SATURDAY

Ian McEwan
From the pen of Ian McEwan— the #1
bestselling, Booker Prize–winning
author of Atonement — comes an
astonishing novel “Saturday”, that
captures the fine balance of happiness
and the threats, that can destroy
it. Saturday is McEwan's ninth novel,
published between 
Atonement and On Chesil Beach, two
works of historical fiction.
 Saturday is a contemporary psychological novel, a thriller, a
detailed day in the life.

 5 chapters;

 narration is written in the third person;

 the protagonist is Henry Perowne;

 “usual” Saturday routine is describes.

McEwan spent two years work-shadowing
Neil Kitchen, a neurosurgeon at The
National Hospital for Neurology and
Neurosurgery in Queen Square, London.
"He sat in the corner, with his notebook
and pencil", said Kitchen. He also had
several medical doctors and surgeons
review the book for accuracy, though few
corrections were required to the surgical
description.
The main narrative takes place on Saturday, February 15, 2003. Although the
exact date is never stated in the novel, the date can be inferred from historical
context. Most notably, the narrative repeatedly references a very large anti-war
protest in London on that day. This event occurred on February 15, 2003 in order
to protest Britain’s planned involvement in the invasion of Iraq.

The events of the novel are observed almost entirely within London’s city limits.
Henry lives and works in London. London is the site of the large anti-war protest.
Additionally, Henry first encounters Baxter by chance on the streets of London.
 Main characters
● Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon who must deal with unpleasant
encounters on his day off while interacting with his family.
● Antagonist: Baxter, a belligerent young man with Huntington's disease who
threatens Perowne's family.
● Rosalind Perowne - Henry's wife is a kind, thoughtful lawyer whom Henry
met as a patient while he was on rotation. 
● Theo Perowne is an aspiring blues musician and talented guitarist.
● Daisy Perowne is a young, already-successful poet with a distinct French-
chic style and a strong personality.
● John Grammaticus is Theo's and Daisy's grandfather, helping to shape their
lives by music (Theo) and poetry (Daisy).
 Main themes
 Political Situation

Anti-war protests, invasions and riots depict the insecurity of people at that time.

Although McEwan takes large-scale problems, he is eager to explore the import of

such theoretical problems on the actual life of a human being.

The plane crash - a symbol of the ambiguities of life and the tendency of humanity to assume

the worst about the unknown. 

 Love and Family relations
These connections are presented as the most central and important sources of
fulfillment in Henry’s life, and through these relationships, the novel explores the
potential for profound gratification that these relationships can provide. One of
the most prominent examples of this dynamic is Henry and Rosalind’s marriage.
Their relationship is portrayed as deeply loving and affectionate, and the narrative
draws connections between this sense of love and the mutual loyalty that they
possess for each other. The narrative comments, for instance, that Henry has
never felt tempted to be unfaithful to his wife: “When [Henry] thinks of sex, he
thinks of [Rosalind]…In one lifetime it wouldn’t be possible to find another
woman with whom he can learn to be so free”.
 Science and Literature

Perowne is a scientist, and most of his adult life was spent in the study of
scientific texts. Accordingly, he is not too well-versed in literature. Daisy,
his daughter, is a poet and an avid reader, and she is trying to educate her
father in literature by giving him reading assignments. As happens later,
ironically art – poetry, a tool that Perowne doesn't have at his disposal
prevents the situation from getting out of hand at the most critical point.
 Parents- Children Relationship

A great example to illustrate this topic from the point of Henry’s view is
the following sentence:
“It’s a commonplace of parenting and modern genetics that parents have
little or no influence on the characters of their children”.
This line of narration emphasizes the inherent distinctions between
parents and their children. Henry has accepted these distinctions in his
life, as his children's interests are quite different from his.
 Literary devices
● Allusion
Henry references classical pieces such as the "Goldberg" Variations by Bach, as
well as various pianists such as Angela Hewitt, Martha Argerich, and Glenn
Gould. Daisy mentions poets like Shakespeare and Matthew Arnold, and Theo is
mentioned in the context of blues musicians like Alexis Korner, John Mayall, and
Eric Clapton.
● Paradox
Baxter is attempting to keep the façade of his life up to impress others, but he is
slowly losing his battle to Huntington's Disease. His fate is inevitable; no matter
what he does to keep his life together, his genes have already written his doom
● Parallelism
At the beginning of the novel, Henry gets out of bed and looks out his window
in the early morning, musing upon what he sees. The novel ends with a
parallel scene in which Henry stands and looks out the same bedroom
window, pondering what he sees, before climbing back into bed, bringing the
novel full circle.
● Metonymy and Synecdoche
“A little syncopated stab on the turnaround, the sudden chop of an augmented
chord, a note held against the tide of harmony, a judiciously flattened fifth, a
seventh bent in sensuous microtones.”
● Personification
“... ghostly swarms of purple and iridescent green are migrating across his view of a
boundless steppe, then rolling in on themselves to become bolts of cloth, swathes of
swagged velvet, drawing back like theatre curtains on new scenes, new thoughts.”
● Irony
This novel purports to be the account of the events of a single day in the life of Henry
Perowne, neurosurgeon. However, despite the specificity of the events, this novel
deals with far more than a single day: it incorporates events from Henry's entire life,
as well as large-scale ethical and political issues that extend even to today. This
particular Saturday, then, ironically grows into a microcosm of a man's entire life.
In Saturday, as in all McEwan's work, there is much to
admire in the efficiency and clarity with which he
marshals his themes. Here, though, his control over his
material is too pronounced.

Zoe Heller, The New York Times Book Review

Thank you!