Lessons, Ian McEwan, author; Simon McBurney, narrator
This story spans decades. As it travels back and forth in time, covering the current events and how people deal with them, a great many characters are introduced. Varied themes are also introduced, making it hard to follow at times. Soldier on, because the novel is very well worth the read. It covers an assortment of friends, family and prominent people, all multifaceted, and illustrates how each one experiences and deals with life and death decisions.
Roland Blaines was sent to a boarding school when he was eleven years old. Adrift and lonely, he becomes involved with his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, who was able to mesmerize and control him. Although he cares deeply for her, it is a very inappropriate relationship that profoundly influences his entire life.
Eventually, Roland frees himself from Miriam. He meets Alissa Eberhardt. They fall in love and marry. Roland is a musician and a writer, but Alissa is more serious in her desire to be an author. She becomes very beloved and successful, but only after she abandons Roland and their newborn son to follow her career. Roland raises their son Lawrence by himself.
As time passes, Roland wonders at the success of others. He searches for answers in relationships and extracurricular activities. He never achieves much success as a writer; he is busy raising Lawrence and searching for his elusive purpose and fulfillment. He travels, socializes and studies.
Enter Daphne, a married woman with whom he falls in love. When she is free, they marry. Their relationship is short-lived, and when he loses her, he flounders. Quietly, he drifts and questions the meaning of life. Roland studies his own memories, when he witnesses his mother’s loss of her memory.
All of Roland’s relationships, his friends, his family and his lovers, have lives fraught with issues. Is anyone’s life really perfect? These issues and how they are explored are what makes this novel so interesting, even if it is confusing at times with its tangents and myriad number of characters. The reader witnesses how they all process the current events they face, in their individual time frames, and watches as they deal with them effectively or sadly, fail. Their courage, bravery and thoughtfulness are examined, as traumatic current events, like the Holocaust, the anti-Nazi White Rose Movement, the Vietnam War, the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant disaster, the Covid 19 Pandemic, and other illnesses that we are all heir to, appear on the pages of the book. The reader experiences, with the characters, what they are going through in order to survive.
Through these characters and the myriad number of events, we learn about how Roland deals with life, and as we consider his philosophy, we also consider how we deal with the traumatic events in own lives. As we learn about Roland’s views about America, as well as his politics, his social conscience, and his struggles, our own thoughts about life intrude into our consciousness.
The issues of the day have invaded his life and ours, and as he must deal with them, so must we. Is there a right and wrong way? Is one side right and one side wrong or is there a compromise solution? Roland is against the Vietnam War, afraid of the radiation coming from Russia’s nuclear plant meltdown, aware that he is getting old and becoming less relevant to those around him. He notices that rather than he being preoccupied with worrying about them, they are now worrying about him. Isn’t this something we will all face?
As Roland makes his way through life, searching for answers, he learns about family secrets. His life seems to be a roller coaster of ups and downs, but in the end, Roland learns about love, sacrifice and loyalty. He understands that life has so much more to offer than he realized. As he ages, he grows wiser and concentrates more on the upside of life, even as it shortens its horizon. He recognizes there are things he simply cannot change.
The novel explores the many kinds of lessons we all learn and have to face. Roland learns that it is best to pick oneself up, dust oneself off, and go on with a smile. While I really enjoyed the story, even with its many tangents, it was often a bit too wordy, sometimes making me lose the sense of continuity. ( )

Probably my favorite McEwan novel. This is the story of one man's life set in front of the historical events of the time from approximately the 1950's through today. Roland's father was in the military and he spent early years in northern Africa but was then taken to Britain to a boy's boarding school. Showing musical promise, he began to take piano lessons from a woman in her mid-twenties. What began as slight touching turned a few years later into a full blown affair between a fourteen year old boy and his piano teacher.

After a bizarre scene in which the teacher basically imprisons him and want to force marriage, Roland is able to escape but never tells a soul. Later he is married to a promising writer and has a son. When the son, Lawrence, is just a baby, the mother abandons them both and never again has contact with the child. Roland does a great job of raising his son with the help of extended family and friends.

