How do you rate a book that seemed to drag and tempt you with the DNF aura?

So, what’s it all about? Roland Baines, in his eighties now, looks back on the events of his life and surely must have drawn some lessons from his experiences.

This one grew on me at times. I was considering not finishing “Lessons,” it seemed to lumber along and at well over 400 pages I was not sure the commitment was worth it. Roland is taking us on his entire lifetime journey to see what lessons life has taught him. I rarely give up on a book, particularly one by a distinguished author, so I pushed through.

Ian McEwan portrays Roland’s life against the social events happening in his world. Backdrops include the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything (everything) through the Covid pandemic. It is epic, but it is a lot.

When Roland was 14 he was seduced by his 25-year-old piano teacher and it progressed to her pressuring for marriage by the time he was 16. What this experience did to him never really gels– he spends the rest of his life puzzled over the effects. Later, another woman in his life, his wife Alissa, walks out on him and their infant in order to pursue what turns out to be a celebrated literary career, a contrast to his frustrating writing efforts. The last important woman in his life, Daphne, dies just as she looks to be the one he finally connects with. These women all have strong, dominating personalities– something sorely lacking in wishy-washy Roland.

Author Ian McEwan has drawn up some great characters and, at times, this novel really moves along. Too often, though, the social and historical passages only serve to slow things down. Roland watches and reacts to these events in much the same way he can only observe and react to the relationships in his life.

As strong as it is in parts, I cannot recommend “Lessons.” I understand sections of this work are semi-autobiographical, but I would have enjoyed a more streamlined novel featuring any of the more riveting female characters we see actually participating in life here.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ian McEwan's latest in his enormous canon work, Lessons, is one of his most ambitious spanning multiple generations and the historical events which defined them. Despite its length - exceptionally long compared to the typical McEwan - Lessons is a rewarding read.

A wonderful novel about life by a trustworthy and celebrated author. I haven't read all of his books, but this is certainly one of his best.

This book covered 70 yrs of a man's life spanning Post WWII through the Pandemic. It chronicles the life of Roland Baines with the three most important women in his life.
His piano teacher who seduces him at age 11
His first wife who deserts him and their son and becomes a celebrated novelist in Germany
His Second wife who discovers she has terminal cancer the day after they decide to marry.
The author wove various historical events including the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the USSR, as well as Brexit, Covid-19. the shifting political views in England (where most of the story takes place),. and develops how thee events impact his life.
I felt that the beginning was painfully slow. Roland was not a likable character and I had trouble relating to him. He didn't seem to learn anything from these world events and their impact on his life, but remained a victim of circumstances and his poor decisions. Throughout most of the book, I felt a lack of personality in Roland, and a surrender to circumstances rather than an active attempt to learn from life experiences.
I was disappointed in this book as I have loved several previous books by this author.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher and am leaving this review voluntarily.

The novel is more substantial than McEwan’s other novels, which are mostly much shorter. But he is a master in prose writing style and the novel flows seamlessly. The main attraction is in the superb character development and, while there could be some autobiographical elements, the life issues facing Roland are relatable to a reader. The only quibble I have is that there is the lack of subtlety and depth in approaching the world events that ran parallel to Roland’s life. While the main concern was to show how they affect him, neither their impact was fundamental enough nor were new insights on these events offered to fully understand their role in the novel. All the same, an immersive read that would appeal to both McEwan’s old-time fans and novices alike.

My thanks to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for an ARC.

The Great European Novel, or something like that. “Lessons” follows Roland Baines while he faces two kind of collapses: the collapse of his inner world after his wife’s disappearance and the collapse of the outside world during the Chernobyl Disaster. A series of memories of childhood in Lybia in the 1950s up to the missile crisis in Cuba are triggered in a historical flow presented as a succession of cognitive collapses and readjustments to an ever changing world. An ambitious but not always successful novel that mixes exciting and enthralling parts with other slower and somewhat boring.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this work. This author is a favorite of mine. And this new novel will likely disappoint any of his (many) fans. The story is very compelling. It is a quick read in that the reader will not want to put it down. So well-written and such an interesting story. Highly recommended. The story of 11-year old Roland Baines will stay with the reader long after.

