It is a disappointment to write that I did not care for Ian McEwan's latest novel. I have liked the previous ones, but in Lessons he seems to forget his reader. Perhaps he is writing only to himself. But I found the book boring and wordy.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

Roland Baines is 11 years old when he's first molested by his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell. At 16 he's spending every possible moment in her bed only escaping when she declares they are to be married. Rather than risk her allure he leaves school where she teaches and abandons a promising academic and musical career. Lessons follows Roland's life over a period of seventy years . Over his life span he marries twice, is abandoned by his first wife and left to raise his infant son, He never has steady employment but earns a living playing piano at a hotel, writing occasional articles for publication and teaching tennis.
Lessons set Roland's life against the background of historical events _ the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Cuban Missile crisis, Chernobyl, bombing of the Twin Towers, etc. . Through it all Roland manages, sometimes more successfully than others, to create a life for himself and his son.
Roland's story examines the impact of childhood abuse and how global events affect lives. McEwan's weaving the two together makes for a lengthy and sometimes slow book but it's nicely done by giving Roland an introspective personality in which to ruminate on historical events, think about the future of civilization and the individual's place in it.

Lessons is the eighteenth novel by Booker prize-winning British author, Ian McEwan. At the age of eleven, after living for five years with his parents in Libya, Roland Baines is sent to Berners Hall, a boarding school in rural Suffolk, to get the education his parents missed out on. His father had always wanted to play the piano: Roland is signed up for lessons with Miss Miriam Cornell.

When Roland is thirty-seven, his wife abandons him and their baby son, claiming in a note that, while she loves him, motherhood would sink her, and she’s been living the “wrong life”. Now a published poet, Roland has to seek social service assistance as sole carer for seven-month-old Lawrence.

As he copes with sole parenthood and the threat of a radiation cloud from Chernobyl, he is also under suspicion for murder from DI Douglas Browne, who is sceptical of the note and postcards Alissa has sent.

Plagued by sleeplessness, Roland’s mind goes back to his childhood: army accommodation in Tripoli, boarding school, lessons with Miss Cornell, and the highly inappropriate affair into which she grooms a pre-teen boy. While the prospect of an older, attractive, single and erotically-inclined lover might be a dream come true for a randy sixteen-year-old schoolboy, even bedazzled, Roland understands it could be the destruction of his future.

In eventually rejecting her, he also abandons his formal education, spends a rather dissolute decade travelling, then begins to educate himself. By his mid-forties, he is coaching tennis, writing reviews and playing tearoom piano. “How easy it was to drift through an unchosen life, in a succession of reactions to events.”

Some of McEwan’s descriptive prose is exquisite: “He knew that her mind was elsewhere and that he bored her with his insignificance – another inky boy in a boarding school. His fingers were pressing down on the tuneless keys. He could see the bad place on the page before he reached it, it was happening before it happened, the mistake was coming towards him, arms outstretched like a mother, ready to scoop him up, always the same mistake coming to collect him without the promise of a kiss. And so it happened. His thumb had its own life. Together, they listened to the bad notes fade into the hissing silence.”

But, at times, he seems to go off on tangents from his main plot, and although patience with these apparent digressions does offer the reader a fuller backstory, his lofty prose and cerebral subject matter can be enough to make the ordinary reader feel uneducated, even dumb. His protagonist is not all that likeable, making it hard for the reader to care a whole lot about his fate until, in the final pages, he develops into a more appealing character.

With references to national, European and world events, McEwan certainly establishes the era and setting, but his protagonist’s opinions on, and reactions to, politics and current affairs do begin to bore, and readers will be tempted to skim. A too-detailed description of a mediocre life that is much wordier than it needs to be.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and the publisher.

I had not read anything by Ian McEwan before, and because the reviews of his works are generally stellar, I was eager to read this, his latest. What a tome this is! With the backdrop of Europe during most of the last century, this tells the story of Roland Baines and his lifetime from boyhood on. As impressed as I was, I found it hard to get started and it took me quite a while to get into it, almost giving up a time or two because large portions of the narrative seemed overdone and I struggled to get through them. The final portion of the novel was probably my favorite, but it took me absolutely forever to get there. I admire the historical scope of this novel, but all in all this was somewhat of a disappointing read for me.

Ian McEwan’s Lessons dips into autofiction, a seemingly new territory for the author, with fraught memories of a distant mother and a father, making this novel a distinct lived experience in the world through reflection over a long life. Unlike the shorter novels Amsterdam, Children Act, Chesil Beach, Lessons unfolds in extended summary passages as interludes between in-the-moment scenes. The scene-writing rewards the reader's curiosity with the masterly character detail, development, and dialogue. In a novel of well over 400 pages covering decades of time and major world events (aftermath of the Second World War, Chernobyl, and the fall of the Iron Curtain), Lessons is told in nonlinear fashion. The reader must patiently and devotedly read across back-and-forth timelines to piece together the whole story of Roland Baines.

