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Article: What You Don't See; Reading One Paragraph of Ian McEwan's 'Saturday'
- Article from:
- The Stranger
- Article date:
- June 2, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright The Stranger Jun 2-Jun 8, 2005. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IN THE BREAKNECK world of book reviewing, Ian McEwan's latest novel, Saturday, which was released in March, is already a hoary chestnut from publishing's yesteryear. Because of this sad fact, everyone else has already done a proper review. Instead, let us examine this paragraph--on page 128 in the hardcover edition--from which we may extrapolate a few important truths about this troublesome and troubling novel.
Saturday is a departure from McEwan's milieu in several ways, not least of which is the book's present-tense nature--in terms of both grammar and content. It's a novel about post-9/11 consciousness, and hence, an impossible thing, a reduction of the irreducible. The writing shines ...