Saturday by Ian McEwan

Synopsis.
Saturday, February 15m 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man - a successful neurosurgeon, the devoted husband of Rosalind and proud father of two grown-up children. Unusually, he wakes before dawn, drawn to the window and filled with a growing unease. As he looks out at the night sky he is troubled by the state of the world - the impending war against Iraq, a gathering pessimism since 9/11, and a fear that his city and his happy family life are under threat.

Later, as Perowne makes his way through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors, a minor car accident brings him into confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive young man, on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him. But it is not until Baxter makes a sudden appearance as the Perowne family gathers for a reunion that Henry's earlier fears seem about to be realised.

I'm glad I didn't read the blurb on the back of the book before reading it as it gives away so much of what happens in the book, I hate that!

I've read 'Atonement' and 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan and liked them both. Sadly, I can't say the same of this book. Perhaps it's because I grew to dislike Henry the more I read about him. He doesn't like reading much, and worst, dislikes my favourite genre, magical realism! I don't have to have anything in common with the characters in the books I'm reading but it helps if I like them. There are pages and pages inserted in the book dedicated to the outpourings of praise heaped on it. It makes one feel quite the philistine!

I was interested to read about the brain surgery Henry performs on his patients and felt in my bones that the accounts would include the brain surgery I have had and eventually, there it was, the very operation he performs on Rosalind is the one I had. It was a very strange feeling to read the somewhat gory details knowing that it has all happened to me.

I feel even more of a philistine when I say that I found the whole book dull, even the exciting bits were dull! Even without having read the blurb on the back of the book I knew that the confrontation with Baxter in the street wouldn't end there, the outcome was predictable and added to the dullness. No, not may favourite McEwan, but I'll keep reading his books because I enjoyed the other two so much.