Here is a son/husband/father’s reflection of his own past, from childhood and its trauma, including an unorthodox sexual awakening, and its causality that affects the rest of his life. Resulting failures and disappointments determine his path in Life, suggesting what might have been. There is a reversal of traditional gender roles here in both the adolescent sexual liaison (think Lolita) by way of piano lessons and the coming of age of an unprotected child, and later in the 1980s when the wife succeeds boldly as the abandoned husband meanders and struggles, rearing their infant son. The woman as novelist writes her way into fame; the man accepts his parenthood. Without the usual antiphony of trading male and female points of view, the narrator’s sleight of hand accomplishes something completely different in the oeuvre.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC in exchange for a candid review. Due to the length and scope of this book, I will not attempt to provide a brief summary, as it could never do this work justice and readers can get that elsewhere. I’ve read other works by this author and have typically been swept in to his storytelling by his amazing prose. But. I could not engage with this one. This is Ian McEwan on steroids. Suffice to say, although the story alternately rambles and plods through 70 years of the life of our protagonist, I just found it incredibly difficult to connect with him or feel basically anything for him at all, at any stage of his life. And perhaps it’s a gender issue? I’m a woman and am increasingly wondering if McEwan’s more recent writing is actually accessible to women readers? Although I was fascinated with the social and political history covered in this sweeping text, I longed for a more comfortable connection with the main character.

While Ian McEwan’s writing is spectacular, this book was a little too slow moving for me and I stopped in the middle.

I’ve enjoyed Ian McEwan’s other books, but I struggled with this one. A character rich story, it lacked enough drama to pull me in, despite covering most of the major events of the last 70 years and seemingly all of the British political changeovers.
The story starts in 1986, when Roland’s wife walks out, leaving him with their 7 month old son. As the story progresses, we hear the story of his life starting with boarding school at age 11 and forward. The plot even includes the story of his in-laws. At age 14, he is seduced by his piano teacher. It has a lasting impact and he just sort of meanders through life. I didn’t care for him and had trouble relating to him. This was a man who was abandoned by parents and wife, seduced at a young age. It should have been easy to feel sorry for him. But he was just so flat and spiritless, I couldn’t. Of course, his wife, Alissa, isn’t any more likable. This is a woman who leaves her son to go find herself, in the parlance of the day. She becomes a famous novelist and sections of this book are spent recapping her books.
I feel lately I’ve been plagued by books that could have benefitted from a better editing job. This was a slow slog. The writing felt pompous more than rich, like McEwen was trying too hard to impress the reader. I would have preferred “a little less talk and a lot more action”. The ending does manage to bring a resolution and helped at last pull this up to a 3 star for me.
I will obviously read anything else McEwen writes, but I can’t really recommend this one.
My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for an advance copy of this book.

This is an account of the life of Roland Baines. He grows up in Libya to odd parents. His father is a military man and their relationship is distant. His mother is a sweet woman, but totally devoted to her husband to the exclusion of Roland at times. He is sent to England for school, where he begins an awkward relationship with his piano teacher. Later he marries Alyssa, who abandons him and his newborn son.

The story moves through his life in the context of real history and his reaction to it. Notable events include the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, and the COVID pandemic. It takes a master writer to move fluently through these ages – because much of the story is not linear. It is told in flashbacks and remembrances. I was floored by McEwan’s ability to transition. This is my first book of his, but won’t be my last.

I thought there were some good life lessons here. While Roland stays stuck career-wise most of his life, he is a sweet man and loving father. I think he dealt with many regrets well. I do think the book tarried on a little long though. I didn’t feel very connected to other characters and the political rants toward the end didn’t seem necessary. Still, a masterfully-crafted book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an ARC.

This book began as meandering and cerebral for the first quarter of the book. I almost quit reading. The writing was great, but rather boring.. However, the story picked up after this and it turned out to be a compelling read. I found myself wanting to know more about what happens in Roland’s life with each page and chapter. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advance copy of this book.

CW: sexual assault, child molestation

When he was a 14-year-old schoolboy, Roland Baines is molested by his piano teacher. She grooms him and continues to assault him for two years.

What follows is an account of Roland’s life, which spans WWII through to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Roland, an avid journal-keeper, recounts his participation in world events and his interpersonal relationships. The book addresses his complicated feelings about his assault, its impact on his life (especially regarding relationships) and it’s secondary impact on others.

I’ve read several of McEwan’s other works and his prose is just as beautiful as ever here. At its best, the book is slow-paced reflection of Roland’s life with lyrical and dynamic language. However, the book is long and dragged in places, especially at the beginning. Overall, I recommend it, but it’s not my favorite of McEwan’s work.

