Saturday

Saturday is Ian McEwan’s masterpiece, published in 2005.

On one Saturday in February 2003, the protagonist, Henry Perowne—an accomplished neurosurgeon—wakes uneasily at four in the morning and sees a plane trailing fire as it approaches Heathrow. This opening scene foreshadows the unsettling day ahead.

A massive anti–Iraq War demonstration is taking place that day. Trying to avoid the crowds, Perowne gets into a minor traffic accident with three thugs. He notices that Baxter, their leader, shows symptoms of Huntington’s disease, and he uses that knowledge to escape the situation. In doing so, he wounds Baxter’s pride.

After playing squash with a colleague and visiting his demented mother, Perowne shops for dinner and returns home. His daughter Daisy argues with him about the Iraq War—she opposes it, while he opposes Saddam’s regime.

Later, his father‑in‑law arrives for a family gathering, and soon after, Perowne’s son and wife come home. At that very moment, Baxter breaks into the house, turning the happy reunion into a nightmare. In the midst of the terror, a poem Daisy reads unexpectedly moves Baxter.

The novel is full of contrasts. Perowne is a successful neurosurgeon; his wife is a lawyer for a newspaper; her father is a distinguished poet. Daisy is a gifted young poet, and Theo, Perowne’s son, is a talented blues musician. Baxter, by contrast, is uneducated, comes from an unhappy background, and suffers from an incurable hereditary illness. He has no hope—and none of it is his fault. The fortunate and the unfortunate.

Perowne mentions the possibility of treatment for Baxter’s disease once more. It is a lie—a small lie meant to save his family, but a cruel one for Baxter.

The Perowne family and Baxter can be read as a metaphor for the United Kingdom and terrorists such as Al‑Qaeda.

McEwan masterfully captures the anxiety and fragility felt by the British people after 9/11, portraying the era’s deep and unresolved contradictions through intricate plotting and a vivid depiction of Perowne’s inner life.


Comments

  1. YoshiMar 19, 2014, 10:18:00 PM

    I don't know if you read a comment added to this old post, but anyway, I say I am glad you read this novel and liked it. I also read it some time ago and loved it enormously. It is extremely well-crafted story, a bit too well-crafted to the extent it may appear a bit artificial. Still it shows the precarious feelings people in UK have been feeling after 9/11 just as you wrote above. It shows the liberal humanism which a lot of the English middle class people still possess. Despite all the ugly things in the world, the novel gives me some hope. Yoshi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. F HiroshiMar 20, 2014, 11:57:00 AM

      Thank you for your comment.

      In this novel, the conflict between Perowne and his daughter Daisy on the Iraq War was very interesting for me. Anyway, I like McEwan's works because I’m always impressed his intelligence and the solid structure.

      Delete

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