ian McEwan's SATURDAY is that kind of rodeo: all promise, but ultimately nothing but bullshit....less

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Marigold rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

04/28/08

Read in April, 2008

I loved this book! This is not a book for you if you’re looking for entertainment only, or light reading. This is a book full of layers, metaphors, parallels, & issues to think about. The thing that most reached out & grabbed me was the idea of a man going about his daily life (whether you find his daily life mundane or overly privileged or whatever), when unexpected events occur & change everything. That’s always sort of a scary theme for me! On the surface it’s the story of H...more I loved this book! This is not a book for you if you’re looking for entertainment only, or light reading. This is a book full of layers, metaphors, parallels, & issues to think about. The thing that most reached out & grabbed me was the idea of a man going about his daily life (whether you find his daily life mundane or overly privileged or whatever), when unexpected events occur & change everything. That’s always sort of a scary theme for me! On the surface it’s the story of Henry, a successful London neurosurgeon; his wife Rosalind, a lawyer; their daughter, a soon to be published poet living in Paris; & their son, a blues musician, also on the brink of success. It’s a story that takes place over the course of one day – Feb 15, 2003, a day just before the start of the Iraq war, when there were huge anti-war demonstrations in London & around the world. That morning, Henry wakes up in the early morning hours & goes to look out the window. He sees an airplane headed toward Heathrow airport, & it appears to be in trouble. This encounter with disaster & possible terrorism informs & affects the rest of Henry’s Saturday. On this day, he’s planned a series of ordinary activities – a game of squash with a coworker; groceries; dinner, etc. Unfortunately, a minor traffic accident interrupts his plans, & brings his life into collision with Baxter, a – what? – small-time crook? – McEwan never specifically tells us – but we know Baxter has some sidekicks who don’t hesitate to use violence. Henry sees that Baxter has neurological symptoms that he’s able to instantly diagnose as a debilitating & fatal genetic disease.
All of that is the surface story. Along the way, you get to learn about neurosurgery – fascinating! I thought the detail about this was really interesting, tho have seen a lot of criticism about its inclusion. Really? Roll with it, you might learn something! You get to learn about the game of squash, literature, poetry, genetic diseases, the aging process, music, & cooking – all parts of Henry’s day or his thinking about his day. You get to think about war & peace & terrorism & fear & politics - & how these huge issues affect all of us even as we cope with the details of our lives. (Maybe you don’t want to think about these things – in which case, don’t read this book!)
Themes to find: The need for control in our lives, what things we have control over, what we don’t, & what happens when unexpected events make us doubt our control. The fear of lack of control or losing control. Work – competitiveness – how it affects our relationships. Biological determinism – to what extent is our destiny controlled by our genes? Violence, war, & what forces are available to us to counteract violence. Seems like a lot of people were disturbed by Henry’s family being “too perfect.” Legitimate – but here’s a theme to look for – the four disciplines of medicine, law, literature & music - & how they stack up against forces of chaos & violence. There’s a whole idea to think about that has to do with Henry & how the different parts of his personality work for or against him in the particular struggle he faces on this Saturday – or do his children represent different parts of him? Or parts of a greater whole that he needs to integrate? And who is Baxter, really? Maybe he’s part of Henry too – in a sense (read the end!) – or part of that greater whole. What does his reaction to the poem that Daisy recites, mean to the story? Another theme – creativity - & what would it mean to a dying man, to have the ability to create something like a poem, that has a life of its own, & an ability to inspire particular feelings & longings in others? I could go on but this is much too long! I thought “Saturday” was FASCINATING.
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John rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

11/14/07

Read in August, 2006

I would not qualify "Saturday" as McEwan's best work. I think the argument begins and ends with "Atonement" in terms of sheer literary achievement.

But "Saturday" is McEwan's most immediate work; the one that feels most like a significant and honest byproduct of both the time and place from which it emerged and the man from whose mind materialized. To be clear, I adore "Atonement" and, for all its heart-wrenching and visceral exploration of obsession ...more I would not qualify "Saturday" as McEwan's best work. I think the argument begins and ends with "Atonement" in terms of sheer literary achievement.

