Saturday by Ian McEwan Book Review

 Saturday 

By Ian McEwan 

Published Year: 2005

Page count : 279 pages

Medium Used: Paperback 

Genre : Speculative Fiction, war, Drama, Contemplative Fiction, 2024-read. 

Rating : 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐💫

Very thought provoking. This is my first book by Ian McEwan and I took some time to get habituated to his writing style. It felt like watching a movie at a much faster speed of frame switching. It also has a feel of phantsmagoric to it - a seamless,uninhibited flow of one episode/chapter of the day's events into another and somehow forming a connection between the personal,inner world with the impersonal, outside world. 

This story recounts the events in one day of the life of Henry Perowne, a successful 40-plusish neurosurgeon. On this Saturday, something disturbs his sleep. Unable to go back to sleep, he wakes up at 3ish am, before dawn, and looks out from the bedroom of his mansion. He sees an airplane with its engine on fire making its way through the city of London and wonders/panicks if their city is under attack. Its also the day where there is a massive protest in the city by people who are against American war and occupation of Iraq to subvert rule of Saddam Hussein,the dictator. Later in the day, Henry argues with his daughter the possible benefits of this attack from American forces. He reasons that putting an end to the torturous, dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein is worth the effort and in a period of three months, it might show its positive effects to the world. I dont know if there can be one way to pick in this argument - but I feel war, where multitudes of innocent can get hurt, is not justified. An alternative approach should be thought of.. maybe an internal coup?

As the story unravels, we see the family and their peaceful dinner plans are threatened by the arrival of unexpected thugs who try to harm them. Luckily, no one gets hurt and it goes away but we can draw a parallel to this with the situation in Iraq. How unexpected attacks from countries like America that think of themselves as guardians of the world could change and negatively impact unsuspecting families. That have got nothing to do with Saddam or his cronies.