Hype of the Week: Ian McEwan's Saturday

[novella]

Saturday by Ian McEwan.

Read the first chapter. Not great. Why is he being heralded as the new voice of British literature? Before Atonement, he was jokingly know as Ian McAbre because Amersterdam and Black Dogs, etc (which I did read) are slim, weird, dark books. Hello? He's not a big genius or anything. Saturday isn't even as good as Atonement, by many accounts, and Atonement fell completely apart in the last 50 pages. It just wasn't a very good book.


And in other hype we have Jonathan Safran Foer's new book Incredibly Close and Very Boring, which is getting press in every paper, but the reviews are lukewarm. I'm not attracted to it at all.

Both of these are billed as "9/11 books." Not that that is good or bad in itself, but I sure hope every author and his dog isn't writing a "9/11 book."

 

[laooo]

i have to say i absolutely loved enduring love... have stayed away from the film though, as i reckon it'll ruin it...

atonement i didn't think lived up to the hype, and the others... not fond of at all, but i'll give the newbie a go.
i don't know whether he is being hailed as the new voice of britishliterature, is he? but if he is, then i have to say i'm in agreement with you novella - i don't know why either.

hmmm... maybe it's the hype of the film that's made him stick out a little more than others...

 

[novella]

"On Jan. 31, 2005, the BBC made it official: On the evening news, the anchor gravely announced the publication of Ian McEwan’s new novel, Saturday, and proclaimed the author “the international voice of British fiction.”


FYI, this is from this week's New York Observer. You can't buy publicity like that.

 

[laooo]

well, i agree with you - i don't know why...

in fact, that's slightly infuriating when there's so much talent that haven't conveniently had a film of their book made... i really do think that's what half of the adulation is about.

 

[StillILearn]

Wah!

Saturday is winging its way towards me as we -- um, write! I just went and one-clicked it.

Oh, well, what the hey. It's only time and money, one of which is a renewable resource.

 

[novella]

You might love it. It might be great. I'm a very demanding reader, and I think he's a good writer, if not a genius. Otherwise I wouldn't have read so many of his books! Chin up, Still I!

 

[StillILearn]

Thanks for the reassurance, novella. Writing MAKES a demanding reader out of one!

 

[StillILearn]

Okay. I'm about half way through Saturday, and I'm enjoying it very much; to my mind, it's McEwan's best yet.

I like the detail with which he is addressing each aspect of this day-in-the-life-of (with the possible exception of his incredibly protracted games of squash, but then squash is not a game with which I'm even remotlely familiar.) I'm enjoying the way McEwan is obviously building from his before dawn awakening to the inevitable climax of this (Saturnian?) day. The 9/11 factor, with his flip-flopping mindsets and his arguments pro and con, are an asset to the story, in my opinion. All the characters have been well-drawn and memorable. This is a book which I think I won't immediately forget.

The red BMW appears to me to be the yellow Volkswagen.