But "Saturday" is McEwan's most immediate work; the one that feels most like a significant and honest byproduct of both the time and place from which it emerged and the man from whose mind materialized. To be clear, I adore "Atonement" and, for all its heart-wrenching and visceral exploration of obsession and paranoia, I love "Enduring Love".

"Saturday" is an oddity because, by placing itself in the middle of one man's life, in the middle of his family, and in the middle of the most significant period of our time (that span between September 11th, 2001, and the advent of the Iraq war), it somehow manages to be about everything, the way that our own lives are *about* everything.

It is about love, family, aging, neurosurgery, home, poetry, literature, sex, violence, identity, war, fear, paranoia, despair, hope; virtually nothing is untouched, and the whole thing occurs in one day, as Henry Perowne, the flawed but amiable protagonist, recounts the minutes of this one day. This can be as banal as it sounds, and more often it is moving, even reviting, to live in someone else's mind, to have access to the ups and downs and even the dull moments, for just one day.

The Saturday in question is the one during the largest protest in human history, the London protest against the Iraq invasion, took place, and so it was never meant to be an ordinary Saturday for Henry. McEwan, true to form, makes ample use of metaphor and symbolism, reducing enormous global fluxes to personal experience. In the hands of most writers, such tactics would be cheap and cliche, but McEwan, one of the most gifted living writers of fiction, knows that he has bought the right to employ such tactics.

Because the point, ultimately, of "Saturday" is, quite beautifully, that those events that affect the whole world tend to affect each and every one of its inhabitants individually. So as the Perowne family suffers their own personal nightmare, together, as a family, it suddenly becomes simultaneously a much more *and* much less personal experience. It is as shared and universal as it is deeply disturbing and private. It is the bizarre paradox we face in this shrinking world of ours; nobody truly lives and experiences anything in isolation. It is a strange new world, but McEwan somehow reminds us how essentially similar massive, destructive global shifts are to all the trials and hardships we have always faced in our own tiny lives. It's a short, beautiful, and effective story about who we were then, where we are now, how all that changed, and how, in the end, things tend to remain defiantly the same....less

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Jim rated it:

04/03/08

bookshelves: this-is-england

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Someone who already likes McEwan. Someone new to the author should choose something else.

I think McEwan took the approach James Joyce used in Ulysses, that is, to detail the events of a day, in a narrative driven by a character's thoughts. Ulysses is a stream-of-consciousness masterpiece, Saturday isn't in that league. (It's probably unfair to compare a novelist with James Joyce, but literary publicists do it all the time. McEwan has received plenty of positive comparisons with the likes of Dickens and Hardy, even Shakespeare.)

There is some beautiful writin...more I think McEwan took the approach James Joyce used in Ulysses, that is, to detail the events of a day, in a narrative driven by a character's thoughts. Ulysses is a stream-of-consciousness masterpiece, Saturday isn't in that league. (It's probably unfair to compare a novelist with James Joyce, but literary publicists do it all the time. McEwan has received plenty of positive comparisons with the likes of Dickens and Hardy, even Shakespeare.)

There is some beautiful writing here, and that kept me going. Still, I kept asking myself whether something, anything, was going to happen. Occasionally plot breaks through, specifically the protagonist Henry Perowne's confrontation with some thugs over a minor traffic scrape. When McEwan allows plot to drive the narrative, it's superb. McEwan also writes convincingly about the personal lives of his characters and the relations between them. He captures the complicated tangle of emotions we have for the people we love. For this, for style, for his portrayal of confrontation, this should get 4 stars.

Unfortunately, this book is not defined by its good bits. Admittedly the novel didn't quite match its American promotion, which tended to stress the backdrop of the post-9/11 world and the run-up to the war in Iraq. McEwan certainly uses these themes; at times they are prominent, but I didn't feel it was integral to the story. It was a subject that inspired characters' thoughts and conversations, but I didn't get the sense it was anything like the zeitgeist of the novel's world. [I'm waiting for that book, not a book about 9/11, but rather about how people live their lives in this awful new world in which we find ourselves. (I thought Jonathan Coe did a decent job of this in Closed Circle. I would like to see how someone like Nick Hornby might handle this.)]