This is a difficult one to review. Of course, McEwan’s writing is impeccable. His writing is so divine you can get lost in it. When it’s good, it’s really good, but when it’s not it’s… well… just dull. We follow the life of Roland Baines, and the ramifications of an event that takes place during his formative teenage years. I liked how the novel covered key historical events and the impact these had on our protagonist. There were key moments that were absolutely sublime, but there was lots of extra, irrelevant detail and I struggled not to skim-read in places.
If you’re looking for an epic saga, this is for you. It’s a slow read that you’re supposed to savour.

Ian McEwan is, without argument, one of the best novelists or our time. Lessons might be a blueprint of life, or just a chapter in the unwritten novel of the twenty first century, which Roland Baines, the protagonist, longs to read.
The novel covers Roland’s life, from first memories until old age. McEwan skillfully intertwines the history of the last century into his character’s lives, and those of us lucky enough to have lived through the same events relish the authenticity, factual as well as emotional. Sometimes, it was happening to us. Sometimes we were just distant observers. Along with a fair rendering of time, we are gifted with beautiful prose and fascinating characters. We have the pleasure of growing up and growing old with many of them. I highlighted pages of lines I loved, but as a woman of the age, this was one of my favorites. Describing his widowed mother, Roland says “... she had aged and shrunk, she couldn’t sleep, the skin under her eyes showed deep wrinkles like a walnut.”
This is a book to savor. It isn’t a quick and easy read and will need your attention and time. There are Lessons to learn if we are open to them.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Knofp Doubleday, for the review copy. Lessons was published September 13, 2022

Ian McEwen is an international treasure who’s written so many “perfect” works of art that reading a book that isn’t quite as good is a bit surprising. Lessons is such a book for me. The story threads about the main character Roland’s sexual abuse by a teacher, his relationship with his wife, and his single parenthood were so evocative and enlightening and absorbing. The broad recitation of all the major events of the 20th and 21st centuries were less so, and gave the book a Forrest Gump-like feel. It wasn’t terrible to read, but those parts of the book tended to drag things to a flat, emotionless level. Don’t get me wrong. I like emotionally withdrawn characters and feel like that was totally in character for Roland. I just found myself wishing that sections of the book felt less like reading a history book. I would still recommend this book—mediocre McEwen is still superior to many writers—but don’t go in with the highest hopes.

Loved this story - it took a bit of dedication to stick with Roland (dedication his wife lacked, to be sure!) but ultimately I couldn't put it down. What a sad, true, beautiful piece of fiction!

You have to give Ian McEwan credit for making each of his books different than the others. LESSONS is a Bildungsroman that dives into the forces that shaped a man's life. As a young boy, he was seduced (raped?) by his piano teacher, and that experience shapes the events of his future. The story does not unfold sequentially; it shifts from present to past. As an example, an early chapter describes the event of Roland's wife abandoning him and their young son. Then it shifts to his first encounter with his piano teacher, before shifting again to the fallout of his marriage. But by the end of the novel, you have a full psychological profile of the protagonist.

LESSONS is, by its nature, a slow-moving novel. If you're looking for a book with lots of intrigue and suspense, this is not the book for you. However, if you enjoy psychological, character-driven literary novels, you should find reading this book a rewarding experience.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for my opinions.

I’m almost ashamed to admit this is my first Ian McEwan novel—but what an extraordinary introduction, a masterful piece of literature. This book is rich and dense and slow-moving but beautifully told and worth every moment. I don’t know that I would recommend it for folks who aren’t used to deeper literary fiction, though at the same time there is a certain accessibility to McEwan’s writing, almost a welcoming of sorts to the reader to engage wholly with the book and its characters. I can’t compare this to McEwan’s other work so I don’t know how characteristic Lessons is if his typical writing style, but I know that I loved it and I am eager for more.

