Immaculate prose. A wise, sardonic roll call of modern history. But all wrapped in a dull and endless plot featuring a man with little special about him. Intentionally so, but that didn’t make Roland any more palatable. Read it for the background and the connective tissues. Not for the fore-story.

I have an uneven history with Ian McEwan, who I think is an interesting and sometimes masterful writer - Atonement is one of my favorite novels, and I've liked some of his other work, not some of the other books - and I've been uninterested in his last few books. This one, though, sounded like a return to form. Unfortunately, I found it incredibly slow and hard to get into and quite disappointing. McEwan's writing here is so meandering, straying into long rambling blocks of political thought and historical recaps, rather than much depth about the main character, Roland Baines, even as McEwan touches on plotpoints and themes of his life. There are chapters or even just scenes when it picks up and gets interesting - more depth, engaging, focused - especially the last act of the book when Roland starts resolving some threads of his life. Ultimately, though, it still felt far too scattered and spread out, and really in need of more editing to focus the book and the writing. It just felt like throwing everything in - including many details from McEwan's own life, and what felt like every political idea and historical event over seventy years - without a true through-line and plot/point.

This book could be described as an introspective journey through one man’s life over 60 years.

The novel begins in 1986 when Roland Baines is 37 years old. His wife Alissa has just left him and their seven-month-old son Lawrence to pursue a writing career. This abandonment, which forces him into single parenthood, starts him thinking about his thereto restless, “shapeless existence” and what has caused him to live so aimlessly. Since abruptly ending his formal education at 16, he has been adrift; after a decade spent travelling around the world while engaged in less than meaningful relationships, he married but lacks steady employment. The novel shows Roland trying to understand himself and come to terms with his past while struggling through life, sometimes successfully and sometimes less so, and trying to learn its lessons.

The book examines how formative experiences and global events shape people’s lives: Roland “reflected on the events and accidents personal and global, minuscule and momentous that had formed and determined his existence.” Roland’s experiences as a child and teenager seem to have left him living much of his life with the hope that “What he once had, he had to have again.” For instance, a “rapturous week” of unfettered freedom and play as a child has left him with “a notion of impossible freedom and adventure [which] still spoiled him for the present” and a feeling that “His real life, the boundless life, was elsewhere.” As a result, he rejected opportunities and avoided commitments and salaried employment “to remain at large” and be available for the next adventure. His boarding school experience has also impacted his life. At the age of 11, he was dropped off at a boarding school in England while his parents removed themselves physically and emotionally by returning to Libya. He attracts the attentions of Miriam Cornell, a piano teacher, whose relationship with him “rewired [his] brain.” He concludes that he has drifted “through an unchosen life, in a succession of reactions to events. He had never made an important decision.”

Of course, others too are impacted by formative experiences. Alissa believes her life was scarred by a childhood spent around her mother’s sense of failure and bitterness so she takes decisive steps not to lead her mother’s “second-rate life.” Though not aware of his mother’s past until much later, Roland learns that her life had been framed by a “distant sorrow that hung about her and what she grieved for.”

Global events can also be traumatic, and Roland’s personal life is set against the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chernobyl, the 9/11 attacks, Brexit, and the COVID pandemic. These events over which he has no control all impact his life and influence his behaviour. The possibility of annihilation during the Cuban missile crisis, for instance, motivates Roland to lose his virginity while the possibility of radiation from Chernobyl has him taking extra precautions to protect himself and Lawrence. And the reader is told about Alissa’s mother and Roland’s parents whose lives show that “Nothing forces public events on private lives like a war.”