The biggest problem I had with the book, the one that really kept me from enjoying it, was that too much time was spent focused on what Henry himself refers to as the 'white noise' of his thoughts. If the character were a real person, he would be admirable, a gifted neurosurgeon, a loving husband and father, a decent cook. The problem is that he's a bit dull.

In Ulysses, Joyce used multiple interior voices and packed in so much detail that there's always something to look at. Also, Joyce's Dublin is seen from the pavement; as pedestrians we have time to take in more. What we see of London through Henry Perowne's eyes is from his car. Mostly we're stuck in traffic. When Henry gets out of his car, he spends a lot of time thinking about his squash game or recalling time spent operating on brains. Interesting, maybe, but not sufficient to drive a novel forward.

All in all, sometimes pleasant, often frustrating, ultimately disappointing.
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Anuar rated it:

(review of isbn 0099469685)

02/10/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in February, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Well, it's either "Saturday" or "Atonement". I opted for Saturday to see how this book goes as the blurp sounds interesting.

The story surrounds Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon. On a Saturday, when London is preparing for an anti-war demonstration (Iraq War), Henry on his way to his weekly squash game was delayed not only by the demonstration but by an accident with some thugs, one of them having an ailment that Henry seems to have diagnosed. Fortunately, Henr...more Well, it's either "Saturday" or "Atonement". I opted for Saturday to see how this book goes as the blurp sounds interesting.

The story surrounds Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon. On a Saturday, when London is preparing for an anti-war demonstration (Iraq War), Henry on his way to his weekly squash game was delayed not only by the demonstration but by an accident with some thugs, one of them having an ailment that Henry seems to have diagnosed. Fortunately, Henry was able to wiggle his way out of the incident, although shakened was able to continue with his planned activities for the day.

Well, most part of this novel centers around Henry's list of ordinary activities that he did on that day, what thoughts that went through his head, his flashbacks, among many others. I particularly like the discussion regarding the war especially his debate with his daughter, Daisy. I remembered how some of us (colleagues and family members) actually had the same kind of discussion on whether the war was justified or not and that Saddam needed to be disposed of or not. As in the novel, the discussions did become quite heated up. I also appreciate Henry's meeting with his mother at the home, who is suffering from dementia due to old age, as I reflect upon my own parents and myself on what happens if I were to grow old in future. The concern is that, for my case, who would be looking after me if this does happen as the likelihood of marriage is slim at this point of time.

I find the novel rather boring (in a way) saved only by the brief excitement that was brought into Henry's home when the thug Baxter, somehow managed to find his way to Henry's neighbourhood and intruded with an accomplice into his home at knife point. Somehow, McEwan's mundane and routine portrayal of Henry's acts through the day seems to lull the reader until at that precise moment of intrusion when the reader's adrenaline starts to run high. This however, was brief. Nevertheless, somehow, the book gets you thinking that there are thugs everywhere, at the world stage as well as at your own doorstep, so beware of the supposed tranquility.

Is this book a let down? In terms of exciting possibilities, yes but in terms of trying to see a bigger picture (whatever that you may want it to be), no, I guess. Personally like I said, the book is rather boring. Perhaps, I should have started with "Atonement" first as my friend had earlier suggested. An exerpt (pg. 66, this edition) that struck me would be Henry's thought on reading "...Nor does he really want to be a spectator of other lives, of imaginary lives,...Why make things up?" Hahahaha.......less

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Nikki rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

06/12/08

bookshelves: general-misc, literature, no-longer-owned

Read in June, 2008

Like my (upcoming) review of Perdido Street Station, this was written as I went along. My mum told me to read this book just so that I've read something of McEwan's work, to get an idea of the East Anglia style -- I was once planning to do the same writing course.

The first ten pages bored me. Blah, blah, blah, mostly medical procedure, a doctor's life is so busy, blahblahblah -- a scenario I know well as a doctor's daughter, that doesn't really seem to merit ten pages to me. It got old fast ...more Like my (upcoming) review of Perdido Street Station, this was written as I went along. My mum told me to read this book just so that I've read something of McEwan's work, to get an idea of the East Anglia style -- I was once planning to do the same writing course.