The story is not linear, but is told in various time periods and focuses on others that have an effect on his life either directly or indirectly such as his mother-in-law whose life was set in Nazi Germany. The things that shape our lives and personalities are often things that are very remote but still have a profound affect.

I loved this book in spite of the fact that I think the author can get overly wordy at times but still all the characters and situations seem very believable and there are scenes that are memorable.

In spite of all the unfortunate things that happen to Roland throughout his life, he remains an optimist. Once when he was a child, he saw a terrible car wreck and then saw how people came to help. The idea that there is good in the world in spite of danger never left him. He is a likeable character and his life with all it's ups and downs ends surrounded by children and step children who he dearly loves as they love him. A good read. ( )

This the 4th novel I have read by McEwan and the best. I will probably seek out some of his other novels because he is an excellent writer. The protagonist, Roland Baines, is introduced to us in 1957 and stays with us until 2022. Having a similar life span I shared the world events that he lived through and found his story compelling. His life was shaped by significant events and encounters with many people but his connection to his parents, piano teacher, and first wife had the greatest impact. McEwan told the entire story as a third person through Roland's eyes. I always find the singular point of view a challenge because we are not able to get into the head of key characters in the book, but through their actions and Roland's description the events of the book come alive. McEwan introduces enough history for me to do research into issues like the "White Rose Movement" in Nazi Germany. The story shows how the impact of events can change the direction of our lives. In Roland's case his piano teachers sexual involvement with him for 2 years(he was 14, she was 25) and the consequences of this play out throughout the book. Later in his late 30's his 1st wife leaves him and their infant son to pursue "the literary life she should have". Along the way we get back story about parents, in-laws, etc. Each character adds a layer of complexity to Roland's life. He basically moves aimlessly through many professions and pursues his own self education. In all cases he falls just short of his potential- lounge piano player, not classical, greeting card writer, not a poet, tennis teacher, not a player. It pretty much mirrors most of our lives. I found the book to be one that allowed me to do a lot of self reflection. In doing so, it fulfilled the great joy I get from really fine literature which is learning how different yet similar we all are. It helps me to develop more empathy and more connection to others. It also make me realize that it is not too late to connect with former friends and move forward. A very worthwhile book ( )

This is a sprawling, multi-generational epic of a book. It's as different from most of Ian McEwan's other books as it could be. I have read that it is semi-autobiographical, but I'm not sure that it actually is. If it is, then Ian McEwan has led a very full life. The book runs from the late 1950's to 2021. The book is written from the viewpoint of Roland Baines who we first meet at he age of 7, and ends with him in his 70's. It covers everything from world news to culture and humanity from Roland's viewpoint . It is a coming-of-age novel like no other, and one thing that I took away from it is that humans continue growing and learning all of their lives. The real question is how much do early childhood traumas affect a person's growth, mental health and adaptability as one ages. Some very traumatic events happened to Roland beginning when he was 14, and the traumas affected his growth and development for the rest of his life. When another traumatic event occurred to him when he was in his thirties, it further cemented his preconceived notions of himself and of his life. I found it difficult to get through this book. Maybe there were too many relatable events and it sometimes felt like I was examining my own life. As always, the language and the descriptions from Ian McEwan are wonderful, and they brought the book to life. Near the end of the book Roland is contemplating his life from the lofty age of 72, and he sums it all in this rumination: "The temptation of the old, born into the middle of things, was to see in their own deaths, the end of everything." But everything is not ending, and we wish we could be there to see the end. I am sorry to leave Roland after living with him in this book for 2 weeks, but I see he has achieved a peace and and understanding at the end that will help him through the remainder of his life. I hope that I can do the same. The coincidence here is that I am Roland's age and I have gone through some soul-searching of my own. This book is certainly not light literature, but it is important literature. No one by Ian McEwan could have written this masterpiece of a novel. ( )

The longest 431 pages I think I've ever read- I threatened to quit so many times - it was like a relationship that wasn't abusive enough to leave, a little bit dull and you hoped it might get better eventually but stayed due to inertia . - in the end, I felt very little toward any of the characters - for all the lovely prose, there wasn't much depth in the end. ( )