The novel also examines whether it is possible to fulfill fully our needs and desires without hurting others. Roland attends a lecture on the topic of the ruthlessness of artists, the presenter asking whether we should “forgive or ignore their single-mindedness or cruelty in the service of their art” or “Whether cruel behaviour enabled great or execrable poetry made no difference. A cruel act remained just that.” Alissa abandons her husband and son to become a writer. Though her novels are lauded, her choices affect others: “If [Alissa’s mother] had harmed her daughter, what of the harm that daughter had done her son?” Should she be forgiven? And if she were a man, would she be condemned so harshly? Certainly Alissa’s fate at the end versus Roland’s is thought-provoking.
Roland is not always a likeable character. At times, he seems full of self-pity as he considers the roads not taken. He does redeem himself, however, because he does experience personal growth. Though “he thought that he hadn’t learned a thing in life and he never would,” he does become more generous in his views and sees that “They were all doing their best to get by with what they had.” Though he understands that “our beginnings shape us and must be faced,” he also knows that he should be grateful because “The accidental fortune was beyond calculation to have been born” when and where he was. Perhaps the most important lesson is that we “must go on trying to understand . . . and it would never end.”

This is a dense book and there is much in it, much more than I can discuss here. The one part I did not enjoy is the discussions of British politics, though, admittedly, my ignorance of that topic affected my enjoyment of those sections. The discussion of the White Rose movement in Germany became tedious, though I do admit to doing some further research because I wasn’t aware of that resistance group.

This is not my favourite McEwan novel, but I certainly recommend it to fans of his work. I will certainly continue to read his books and, should time allow, probably re-read this one.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement was a literary success and a book that was made into a movie. A new novel by this author will make his readers eager to see what he has accomplished now.

This title is not an easy read in my opinion. But, it does take on so much of the world out there along with the events that shape people’s own smaller worlds. Here we have Chernobyl with its nuclear fallout and a main character whose own life is deeply impacted by a fallout of a different kind.

Ian McEwan is an author who takes on epic issues of many years of history as well as the life of a man who lived through these events. I think that it takes someone of his talents to attempt this. Readers will follow Roland’s life and acknowledge the fullness of existence.

Many thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.

Lessons by Ian McEwan centers on a man by the name of Roland Baines. We follow Roland through his life: his major romantic relationships, his various familial relationships amidst the backdrop of various historical events, World War II, the Suez Canal, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the recent pandemic.

First of all, I would like to mention how much I respect Ian McEwan, and no part of this review is easy. McEwan’s name carries some serious weight in literary circles (my circles), and Atonement is on the list of 100 Books To Read Before You Die According to the BBC. Criticizing this literary legend doesn’t bring me any joy. My words feel like footsteps, echoing in the halls of greatness.

So, shall we rip the band aid off?

The writing style of this book is archaic. For example, the formatting of this book just does not work. The paragraphs are gigantic, huge, page-long paragraphs. Short-term memory only lasts between 15 and 30 seconds. However, these paragraphs are so long that you can’t even remember the beginning of the paragraphs.

Lessons is very character driven versus plot driven, and I don’t connect with character-driven books. Additionally, the book flows as a general stream-of-consciousness. There are chapters in the book; however, they are not labeled with a word.

The best illustration that I can give you is if you watch YouTube videos. In the first video, the person is what we call a “talking head.” This person just says anything that comes into their head. After a few minutes, you don’t feel like you are missing anything, and you click off. In the second video, you watch “8 Reasons The Lost Apothecary Disappointed.” You watch the video all the way to the end because you don’t want to miss out on the last reason.

McEwan should have better organized this book. Also, he went far, far too broad in this book. He tried to cover so many relationships, so many historical events. He went wide instead of deep. Lessons would have been better if he had focused on one historical event and perhaps one relationship. I found it very difficult to really connect with the many different characters.

Personally, I didn’t like Roland Baines. He was boring. He might have been interesting, but McEwan tries to cover so many years in this book that he didn’t go deep enough. Roland reminds me of Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye because some horrible things have happened to him in his life; however, he doesn’t adjust well to the losses.

The topic of aging is important and relevant. This is coming from someone who rubs her face twice a day with a jade stone in the hopes that my chin will somehow appear 20 years younger. Roland is very flat emotionally, and I wasn’t moved by him.