The first ten pages bored me. Blah, blah, blah, mostly medical procedure, a doctor's life is so busy, blahblahblah -- a scenario I know well as a doctor's daughter, that doesn't really seem to merit ten pages to me. It got old fast in real life; in print, it's even worse. The prose is quite ordinary, and lingers on topics I don't find particularly interesting: pages on pages about medical techniques, a couple of pages about the main character's son's music, a paragraph about the advances in kettles, pages in which the main character denounces the value of stories, half a chapter devoted to a squash game I couldn't care less about...

Despite that, there's something about it that kept me reading. Something vaguely hypnotic. I didn't find it "dazzling... profound and urgent" as the cover promised. I found it dry, plodding, boring, stolid. By seventy-eight pages in, the guy hasn't left his home yet and the most exciting thing is the plane in flames, which is dismissed in about two pages, near the beginning.

Strangely enough, I thought it did pick up near the end. Most of the drama was anti-climatic and sandwiched between pages and pages of irrelevant detail, but I tried to read it with the view that the book is meant to be about an ordinary guy going about his ordinary life. The prose mimics that, and the pages and pages of description enforce it. It took me ages to decide how many stars to give it. I'm not sure there was much to really like or dislike. The idea could have been interesting, but I'm not sure there's realistically a way to write about an ordinary man going through his mostly ordinary day in a way that keeps someone genuinely interested throughout. The build up was needed so you could care enough about the characters, but all the build up made me bored with them. I definitely don't think this is a "modern classic" or whatever. I don't think it has the strength to last.

I might try something else of this guy's, to see if I like him better when he's not restricting himself to one day of an ordinary guy's life. Any recommendations?...less

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Susanne rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

06/03/08

Read in January, 2007

A day ripe with drama, disease and a possible disaster .....

'Saturday' for Neurosurgeon Henry Perowne starts out when he wakes up before dawn feeling unusually refreshed and optimistic.

He is drawn to his window where he sees an airplane in flames descending toward Heathrow Airport........Is this a terrorist attack in progress?

Mesmerized and unable to move, thinking of that possibility, he rationalizes that calling the authorities would already be too late.....the a...more A day ripe with drama, disease and a possible disaster .....

'Saturday' for Neurosurgeon Henry Perowne starts out when he wakes up before dawn feeling unusually refreshed and optimistic.

He is drawn to his window where he sees an airplane in flames descending toward Heathrow Airport........Is this a terrorist attack in progress?

Mesmerized and unable to move, thinking of that possibility, he rationalizes that calling the authorities would already be too late.....the airliner is on a crash course, no matter what he does.

However, this day will play out in a bizarre fashion.....a seemingly minor accident plays forward with cruelty and misdirection. The car that impacts his has 3 young thugs inside that seem to welcome a ruckus. Baxter, their 'leader' wants to fight. Henry, noticing certain signs of Huntington's Disease, is able to use that knowledge to his advantage in diffusing Baxter's aggression....for the moment anyway.

He goes about his day with not too much thought about the accident, playing squash, shopping, visiting his mother, and then going to watch his son's band rehearsal. We are given detailed insight into how a neurosurgeon might view everything from the perspective of how the brain is wired and how it functions. It is truly amazing how well McEwan researched and relayed the medical and numerological information contained in this book.

But this otherwise rather ordinary Saturday takes a dangerous twist when Baxter shows up at his home later with malice on his mind.
The rest of the family, including his wife, daughter Daisy (an aspiring poet like her alcoholic grand-father), his son Theo (the musician), and grumpy gramps are gathered for an enjoyable evening. The evening's calm is soon to be shattered by this home invasion and Baxter's episodic mood swings.

A poem recited by Daisy temporarily calms the misfiring neurons of Baxter's diseased brain and soon a startling twist puts the doctor back in control. The poem, 'Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold works it's magic on Baxter, and is deeply connected to the novel and Henry's thoughts.

