I recently started to read Saturday by Ian McEwan, but I had to stop. I got about 12 pages in and had a strong urge to throw the book in the C&O Canal (I happened to be sitting on the bank of the canal on an absolutely specatular, uncharacteristically cool summer day in Washington, DC when I began the book). I found the writing to be stilted, inelegant, and sometimes just plain bad. One example: “They cross towards the far corner of the square, and with his advantage of height and in his curious mood, he not only watches them, but watches over them, supervising their progress with the remote posessivenes of a god” — Awful sentence. Another: “As he glides across [the bedroom] with almost comic facility. . .” — what the hell is “comic facility”?
I understand that others LOVE this book! What am I missing? I suppose I’m willing to be persuaded that I need to give it another shot. (If anyone wants to borrow it, I did not throw the book in the canal — I schlepped it home in my suitcase.)
August 24th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
This is a tough one. My original post pooh-poohed this book. But I had a post-reading conversion. I’d recommend you stick with it. Here’s why. When I was finished with the book, I wrote my post and moved on. The book stayed with me for weeks afterwards, and I kept thinking about parts of it. I read an interview in The Believer where Zadie Smith interviewed McEwan about the book. It was a revelation. It really made me appreciate what McEwan had done in the book, and why I kept returning to certain passages in my mind. And it highlighted a few things that went completely over my head.
The book takes place over the course of a day. So like any given day, it has its own pace. What McEwan does with time in the book is fairly remarkable. Parts slow down to excruciating slowness; other parts race quickly by. He stretches and collapses time for crying out loud. The part that you read is the half-asleep wanderings of the early morning. Stick with it.
There are also some interesting themes: post 9-11 world, priviledge and politics, family and crisis - to rattle of a few. So much of the book is a feeling of dread - waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ennui. The book pre-dated the London bombings as I recall, and the dread was eerily prescient. I can loan you the interview if you want.
Also: I don’t necessarily agree that your first example is terrible. The probable point of contention is the “like a god…” - well the man is a surgeon. Those guys do tend to think of themselves in that light from time to time. He’s also a man of wealth and priviledge. If I remember correctly, the people that he is looking down upon, literally and figuratively, are not.
My read on the second example = so easily its almost funny. I could be wrong.
August 26th, 2006 at 8:51 am
I finished Saturday several weeks ago and have been saying to Herman that I need to post on it but my entire post would be, “wow”. The book blew me away with the language and the themes and the gripping end. Maybe this will prompt me to finally get a post out. Weezie - I agree with DJCayenne - if you can stick it out you will most assuredly find it worth your while.