Further, if I was the editor of this book, I would have suggested McEwan rewrite it in the first person. I wanted to feel the emotions of Roland, what he felt in those moments. Instead, this was told in a very detached, cold way, almost like the events happened a long time ago. They don’t have that urgency, that sense of excitement, the sense of living in the moment with that character.

Additionally, this book did not feel very original. Without spoiling anything, there was a book which came out not too long ago, discussing the main topic of this book, and it was far superior.

Mr. McEwan – I would be happy to read any of your work in the future and provide feedback. My door is always open to you.

*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ian McEwan’s latest novel follows Roland Baines through significant events in his life during the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century: Independence from his relatives, overcoming assault, becoming a father, World War II, Chernobyl’s fallout, and the COVID-19 lockdowns. The exposition of this novel is strong as we are introduced to the setting and characters, including their worries and hopes. We are also introduced to Baines’ perspective of the world and how he seeks to find his place as major events occur around him. The narrative loses its pacing in certain sections with long descriptive overviews of characters introduced later and their circumstances, shifting away entirely from the protagonist’s story. McEwan is a skilled writer and manages to create an ambitious story spanning decades but the pacing and abrupt changes in time periods between chapters sometimes lessens the narrative's impact.

I found Lessons a little difficult to get into, especially in the beginning. I felt the beginning of the book jumped around and was hard to follow. The direction of the book was more clear later in the book. I have read other books by Ian McEwan and his books are deep and involved. Lessons is no exception. Roland Bains did not win my heart. His story covered most major events in the past 70 years which was interesting. I really enjoyed his son and eccentric wife’s storylines more.

Not every book is for everyone and this was not my book. I did finish it but it was not memorable. However, looking at other reviews, people enjoyed Roland’s story. If you have enjoyed other books by Ian McEwan give Lessons a read. #Netgalley #Lessons

Lessons is a complex look at one man's life. It was a tough read, with the sexual abuse between the main character and a teacher. While it was well written, the subject matter kept me from finishing.
Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

An epic of twentieth-century life, and one particular twentieth-century life, <i>Lessons</i> is both personal and historical, rich in detail and sprawling in scope. Its intricacy and endurance is a powerful literary achievement.

The story opens on Londoner Roland Baines in his late thirties, newly abandoned by his wife and charged with caring for his infant son in the aftermath of the Chernobyl meltdown. It moves backward to Roland's adolescence at a British boarding school and his life-altering encounter with a charismatic and controlling piano teacher during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Then forward, through Roland's middle years: the aftermath of his wife's departure, the fall of the Berlin Wall. The cast of characters grows to include Roland's friends, lovers, descendants, and even enemies, each individual standing for some element of our evolving twentieth- to twenty-first-century society.

<i>Lessons</i> ranges freely over the course of Roland's life as well as and the lives of his and his wife's parents, exploring nearly one hundred years of political and personal history. It is fascinated with the way world events, even seemingly distant ones, shape individual human lives. Readers with strong historical backgrounds or personal memories of the 1960s-1980s, the epoch most strongly weighted in the book, will probably find the political aspects compelling. But, remembering these events only dimly from history books, I found it hard to become emotionally invested.

Emotional investment is also lacking among the characters. Roland is the main character, but lengthy passages are devoted to his errant wife, his parents, and his mother-in-law - and all with the same steady, precise prose, the same omniscient but distant narrative voice. This voice feels like Roland's voice: intelligent, wry, but also eternally disappointed, and this was a frustration to me. Roland is a depressive character, and his point of view is often depressing. The story, despite surveying Roland's life from childhood to old age, skips over nearly all the happy parts, giving the impression of an existence consisting mostly of failure and disappointment, and a history consisting primarily of war and death.

But Roland's story ends on a positive note, and I want to end this review on one as well. Despite its somber tone, <i>Lessons</i> was a pleasure to read. In the comparison between a big life - one lived for politics and art and fame - and a small one, lived for love and friendship and family, the small life - the life Roland has reluctantly accepted as his lot - wins out.