McEwan's characters are so well developed as to cause a bit of personal cringing amid the drama which plays out in the house!

Maybe not my favorite McEwan book....but most certainly a fine read with often elegant prose from this master storyteller!

"Come to the window, sweet is the night air." ...less

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Lauren rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

04/30/08

Read in April, 2008

I actually started listening to this one on audio during our last car trip, but turned it off as I was worried Isabel would learn a few new words (or one in particular, rhyming with 'duck') from McEwan.... I must say that this is one novel that deserves to be read and not just listened to. It strikes me as a modern, male version of Virginia Woolf's _Mrs. Dalloway_. We follow one character through one physical day while gaining access to quite a large span of time through his interactions and tho...more I actually started listening to this one on audio during our last car trip, but turned it off as I was worried Isabel would learn a few new words (or one in particular, rhyming with 'duck') from McEwan.... I must say that this is one novel that deserves to be read and not just listened to. It strikes me as a modern, male version of Virginia Woolf's _Mrs. Dalloway_. We follow one character through one physical day while gaining access to quite a large span of time through his interactions and thought processes. Physical actions that would take only moments of physical time span across several pages due to the amount of psychological time revealed by narration. All sorts of metaphysical things about time and memory can be explored here. Representing the fleeting and ever-changing nature of Time in a fixed, immobile medium such as text presents all sorts of complications. As Henri Bergson wrote, "It is clear that fixed concepts may be extracted by our thought from mobile reality; but there are no means of reconstructing the mobility of the real with fixed concepts" (_Introduction to Metaphysics_ 68). I intend to reread some Bergson and perhaps some Hegel and then to read _Saturday_ again. Here's some Bergson in case you're interested: http://books.google.com/books?...
When read together with _Mrs. Dalloway_, interesting observations can also be made concerning the differences in gender.
It was also interesting to see the controversy surrounding the invasion of Iraq represented in fiction. I always wonder how this historical epoch will be presented to our posterity. In my teaching, I have encountered students whose political awareness (such as it is) is limited to post-9/11 ideology. If they are an example of the tone history books (or e-texts or whatever we end up with) will take, I worry. Hopefully, as time passes, historians--and regular individuals--will be able to take a more level-headed view of things. I hope they will be able to see more clearly and from a greater distance. This novel begins to take a baby step in that direction, I think....less

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Steven rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

04/03/08

bookshelves: 1001, goodmodernfiction

Read in April, 2008

This book is my fourth Ian McEwan novel and much like the previous three that I have read, I think it is very good. While nowhere near the Cormac McCarthy page turners that I have digested recently, it thought it was a refreshing change of pace.

I am somewhat surprised by how much this book appears to be disliked by other members of the goodreads community. It is also sort of dismissed as a slice of life commentary on the ordinary mundane natures of the things that make up a day. While the...more This book is my fourth Ian McEwan novel and much like the previous three that I have read, I think it is very good. While nowhere near the Cormac McCarthy page turners that I have digested recently, it thought it was a refreshing change of pace.

I am somewhat surprised by how much this book appears to be disliked by other members of the goodreads community. It is also sort of dismissed as a slice of life commentary on the ordinary mundane natures of the things that make up a day. While there is some of that element within the book, the day described is anything but ordinary. There are plane crashes, road rage incidents, competitive squash matches, attempted rapes and burglaries, sex, surprise pregnancies, surgery, etc.

Despite all that happens throughout the day, this book does thrive by slowing time down, sometimes exhaustingly so. If you don’t like the inner monologue, then this book is not for you. Interesting hat the protagonist of this novel, which focuses so much on the inner workings of the mind, is a neurosurgeon.

The novel describes a day in the life of successful neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne. He is the married to the lovely Rosalind, who is a lawyer, and he is the father of two wonderful and successful kids: Daisy who is a soon to be published poet, and Theo, a budding success as a blues guitarist. He is a lucky man, but various events happen throughout the day when the reality of this life and the accompanying comforts are threatened.