Author Ian McEwan throws a pebble into a pond and makes the most beautifully resonating ripples. Even if, in this novel's case, those ripples take 500 pages to reach the shoreline. This masterfully wrought novel tells the story of Roland Baines, an ordinary man. We follow Roland through 70 years of his life, wherein past personal traumas interweave with global events, from WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall to Chernobyl, 9/11, Brexit, Covid, and so on. It's not a cheery tale, but there are moments of levity and joy. Roland feels flashes of life's richness despite his disappointing CV. Life is the sum of lessons learned or ignored. Same with history. McEwan uses his own life as a rough outline for the novel, and this meta-ness serves to reinforce its themes. The audiobook version is poignantly read by Simon McBurney.

[Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

This novel tells the life story of protagonist Roland Baines over the course of sixty years. Roland spends part of his childhood in Libya, where his father serves in the British Army. He is sent to English boarding school, where he is abused by his piano teacher. He marries Alissa, who leaves him and their son to pursue literary fame. His mother harbors a family secret, which eventually is revealed.

The novel is told in third person, focused on Roland. It is mostly a linear story, with sections that loop back to reminiscences of the past. The author reflects the passage of time by referencing world events, such as the White Rose movement, Suez Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cold War, fall of the Berlin Wall, Chernobyl, AIDS, Brexit, the January 6th insurrection, and the Covid pandemic.

The primary conflict is supplied by Roland’s abuse at the hands of his piano teacher and its aftereffects. Roland’s life trajectory is derailed at an early age. He starts drifting through life and has trouble making decisions. It is a story of lost potential and missed opportunities. From his wife’s perspective, it is also a story of potential achieved, but at a terrible cost.

This is a rather lengthy book. Several of the subplots seemed more like digressions and my mind wandered occasionally in the first half. The narrative picks up in the second half, when we find out family secrets and Roland confronts the women who have disrupted his life. The writing is elegant and detailed. It is a story of memory, trauma, and coming to terms with the “what ifs” of life.

Another powerful, thought provoking read from Ian McEwan. “Lessons” did not disappoint. Mr McEwan has a gift of peeling away layers, which can be both haunting & beautiful. “Lessons” Uncovers Roland’s journey as a child where circumstances open the door to lifelong questions, sadness and love. I was a late in reading Ian McEwan’s books, I started with “The Children Act” which began the process of reading Ian McEwan’s books, and “Lessons” does not disappoint. Thanks to Netgalley for opportunity to read. A 5 star book.

I really tried to like this book but I just didn't. I saw the author interviewed on TV and thought it sounded good and the premise of the story does. But I just could not get into the writing style. It seems so disjointed and I just could not follow the plot. I was not able to finish this book.

I very much enjoyed reading this! The writing was strong and the story was enjoyable. I recommend it.

One hell of life Roland had! He was alive through many monumental events in near history, but we got to read about the abuse he faced, many women who taught him couple of valuable lessons as the name of the book suggests. Ah, how easy to manipulate men and make them think they are well in control their own lives…. This dude could not even accept with his adult brain and perception that he was abused as a little child

More than Roland, I was interest per in vast variety of women in this book. We had the predator, the independent, the good old wife, the protector of secrets, the undersatisfied. There were so many of them while men were the same: abusers and abused. Not a flashing news for a female reader, but it is low key fun to see that author took McEwan took about 500 pages to explain that (through one man)

I like McEwan’s stories, but I was bit bored with the MC of this story. Like I said, I focused my interest on women and skipped some pages of Roland’s whining to get the end of the book. If you are a fan of McEwan, I think you should read it but have a lot of coffee ready

3 stars. I do not plan to review this title - I read the entire novel but found it somewhat tedious and not what I had hoped for from this author.