Saturday

Pretentious

The critics love this book and this author. I am an avid reader and I am not ignorant of the world around me. So, honestly, I thought the author wanted to show off a lot of esoteric knowledge, vocabulary, etc. I have read Atonement by this author. It also was somewhat pretentious. Why do the critics love this author so much?

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Disapointing

I had to read this for a literature class, and having read a synopsis of the book, I was very excited. This excitment, however, turned to disapointment as the book dragged on forever. Not only does the author make the characters over anyalize things, but he also assumes that his audidence will understand extreemly difficult medical terms that he himself only learned while shadowing a neurological surgeon. This novel is also very confusing because it jumps around constantly between scenes, characters, and time periods.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Too many words and too rambling

The rambling thoughts the main character runs thru on every page becomes mind numbing and I couldn't wait to just page thru the book to be finished. The plot was lost in all the word filled pages, so that I kept losing what was supposed to be happening at any particular time. It was just too "word-y". I was very disappointed in this book.

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Still puzzled about this one.

This book baffled me. It was boring, and I knew it was boring, but at the same time I continued to read without being overwhelmed by the boredom. Most of the narrator's thoughts were fairly mundane and pointless- albeit eloquent- but something about them, perhaps the novelty of following a person's thoughts that closely, kept me reading. The characters were certainly well-developed, which helped immensely. One aspect of the novel I found jarring was the constant insertion of analysis on the Iraq war. It seemed very out of place, and kept yanking me out of the story. I understand the importance of the topic, but the narrator seemed to think about it to the point of obsession, and it made me feel as if his thoughts on the subject were more authorial interjection than a part of the story. In the end, I'm not sure if I'd say that I enjoyed this one, but it definitely intrigued me enough to keep me until the end.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

McEwan Shines to No Surprise

After reading Atonement, I felt that McEwan had done it--written a novel that could not be topped. I was wrong. Saturday, in its own way, is just as good if not better than Atonement merely in its ability to create tension out of thin air.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

I'm well read and hate this novel

I'm going to dismiss outright any charges that a bad review of this novel = someone who needs to get their kicks reading either chick lit or book versions of currently playing movie hits. This is easily one of the most boring, pretentious, slow moving, overly staring at your belly button novels I have ever attempted. I'm astounded at the good reviews. I never give up on books I've started but cannot tell you how tempted I am to do so. If it weren't for a good night out with the Book Club discussing this one there is no way I would waste a single moment more reading it.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

highly recommended

I love this man's writing- he manages to control the time dimension- he takes the random, wandering mind that changes over milliseconds and gives each thought voice, and then turns around and develops each character in intimate detail, and accomplishes both within a plot that happens over a 24 hr time span and peaks with equal power to any action, suspense novel ever written. I plan to read everything he has published.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Worth the Read!

I wanted to keep reading. Beautifully written.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Info dump with impossible pacing

As stated by some reviewers, I started this book, but was unable to finish it. The first time I stopped was when Henry was attacked by Baxter and got away because he diagnosed the big man's health problem. Not believable. I picked it up again and started from that point, read through the squash match, and up to Harry's going to the fish market. Could not force myself to go on. Although I knew what I didn't like about the book, I felt like it was a failing within me. The critics liked it. My book club liked it. Were the problems I saw a lack of sophistication in me as a reader?

Then, I read some of the reviewers online. Imagine how happy I was to see that others agreed with me. First, the pacing is intolerable. For every action, instead of a reaction, the author gives us paragraphs of introspection. Most of it is back story, things the author needs to know about his character in order to depict him as real, but the reader does not need all of these details. Yet even with all of these details, Henry seems to be no more than two-dimensional. There seems to be no passion in the man, as if he's all thought, but no emotion. Even his attitude toward his family is distant and analytical.

Second, a good deal of the novel is an info dump. McEwan seems to have included everything he learned about brain surgery, medicine in general, and the medical system in Britain. Then there's fish soup, music, poetry, politics, al Qaeda, etc.

I am sorry that these things spoiled my enjoyment of this my first novel by McEwan. I'd hoped to enjoy it, especially since so many others seemed to have done so and McEwan's use of language is almost enough to drag one along. However, I was bored, by the characters, the interminable thought processes, the plot, and too much information that did not move the story forward. Perhaps this particular novel would have worked better as novella or short story.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A Day in the Life...

A good read as the author examines aspects of a man going through events of a Saturday. McEwan manages to acquaint the reader with a professional, his wife, children, his career, his examining both his and his mother's aging and mortality, and the macrocosm of the world and war. War is not the solution unless you and yours are tortured. Henry Perowne's personal torturing events call for desperate actions.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

DULL...and no, I don't just relish pop fiction

Couldn't get through it, although I tried. Hate doing anything halfway, but this book was a waste of 4 hours (over 3 weeks) that I will never get back. Long, drawn out grandiose text under the guise of intellectual fiction.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

too drawn out

I was excited to read this book but it turned out to be somewhat disappointing. It is very drawn out. The main character just thinks too much about things that are not all that exciting. There is also a lot of medical descriptions that I didn't understand as I am not a doctor. Overall not nearly as good as I thought it would be.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Surprisingly Boring

This book sounded interesting to me, but I was disappointed when I actually read it. I suppose I expected things to be drawn out a little bit -- I mean, they would have to be to fill 289 pages with one day. But this book was too descriptive. I found my mind drifting off and when I got back to the book I realized that I had read several pages without even paying attention to what I was reading. And I don't think I missed much.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Torture

Overkill with character development.

Rambling

I bought this book because of good reviews but I couldn't make it past the half way mark. When i realized midway through that I still had no idea what the book was about or where it was going I decided to call it quits.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

worth your time

I decided to read this book because it was on the '1001 books to read before you die' list, otherwise, a book about a single day in a man's life would not have interested me. However, I am glad that I read it. To me it shows how a single event can affect one's life and the lives of those he loves. I think it also shows how one's perceptions of things can change because of one event. McEwen is very descriptive, but, after all, it is a book about 1 single day in a man's life. I think it was definitely worth my time.

A reviewer

I thought this book was amazing. In fact, I read most of it in one sitting, staying up way too late one night before finally turning off the light at about 3am. I thought the writing was taut and at the same time, quite lyrical and ultimately it was a very moving book. I actually liked it better than Atonement, which I read after this one.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

interesting & boring at the same time

i liked the topics the book tells about but it is really too long for too few ideas. the main character, perowone is always thinking about... the world, his relatives, his problems... interesting and boring at the same time!

Really Disappointing!

It was a quick read. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did. Buy a different book!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not what I expected...

I feel somewhat disappointed after reading McEwan's novel. Not only did Henry seem to be conceited, but he had annoying issues that kept popping up throughout the novel, including putting his work before family, and his age issue. The novel itself started off slow and remained that way until the car accident, which I thought would escalate into something and didn't. The only truly enjoyable part was the confrontation at Henry's home with Baxter. However, I disliked both Baxter's 'change of heart' and Henry's deceit to get him upstairs. The novel took an even bigger turn for the worse when Henry performed perfect surgery on Baxter and wanted to drop the charges. I was extremely bothered by this, wanting instead for him to have 'accidentaly' botched the surgery.