Without a doubt, though, my favorite parts of the book involve Perowne’s reaction to the impending Invasion of Iraq, where a large protest march in central London serves as a backdrop throughout the novel. I think this novel is the best I have read yet in describing what life is like in the post 9/11 world. I think we all are aware that an attack, likely very bad and bloody, is inevitable. I don’t know if we really know what to do about it, though. I don’t know if there really is a point to this novel, but I think McEwan is trying to point out that the safety and security that we all feel can be destroyed in an instant, be it by intruders suffering from Huntington’s disease or terrorist attacks.

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Howard rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

03/04/08

bookshelves: books-i-reviewed-for-kirkus

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

An increasingly mellowed but no less gripping McEwan vividly portrays the thoughts and experience of a single day in the life of an upper-middle class Londoner, blessed in every conceivable way.

While crowds mass in London to protest the coming invasion of Iraq in February of 2003, Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon at the top of his game, intelligent and self-aware, goes about his particular Saturday, by turns mundane and marvelous. We follow his reflections on surgeries so well deta...more An increasingly mellowed but no less gripping McEwan vividly portrays the thoughts and experience of a single day in the life of an upper-middle class Londoner, blessed in every conceivable way.

While crowds mass in London to protest the coming invasion of Iraq in February of 2003, Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon at the top of his game, intelligent and self-aware, goes about his particular Saturday, by turns mundane and marvelous. We follow his reflections on surgeries so well detailed as to be med-porn; lazy lovemaking upon awakening and restorative sex at the end of the day with smart, devoted, lawyer wife, Rosalind, (he notes his unusual luck that he still wants no one else); a sometimes savage squash game with friend and partner Jay; a sad visit to his senile mother; and shopping for dinner. A chance encounter with Baxter, an intelligent young thug, provides the small plot; Henry escapes a mugging when he recognizes early signs of Huntington’s in the lad and takes control. That evening, at Henry’s well-appointed townhouse, in the warm glow of gathering family--father-in-law John Grammaticus, towering poet turned to drink; son Theo, a gifted young blues guitarist; daughter Daisy, visiting from Paris, a poet both newly published and newly pregnant--Baxter returns, holding Rosalind at knifepoint. While terrorized and terrified, the family through their various strengths overcome Baxter, who lands in the hospital, requiring emergency surgery from the forgiving Henry. Taken up with an active awareness of his place in the world, his love for his family and work, the contingencies that make his life his, and Baxter’s Baxter’s, and informed by a matter-of-fact understanding of the neurological processes that emerge as behavior and look like choice, Henry’s thoughts envelop us in a total immersion experience.

A sort of middle-class humanist manifesto: When you find yourself fortunate beyond all measure in a random universe, gratitude, generosity and compassion are a decent response....less

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Krissa rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

02/13/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Krissa by: Conrad

After all the sci-fi and complex epic novels I've been reading lately, reading Atonement over Christmas was a breath of fresh, deceptively simple air. So I immediately put out library requests for Saturday and Amsterdam and devoured them both.

Saturday, had it been written by a lesser writer, would have that distinctly Writing Workshop air about it. Setting the action over the arc of a single day where so many themes come full circle as they do in Henry Perowne's Saturday could be seen as a p...more After all the sci-fi and complex epic novels I've been reading lately, reading Atonement over Christmas was a breath of fresh, deceptively simple air. So I immediately put out library requests for Saturday and Amsterdam and devoured them both.

Saturday, had it been written by a lesser writer, would have that distinctly Writing Workshop air about it. Setting the action over the arc of a single day where so many themes come full circle as they do in Henry Perowne's Saturday could be seen as a pretty typical Writing Prompt nightmare, oozing with cheese, corners tucked in too neatly. Not to mention the fact that this "ordinary" Saturday gets quite "extraordinary" in the events of the evening, in a way that rarely happens as concretely in real life.

What salvages it from Workshop Hell is really McEwan's strengths, which is his ability to create the sorts of characters that are so believably minutely dissecting their own days and constantly evaluating their own psyches that it's not hard to imagine everything having the bombastic effect that it does, even if it's a view from a window. With any other writer, the action that does happen would seem plodding and forced, but it somehow doesn't - even as, if you were forced to describe the plot in detail, it would SOUND plodding and forced.

