HE WAS THE DYLAN TO AMIS' JAGGER
In his new novel IAN MCEWAN depicts a day in the life of a troubled doctor. Mark Robertson discovers where civil unrest and neurosurgery meet head on.
y eontemporary standards. lan Meliwan is an unremarkable noyelist. l'nremarkable that is. in that he has no selitiek. He has neither Martin :\mis’ perfect teeth nor Salman Rushdie‘s sul'\'i\'ttl instinets. Moniea .-\li's bra/en youth nor l)a\‘e liggers’ endless ambition. .lames lillroy‘s murderous past nor Will Self's ‘drtig hell'. .‘yleliwan‘s skills for grabbing headlines are restrieted solely to his aehiey'ements on the printed page: his sehtiek is he w rites truly great books. l’ew can eombine the tineomfortably domestie with the blaekly maeabre in sueh a wonderfully unllirtatioiis way. The quietly despairing and the uneontaiiiably delightful roam free in a landseape littered with ineest. sadomasoehism and death. .ltist as the Xlls broke. publisher (iranta gathered together its hopes for the future. .\lel{waii sat alongside .’\mis. Rushdie. Barnes and lshiguro. labelled a bright hope for British literature. In fietion terms. he was the Bob Dylan to .-\mis' .\liek .lagger. ;\nd like Dylan oyer the years. Meliw'an's aim has remained true.
Meliw an new book. .S'uliirt/uy. emerges from the shadow of his finest work yet. .-lrorimit'rir. He may have won the Booker l’ri/e with .'\I)I.\I('I'(/(UH. got the big sereen adaptation from lint/tiring Low. btit in quality
terms .‘lfl’llt’liu'lll was the mother lode. ’l‘raeing the life of
one woman from early ehildhood to the graye and the effeet she had on all who met her and the eonsequenees of her aetion or inaetion. it was a considerable eritieal and eommereial sueeess.
l‘or Saturday. Meliwan ehanges taek somewhat. following the story of one man on that eponymous day. Henry Perowne is a neurosurgeon approaehing his 50s
with a sueeessful lawyer wife and a pair of
eonyentionally unconventional boho ehildren. lle liiids himself awake at his bedroom window. a helpless witness to a plane on fire falling through the London night sky. l’erowne sets off on his regular day ~ his squash mateli and errands — but an aeeidental meeting with one man sets this partieular Saturday off on a skewed and potentially menaeing trajeetory.
.‘yleliw-an has previously dealt with war. espionage and erime but so often everything eomes baek to the personal effeets whieh major eyents have on people. direetly or otherwise. This is no different. Party and personal polities are intertwined but at the heart of it Satan/try is the story of one man. and his eoming to terms with a family that is fragmenting and reforming against a baekdrop of a potential terrorist threat. Meanwhile. he metieulously' knits together tiny pieees of bone while saying patients from deadly aneurysms and blood clots.
Vivid description is at the fore. .‘yleliwan‘s metieuloUs eye missing no detail. He subtly parallels l’erow'ne‘s own family unit with Iraq. both seemingly under potential inyasion. ln being implieitly politieal. .‘yleliwan throws tip questions on an explicitly personal ley'el. Afterwards. lraq doesn‘t seem sueh a remote and disloeated state as it may first appear on the news bulletins. lan Meliwan taekles an uneertain world with elarity. fervour and heart. He may not liaye .‘ylartin .-\mis' speetaeular dental refinements but he has literary bite that is still sharper than most.
Saturday is published by Jonathan Cape on Mon 7 Feb. McEwan appears at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow on Sat 26 Feb for the Aye Write! Festival.
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THE BEST BOOKS. COMICS & EVENTS
=i< Ian McEwan One of the finest writers of his generation tackles our most raw and contemporary fear (the end of the world as we know it) via a neurosurgeon's neurotic home life. When Saturday comes, you should definitely get it. See preview. Jonathan Cape.
=2: John Harris The rock journo with the nice hair and the cutting opinions gets his snarly teeth into our beloved political leaders with Who Do We Vote for Now? See review. Faber
>i= Jen-y Stahl The tragic story of Roscoe Arbuckle is given a fictional spin through the genius of the Permanent Midnight author and CSI writer. You’re the one for me. I, Fatty. See review. Allison & Busby.
>i= David B This French cartoonist and writer brings us Epileptic. his memoir of a tough life with his brother. It combines the styles of Maus and Persepolis but results in a very individual statement of its own. See review. Jonathan Cape.
>i< Paul Kamlk and Davld Mauucchelll A blistering reissue of the existential tale by Paul Auster in graphic form. Not only does it take the best elements of the Brooklyn boy's novella, it adds some extra layers of beauty. See review. Faber.
>l< Forgot Mysol’: Scotch Passion Liz Lochhead and Carol Laula (pictured) do their separate Iovey-dovey things for Valentine's Day. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Mon 14 Feb.
r' 'rer, 27,", THE LIST 29