Ian McEwan’s Lessons is dense with history, I could call it epic, but that doesn’t quite cover it. It’s complicated and frequently uncomfortable to read, but well worth it as the tapestry of one man’s is slowly revealed. Roland Baines is the man through whose eyes we see the world, and though his character is drawn with McEwan’s ability to make his people three dimensional, the complexity of Roland’s life makes for a sometimes cringy read. This is a serious book, Be prepared to take your time with it to fully gain all of the panoply of life in its sorrows and triumphs. Worth it!

I really hoped I could finish the book but truthfully I couldn't get through it. McEwan's prose is wonderful and he has a real talent for creating fictional worlds with his words but this just didn't work for me this time.

The book went so slowly and after hours and hours, I decided I will not continue as I struggled to keep my interest and focus. Perhaps the parts that I haven't managed to read were more interesting but I suppose I will never know.

It took me a long time to read this novel. And at first, I really thought I'd write a bad review. Like several other reviewers, I really enjoyed Atonement, and this book is not the same. It's long, and could use some editing. Although, at the same time, I think McEwan's style for this book was meant to mimic Roland's life, and therefore it needed to meander. There are parts that are quite good, and others that just don't seem necessary.

"Inertia itself was a force." Roland seemed to live by this concept, and both his life and the novel show it. I did think the last 25% or so saved the book.

"When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.

Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.

Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?"

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Exquisite. A delight as every book Mr. McEwan pens.
Lessons is a book that spans through generations. A magnificent piece of art. This charming story reads like a memoir, but with the extraordinary prose that only this author can create.

I had high hopes for this book. However, the teacher/student sexual relationship was disgusting and I could no longer keep reading. I don't know how the book ends, so perhaps there will be some redeeming quality that makes up for the fact that a relationship such as the one portrayed in this book is appalling and horrific. I will never know.

An extremely intimate look at one man’s life. This has historical value and such sadness.
Looking at life through someone else’s eyes is a great way to describe Lessons.

I found this to be very slow and could not could into it. The plot never really picked up for me and so I found myself having to push through to finish it. If you’re okay with slow pacing and plots then maybe you’ll enjoy this, particularly if you like Ian McEwan’s other work, but this just wasn’t great for me.
The protagonist, Roland, was interesting enough to carry the story, however I found that the other characters throughout this novel would have been more interesting to read about for me personally.
Not necessarily my favourite, however I wouldn’t advise against it.

I’m a big fan of Ian McEwan’s work, having read a good number of his novels, but I have to confess to being sorely disappointed with lessons, which for the first time in one of his works felt like a slog to get through. Some minor spoilers and a kind-of major one, but the reveal is extremely early in the story. You’ve been warned.
The story focuses on Roland, who is left on his own with a newborn child in the late 1980s when his wife disappears. As he spends the early times being questioned by the police, you might think it’s one kind of story, but McEwan isn’t interested in the mystery and more the motivation and impact. It turns out Alissa left to focus on her dream of being a novelist, something she thought she couldn’t do, at least not to her standards, as a mother and a wife.
The rest of the novel moves both forward and backward in time. We learn of Roland’s unusual upbringing, issues with a domineering (but not clichéd father), and most importantly the long-term event involving his piano teacher at boarding school that affected his entire life. Meanwhile, time marches onward as we see historic event after event—elections, fall of the Berlin Wall, worries over nuclear clouds from Chernobyl, and more. Throughout it Roland tries to navigate between/around the two pivotal events involving women in his life and come to some semblance of a satisfied life.
To begin with the positive, on a sentence level, McEwan remains a master, with a number of gracefully crafted lines and insights. His characters are complex, far too rich to be reduced to “likable” or “unlikable”, “good” or “bad” people. Even Allisa, who can certainly be classified as unlikable for many a reason, is granted some complexity and is also a good example of how men and women are treated different in this world for the same actions.
That said, too much of the novel felt flat to me, more reportage than anything else, and while I get the point about Roland’s meandering life as he drifts through the world and people, it’s a long, long work to follow someone meandering. Far too long for me, especially with so many longer segments of flat prose. I had to push myself forward time and time again, and while the closing segment was the best part, I can’t say it was worth the journey to get there.

