Finishing Saturday

This morning, appropriately, I finished Ian McEwan's Saturday. According to someone from the Independent (quoted on the cover) it's "dazzling… profound and urgent." Well, I'm extremely doubtful of "dazzling", slightly more convinced by "profound" and not sure what would make a novel "urgent". I enjoyed it and found it easy to read - which gets "dazzling" out of the way, since "dazzling" generally implies a bit of a struggle. I thought Saturday was all very traditional, in fact, a little bit clunky at times. The big set pieces fitted neatly together in terms of plot & theme - the sort of mugging, the game of squash, the visit to mother, the life-saving operation - and each one more than held my interest, but they did seem very obviously set pieces. The characters were engaging and well developed, but a little bit literary, and, surprisingly, a bit too good to be true sometimes. or possibly, too neat to be true. It's a novel intended to make you think, almost a state of England kind of thing, but it didn't really startle. In fact, the ideas seemed curiously well-worn. But I liked that as it was always accessible. Almost not-clever-enough for its own good.

And the ending. For reasons I can't quite understand I found the last twenty or so pages powerfully moving when I'd not really been deeply stirred before. I'll take "moving" over "dazzling" anytime.

Now we've just got back from a kenduri at Kak Kiah's, where we said prayers for Abang Mat who passed away a year ago. Fi Fi is with us as we're taking her to Phantom of the Opera tomorrow. We heard the news about United's victory (and Chelsea's lack of one) on the way back which engendered general cheerfulness, if not actual rejoicing.