Product Description

In his triumphant new novel, Ian McEwan, the bestselling author of Atonement, follows an ordinary man through a Saturday whose high promise gradually turns nightmarish. Henry Perowne–a neurosurgeon, urbane, privileged, deeply in love with his wife and grown-up children–plans to play a game of squash, visit his elderly mother, and cook dinner for his family. But after a minor traffic accident leads to an unsettling confrontation, Perowne must set aside his plans and summon a strength greater than he knew he had in order to preserve the life that is dear to him.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5299 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-11
• Released on: 2006-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In the predawn sky on a Saturday morning, London neurosurgeon Henry Perowne sees a plane with a wing afire streaking toward Heathrow. His first thought is terrorism--especially since this is the day of a public demonstration against the pending Iraq war. Eventually, danger to Perowne and his family will come from another source, but the plane, like the balloon in the first scene of Enduring Love, turns out to be a harbinger of a world forever changed. Meanwhile, the reader follows Perowne through his day, mainly via an interior monologue. His cerebral peregrination records, in turn, the meticulous details of brain surgery, a car accident followed by a confrontation with a hoodlum, a far-from-routine squash game, a visit to Perowne's mother in a nursing home and a family reunion. It is during the latter event, at the end of the day, that the ominous pall that has hovered over the narrative explodes into violence, and Perowne's sense that the world has become "a commuity of anxiety" plays out in suspense, delusion, heroism and reconciliation. The tension throughout the novel between science (Perowne's surgery) and art (his daughter is a poet; his son a musician) culminates in a synthesis of the two, and a grave, hopeful, meaningful, transcendent ending. If this novel is not as complex a work as McEwan's bestselling Atonement, it is nonetheless a wise and poignant portrait of the way we live now. (Mar. 22)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
As McEwan writers, “When anything can happen, everything matters.” Saturday magnifies a pivotal moment in history and a day in a man’s life as secure foundations crack and uncertainty rushes in. While critics cited different overriding themes, Saturday explores ideas of fate and purpose, life’s fragility, revelation, and terror at all levels of society. McEwan, an enduring talent in Britain combines “literary seriousness” with a “momentum more commonly associated with genre fiction.” The result is an intricate, captivating novel defined by a “serene tension” that erupts into a dark reality despite its hero’s optimism (New York Times Book Review).

McEwan brilliantly builds many layers of reality from small details. Henry-a sympathetic, if conflicted, character-knows he can examine people’s brains, but not understand their minds. His ruminations on surgery, lovemaking, music, war (he’s pro-war), and literature (he’s clueless) rise to a crescendo as he slowly questions his own motives and actions. In dazzling, authoritative prose, McEwan depicts this growing anxiety with a calmness that is soon violated.

Despite its appeal on both sides of the Atlantic, a few reviewers thought McEwan’s intricate plotting and slow, dark suspense was too structured. The novel’s explicit messages deprive the reader of “feeling, rather than coolly registering, the author’s intention” (New York Times Book Review). Yet, in the end, most critics agree that Saturday is both a substantial work of literature by one of Britain’s greatest minds and a powerful piece of post-9/11 fiction.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
SATURDAY, brilliantly and convincingly read by Steven Crossley, is the lengthy reflection of neurosurgeon Dr. Henry Perwone, a complex man who considers his life with his wife, two talented adult children, and an immensely successful medical career. After the life-altering terrorist attacks on 9/11, he asks himself, "What does it all mean?" Listeners will appreciate Crossley's subtle vocal shadings and the great care he gives to the spoken word. Those familiar with Virginia Woolf's MRS. DALLOWAY will find that book's echo here. Ultimately, this account of personal reexamination is not only sobering but is perhaps a wake-up call for many of us--a reminder of the necessity of recasting what one has previously deemed important and secure. L.C. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Pretty good. Suspenseful, descriptive.
To me this felt a lot like Tom Wolfe, a microcosmic view into "a day in the life of....". It is well written, thoughtful and interesting. At times you feel jealous, sad, and angry about the main character.

Excellent
This is a terrifically engaging and intelligent novel that is both meditative and pleasingly dense in vivid, narrative detail. Altough it swells with inner dialogue and deep explanation, there is deft movement to the story as it progresses from rumination to flashes of personal and potential horror and back again into the territory of character background.

The passing thoughts of the chief character, a British neurosurgeon gliding through a day off until things go awry, comprise the main story line. But all along there are bright tangents on terrorism, the case for war, road rage, family life, brain disorders, violence, poetry and literature.

Well worth the effort.
Ian McEwan has a voluble, poetic style, with most of his writing elaborating his characters' fleeting, chaotic, but insightful thoughts. He has a way of turning a second's reflection into pages of meditation, or a day into 279 pages, so that his characters seem unusually lucid, but still the reader can see familiar branches of thought that make the characters real. At times it can be exhausting to read, but McEwan skillfully tightens his vast web of character introspection into a cohesive and powerful conclusion.

This book follows Henry Perowne, an English neurosurgeon approaching fifty, on his day off, an extraordinarily memorable Saturday. The setting is London in 2003 just before the start of the Iraq War, an issue central to the concerns of the novel, not for only for its politics but for its effect on the lives and minds of people, real and fictional. McEwan introduces us to his narrator and then brings the pivotal event into the story about eighty pages in, after the reader has begun to wonder when something is going to happen. He also has a way of weaving in many circumstances that seem vital, then inconsequential, and then vital again, or symbolic, so that reading this is like a mystery novel where the mystery is the plot and the clues are the myriad tiny details of life and thought interspersed with larger happenings. It all comes together into a brilliant picture. Having read Atonement, I was prepared for this slow and unexpected unfurling of the story, but I admit to getting impatient and restless for things to get moving and for Henry to shut up already. I was not to be disappointed. The last part of the book brings everything together beautifully, passionately, and completely, and it was all well worth the ride.

The book is firmly grounded in the moment, not only in the almost stream-of-consciousness narration, but in the subject matter and themes, reflecting the confusion and preoccupation of many in the post-9/11 western world. By setting the events of the novel against the political background of the protests against war in Iraq, McEwan constantly addresses his characters' concerns and views, but translates them into more immediate events. This is a truly great novel that seamlessly merges setting and story into something greater, a narrative that captures time and feeling. It is not a succinct book, but it is moving, lyrical, and rewarding. If you enjoy contemporary fiction, character analysis, or the pleasure of beautiful writing, this is an excellent choice.