Ian McEwan is one of my favorite authors and I've read everything I could get my hands. I especially loved Atonement so I was fully prepared to enjoy Lessons. However, I got only about 1/3 of the way through as I found it rambled on and was often boring. Had I been reading it in a regular book, I might have read further, or maybe not. In any case, I am very sorry but I cannot recommend this book. The prose was beautifully written but I was lost in the story. Terribly sorry. (I was given an advance copy for NetGalley.)

Just finished - finally - this latest from the famous Ian McEwan. The beautiful prose sang to my soul. I loved his beautiful writing! This is the story of the life of one man, Roland, from childhood to his elderly years. It spans and shows the influence of many historic moments from the Cuban Missile crisis, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the Covid-19 pandemic. It also shows Roland's personal experiences and how they shadowed and influenced his life - an inappropriate affair, a short marriage, bringing up his son, finding love again, and all the deep feelings he feels and his observations of life. It is a deep dive into an entire life.

Although I adored the writing and enjoyed reading about Roland's life, by the time I halfway through I was starting to get bored because there is no action and I think the book could have been shorter. However, I'm glad I read it and feel I can easily recommend it as a good read that people will enjoy.

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on September 13, 2022.

Ian McEwan has written a fantastic remembrance of modern life from the end of World War II to the present through the close point of view of Roland Baines, an Englishman who led a fairly unremarkable life that was yet filled with deeply felt relationships with his parents, inlaws, lovers and wives, and his children. In the early part of the novel, his wife has abandoned him with an infant and few answers, and he must learn how to navigate that loss, which is mixed up with his conflicted feelings of another betrayal that happened when he was a teen.

Baines is also affected by world events as they happen; Chernobyl, the fall of the Soviet Empire, and many more, but it's the personal that dominate the bulk of his observations, desires, and sorrows.

This is a big ambitious novel that was well-worth the time it takes to get fully absorbed into Baines' life.

McEwan's latest novel does not disappoint. His thoughtful characterization and exploration of the human psyche are well done. Another great read!

Forgot I was even reading this but finally finished it. I was waiting the whole time for things to pick up, and they never did. This is my first Ian McEwan book, and I’m afraid I’m not big fan. Mr Ewan sure is a master of the English language but aside from that, there was nothing particularly memorable about this book, aside from the first few pages perhaps. I don’t know if I just found it way too long or just plain boring, but now that I look back on everything… I admit I was never really happy to read it, aside from that one time when I requested the book on NetGalley. This was not a good review and I’m really sorry about that.

This one definitely missed the mark for me. I liked the concept, seeing 70 years' worth of world events through the eyes of one man, but the execution is just meh. It's very well-written, but sooooo wordy and it was just a slog to get through. I'm sure others would enjoy it, but this was just not for me.
I would not recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the ARC!

A man's introspective journey triggered by a sad incident in his life. As evident from the name, the character goes through all the moments of his life recounting the experiences and what it gave to him and finally being at the stage of present.
Deep, raw and poignant story.

big thanks to @aaknopf for letting me review a copy of this! (comes out september 13th!)

like a lot of people, my introduction to mcewan was atonement and i saw a lot of similar themes here. in lessons, mcewan plots one man's life onto major events of the twentieth century and shows the ways the political and the personal are not very separated in our day to day existences. i'm not sure roland is supposed to be the british everyman, but he does represent a set of plausible circumstances for a pretty big group of people. roland's struggles to commit to an ideology, to know how he feels about the future or what he wants from it, to resolve the gap between the actions that give his life meaning and those he believes are important to others or to his own survival - these form a nuanced and developed portrait of the "boomer" generation. for fellow 'youths' asking, "how did we get here?" the novel's pacing makes a good argument that most people experienced the twentieth century in a constant state of confusion and were maybe less able to affect the events unfolding around them than we might want to think. other themes show up too, one of the novel's major plotlines is that it allows for complexity to exist within an extremely disturbing depiction of sexual assault. in recognizing that both parties in the situation represent a possibility for human action - that there are no "monsters" but instead people who have made extremely harmful choices - mcewan offers a counternarrative to the logic that has allowed prison systems to grow and groups like qanon to amass unquestioning supporters on the basis of saving children from inhuman humans rather than actually addressing the structural problems that allow these situations to develop in the first place. these sections aren't easy to read (and if you're not in a space to do that that is totally ok!!), but i think there is a point to including them.

in short, this novel takes on some of the most difficult questions brought up in the past century but allows them to remain questions still at the end of the story.

Very much enjoyed this return to form from McEwan, a haunting and beautiful read spanning Roland's life from age 14 at boarding school with an abusive piano teacher. McEwan has always been a master of the character and this is no exception, each is drawn beautifully to make an engrossing and reflective read. A thought-provoking look at how we change as we age and how our path is directed by outside influences. A beautiful read that has stayed with me.