‘Lessons’ Ian McEwan
I have read plenty of books since my last entry, I just haven’t blogged about them, but this is a bookgroup choice that I happened to be reading anyway, and I shall miss the meeting when this is discussed, so I thought I’d share my views here. There are some writers, like people in general, that you just like, and for me, Ian McEwan is one of those. And this book, Lessons, exemplifies why. McEwan writes so well about the human condition. He gets to the nub of what it is to exist, to love, to hurt, to loose, to win, to have children and let them go, to live life to the full or not, to do good and harm, to age, to ail, to die. He writes it all and he writes it well. His observation is acute and his expression memorable. He is also not afraid to be contemporary. Lessons brings the reader right up to the COVID lockdowns. So many books set their action in a nostalgic past or an indeterminate present, but McEwan is precise and current. His characters are rounded. They are flawed, real peo
