Lessons by Ian McEwan spans the life of Roland Baines, born shortly after the Second World War. Taking in several major world crises from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Chernobyl disaster to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as intimate domestic events, ‘Lessons’ is a sprawling epic and easily McEwan’s longest novel. Some elements of Roland’s early life are strongly autobiographical, including his childhood spent partly in Libya and his discovery late in life that he has a half-brother, as McEwan did in 2002. However, it is the repercussions from the piano lessons Roland received at boarding school that have the most significant impact on his life. I read but didn’t review McEwan’s previous novel ‘Machines Like Me’ in 2019 which I didn’t think was among his best work, but I would say that ‘Lessons’ is very much a return to form and genuinely engrossing. Many thanks to Vintage Books for sending me a review copy via NetGalley. Continue reading
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Books I Read in July
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka is a novel told from the perspective of the women linked to Ansel Packer, a serial killer on death row in Texas counting down the hours to his execution by lethal injection. As well as the four victims he killed, the perspectives of other women in his life are explored, including his mother, his ex-wife’s sister and the detective who caught him. ‘Notes on an Execution’ straddles both literary and crime fiction, posing reflective questions about the justice system while still ramping up the tension both in the present-day storyline with the clock ticking down to Ansel’s execution and in the flashbacks such as when his mother attempts to escape an abusive relationship. Overall, this is a unique suspense novel with a skilfully handled plot structure. Continue reading
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