LESSONS by Ian McEwan--Book review

 

LESSONS by Ian McEwan

Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan’s 18^th novel, Lessons , is long (over 450 pages), and like many of his other works begins simply and grows more complex as it develops. The opening makes the novel look like a reverse Lolita in which an adult woman is obsessed by her 11 year old boy piano student (and he by her). Their sexual relation lasts for five years and only breaks up when he becomes 16 and she wants to spirit him off to Scotland to marry him. To some extent the lesson of that early experience is still hanging around at the finish, but it is only a fragment of the sad life of Roland Baines, whose given name might encourage some to remember the great French epic by that name.  

This Roland is a man who never seems to put sufficient postage on the letter of life. After he is abused by his piano teacher, we meander through sixty years of lost promise. A gifted classical pianist as a youth, Roland winds up as a tea-time piano player at a London Hotel. He yearns for an artistic life yet finds only idle travel, political futility, and failed liaisons. His other temporary jobs range from tennis coach to writer of incidental puff pieces for small magazines.  All of this is played out against the end of WWII and the historic changes brought about by Thatcher, Reagan, Gorbachev, Suez, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Covid, and even January 6^th. 

Finally, like Shakespeare’s Prospero, Roland Baines burns his books and settles into an old age fueled by something called The Multiple Worlds Theory.  This concept promotes the idea that “The world divides at every conceivable moment into an infinitude of invisible possibilities.”  Your fate may have been controlled by unconscious choices and it lowers your chance of having any real impact on the affairs of the world at large. You are also left in suspense as to what will come next.  It is better, as you reach your “hinge of life,” to settle back and leave the future to your grandchildren.   

The early publicity for the book asks this question. “How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past? ”  If you want a profound illustration of these topics, this may be the book for you. If not, McEwen may not be your cup of tea. 

Jim De Young  8-28-22 

London Bridge is Falling Down by Christopher Fowler

 

“London bridge was made for wise men to go over and fools to go under." An old proverb

This is the 18^th book featuring the exploits of two geriatric detectives named Arthur Bryant and John May.  I have read and enjoyed a number of them. John May goes a bit more by the book and dresses stylishly.  Bryant is the perfect foil as he does almost nothing by the book and is an archetypal curmudgeon who dresses like a walking Salvation Army Store. He wears an old overcoat, a rumpled hat, and wraps himself in a variety of moth- eaten long scarves.  His pockets are full of candy wrappers, paper scraps, fruit drops, and pipe tobacco. The pair are the chief investigators in what is called the Peculiar Crimes Unit and they have a covey of assistants who are also the kind of folks who would not fit easily into a regular Scotland Yard unit.

Let me note first that if complicated plots, a certain amount of looniness, and some degree of  acquaintance with London and its history don’t intrigue you, I would recommend a pass on Fowler. Second, if does intrigue you, I would recommend getting started with a few of his earlier offerings. That way you can get some familiarity with the characters and their bizarre investigations before you approach number 18, which starts out at least as a kind of swan song for the series.  

If you remain committed to start with London Bridge is Falling Down, you will still get enough basic information to enter Bryant and May’s world. You will find that the Peculiar Crimes Unit is finally being closed down after many previous unsuccessful efforts to eliminate it. Arthur Bryant tries one final ploy to keep everyone’s jobs. He finds a cold case and then convinces the upper echelons that there is new information that must be investigated.  Ultimately, the case proves to be not so cold. It turns out to be the tiny tip of a multi-year plot. The strange death of an old woman who once worked with the Bletchley codebreakers explodes into multiple murders and the involvement of the current CIA and MI 5. The key to the mystery resides in the ability to decipher clues which deal with the romantic and real history of London Bridge and a cadre of the offbeat denizens of London.  

London Bridge is Falling is Falling Down will have you laughing out loud at the quirky characters. Witness when someone says to Arthur Bryant “your eyes are red” and asks if he has had enough sleep. Arthur replies, “You should see them from my side.” There will be gems of wisdom along the way like “The older you get the less noticed you become.” You will also be delighted by the descriptions of everything from old churches to the changing aspects of London weather.  You may even be shedding a tear or two when you arrive at the beautifully crafted finish.  I am an Anglophile and love Mr. Fowler's books. I am counting on the fact that you will too, no matter where in the series you start.