There's something to be said about McEwan's characters themselves, though. On the one hand, I applaud the depths to which he dives into their careers, or their passions - with Atonement, the war scenes were rivetingly detailed, and here, Henry's surgeries are executed with almost unnecessary precision.

But on the other hand, his characters are also uniformly, well, there's no nice way to say this - upper class. Maybe it's a product of reading three books in a row with these really upper class characters that I stop contemplating what McEwan might be saying about the class struggles in modern England and start wondering why I care?

A petty niggling thing, to be sure, in the face of his prodigious writing talent. I'm just saying....less

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Naomi rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

12/28/07

bookshelves: расслабления

Read in January, 2007

Saturday sets out to overcome the banal fact that the details of every individual's daily work, the minutiae of their job, are virtually impenetrable to anyone else - spouse, child, best-friend or co-worker. Still more difficult to convey is the interior monologue that goes with work, the thoughts and emotions that are never expressed. In an interesting bid to overcome this incommunicability McEwan lays out before us a day in Henry's life. There is certainly an imaginative spark in the im...more

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Siobhan added it (review of isbn 1400076196)

04/17/08

bookshelves: bad-books

Read in January, 2006

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I thoroughly disliked this book. It's the only Ian McEwan book I've read and if this is typical of him, I'm not going back for me.

Each character, and each event, seems to have a massive backstory to get through before we can get back to the present moment. That got tedious fast.

As for the characters, with their perfect lives in a toney London neighborhood, they're not particularly interesting. The bad guys who do show and good give the book a little texture are caricatures and really ...more

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Elizabeth rated it:

(review of isbn 1400076196)

12/06/07

Read in November, 2007

This is a "day in the life" kind of novel: the story of a single Saturday in the life of Henry Perowne, a middle-aged London neurosurgeon. The day is both ordinary and extraordinary; we get a lot of rather mundane detail about Henry, his family, and his life. Yet the day is significant, not only because of the explosive encounter between Henry and a complete stranger, but because it's set in February 2003, on the day of a massive anti-war protest. The impending Iraq war is thus a su...more

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Melissa rated it:

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03/20/08

Read in March, 2008

I actually asked for Atonement for my birthday and my mother mistakently got me this book instead. :-) It looked interesting so I gave it a try. The beginning of the book is immediately intriuging- the main character, Henry Perowne, wakes up in the middle of the night with a strange euphoria and witnesses a bizarre accident from his window. I think this instance kept me reading, even though I felt a little weighted down by the scientific language of the book. Perowne is a neurosurgeon. He ...more

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Alison rated it:

(review of isbn 0099469685)

06/16/07

bookshelves: contemporaryfiction

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: all

"If he counts on sleep rather than the clock to divide the days, then this is still his Saturday, dropping far below him, as deep as a lifetime. And from here, from the top of his day, he can see far ahead, before the descent begins. Sunday doesn't ring with the same promise and vigour as the day before."

This book follows 24 hours in the life of a 48 year old neurosurgeon living and working in London, a Saturday. It takes you through his rising, his conversation with his son, hi...more

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LindyLouMac rated it:

(review of isbn 0099469685)

07/15/08

Read in July, 2008

http://www.bookcrossing.com/jo...

Having just been lent a copy of Ian McEwan’s more recent novel On Chesil Beach I decided that I should read Saturday first, as the copy my husband read was on our bookshelves. I have previously read and enjoyed, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, Amsterdam and Atonement. The latter is still my favourite, although I highly recommend Saturday as a thought provoking read.
Saturday as th...more

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L rated it:

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05/14/08

bookshelves: 1001bookstoreadlist

Read in May, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This is a "one day in the life" story of a London neurosurgeon. On the surface it seems to be a simple if not boring account of one man's day. The setting is London during post 9-11 pre Iraq War and the events, while sometimes seeming in one moment mundane, and in the next extroidinary also have greater meanings deep with symbolism and metaphors.
Upon first meeting Henry Perowne he is witness to a plane crashing in the early morning hours. This to him, as well as us, will aggreva...more

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