Lessons
Ratings10
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings10
Average rating4.2
While the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has descended, young Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Stranded at boarding school, his vulnerability attracts his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Twenty-five years later Roland's wife mysteriously vanishes, and he is left alone with their baby son. Her disappearance sparks a journey of discovery that will continue for decades, as Roland confronts the reality of his rootless existence and attempts to embrace the uncertainty - and freedom - of his future.
Reviews with the most likes.
Sprawling, relevant, compelling. Rarely have I felt more empathy for a novel's protagonist.
This book follows the life of Roland Baines, his traumas, romantic and family relationships across various historical events, from the World War II to the pandemic.
I've found the book slow paced, however, it was interesting to read and see those events from Roland's eyes.
While the prose is beautiful and the book is well written, wouldn't it be from Ian McEwan, the large paragraphs and overall formatting were discouraging, and I would have preferred to read it in the first person.
Thank you Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishinging for the advanced copy of this book.
Bookclub read [UoG]: this novel covers much of the life of Roland Baines, a nobody or anybody whose existence is so very ordinary it is almost spectacular.
Twisting back and forth through time, it starts rather unpleasantly, I thought - nearly enough to put me off. I stuck with Roland though and even warmed slightly to the rather useless man he becomes. He went to some interesting places, I particularly liked the time in East Germany, and collected a varied cast of co-stars around him.
For a book called Lessons, though, I don't feel Roland actually learnt much at all. I'm not sure I did either.