Lessons by Ian McEwan is quite a read. It's long, complex & full of historical facts along with a decades long examination of the life of Roland Baines. This epic story is of an ordinary man as he lives through defining moments of history, both the world's and his own personal life. Roland is constantly faced with personal dilemmas while at the same time in the midst of key world events. The book open with the adult Roland returning to dreams of his 11 year old self's first encounter with Miriam Cornell, then quickly switches to the current situation and the fact that his wife, Alissa, had vanished, abandoning her husband & infant son.. The book continues in this style throughout, with the author carefully switching between years and events as his memories take over. There's almost a stream of consciousness approach of taking the reader through Roland's youth in Tunisia and early days at his boarding school through to his mid years as parent & man searching & into his seventies with his older adult relationships. His life defining relationship with Miriam is revisited over and over. The cover of the novel shows a young schoolboy seated at the piano, intent on his playing. The fact the novel is called Lessons refers to a variety of meanings, but clearly it refers in large part to his piano lessons with Miriam as well as how her other "lessons" re-wired his youthful brain. Roland never reaches his certain potential as a accomplished professional pianist, but piano does play a continuing part in his life, even as he becomes a lounge player later in his life. His leaving school at 16, a consequence of Miriam, had major consequences for his future. What a pity as adult Roland was a voracious reader of deep thinking writers such as Joseph Conrad.

Readers who are more the age of the author (74) may find the strongest affinity to the broad range of defining world events from the Suez Canal hostilities, the Cuban missile crisis, the pathos of East Berliners and the Berlin Wall, Chernobyl and many, many references to British politics. However, the events of the decades are still the events, no matter the age of the reader. The point is, the author freely roams between these historical years and situations which may or may not be an easy connection for some readers.

One cannot help but feeling extreme disquiet about the predatory nature of Roland's relationship with Miriam. In a strange mix of truths, they both seem weirdly addicted & codependent even in spite of Roland's young age. His adult relationships also have many problems, the one with additional far reaching consequences is with his wife, Alissa, who desserts the family when their child, Lawrence, is a small infant. Alissa's actions cause great harm to both her husband and child, continuing certain childhood cycles of family dysfunction familiar to both Roland and Alissa. While Roland's father said that "children always get in the way of a marriage," both the child and the marriage itself got in the way for Alissa's writing ambitions. She didn't want to make the same "mistake" as her mother, so both the marriage & the child needed to be abandoned. Even with an extreme situation, Roland loves his son & strives to be a good father. .

Roland is continually experiencing "lessons" throughout his life. What he thinks is important often is not, but it takes his lifetime to discover truths about himself. My favorite character, aside from Roland, is Daphne, the person offering him some long deserved marital happiness.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

At age 11, Roland Baines is sent from his home to boarding school where his relationship with a piano tutor shapes his entire life. We follow him through the birth of his son, the desertion of his first wife, family relationships and secrets, the deaths of his second wife as well as key family members, and eventually his old age. As his somewhat uninspiring and uneasy life unfolds, McEwan chronicles global political and cultural events and the reader sees how some of them may affect our lives while others occur without touching us.

The adjective that most comes to mind in thinking about this book (and there is a lot to think about) is sprawling. It is at times melancholic, disturbing, reflective, tranquil, hopeful. It also explores the affects of pedophilia on a developing child’s psyche as well as lifelong after effects.

Lessons is a rich, ambitious story; I have only touched upon selected portions in this brief review. There is so much more that is included: the White Rose movement in Nazi Germany, the literary process and what is needed to be successful, the inevitable aging process. It is the journey of an entire generation.

Thanks to #netgalley and Knopf Doubleday for the ARC.

I struggled to finish this book. Even though it was rich with characters, I didn’t enjoy them. The story was too slow, and the drama was lacking. Thank you anyway to NetGalley for this advanced copy.