Infinite Books

Ian McEwan’s latest novel, “Lessons,” might be his best book yet. It starts when the eleven years old Roland Baines is sent to a state boarding school in England. The Cuban Missile Crisis looms over the world, but “James Hern, the stern but privately kind housemaster, did not mention in his evening announcements that the world might soon be ending.” A much more significant impact on the boy is inflicted by his piano teacher, Miss Miriam Cornell, who becomes fascinated by Roland’s youth. As a child, he doesn’t see himself as a victim of sexual abuse but feels chosen and different from other boys at school. His piano lessons became his first life lessons.

I thought the novel might very well be titled “Rings” – as in tree’s growth rings. After the center ring of Roland’s premature sexual initiation, the successive rounds of life grow – they’re new while holding to the old ones deep inside. The novel brings the events in a non-linear way, but because of this, its flow is natural and easy to follow:  just like our memory is not linear. This is also a story where the reader can’t resist the thought of “what-ifs .” What if Roland was more driven and determined to develop his extraordinary piano gift and become a concert pianist, instead of the hotel piano player, insisting on playing more jazz that the guests wanted to hear? What if he hasn’t been distracted by other things in life and continued writing professionally, not just pouring his thoughts into journals and reading passionately? What if he put his tennis skills to better use than becoming a tennis instructor?

And, of course, the main question – what did his life amount to? His first wife, Alissa, decides to leave him suddenly – and leave their baby son, not even one year old – to “find herself” and become a writer. She does become one of the best contemporary German writers. Her books are brilliant – Roland has to admit it – and she probably couldn’t have done it if she stayed with Roland and their son, as, in her opinion, the everyday mundane chores would define her as a mother and wife. Just like the piano teacher decided to follow her needs, Alissa did the same. However, in her situation, she is admired, and her books, in fifty languages or so, feed people’s imagination, not initiate police interest like in Miriam’s case.

The well-known saying, a curse disguised as a  blessing, “may you live in interesting times,” proves so true in “Lessons .” Like many of us, Roland tries in his limited way to control what’s happening around him. When the catastrophe of Chernobyl occurs, he wants most of all to help his child and rushes towards the closest pharmacy because “as only the well-informed knew, potassium iodide protected the vulnerable thyroid against radiation” – but of course, he’s too late, everything is sold out. His own little way of dealing with the unthinkable mirrors the similar efforts of all of us. The personal intertwines with global, and sometimes the results are pretty humorous. When the Berlin wall falls, and he is there, looking for his wife, moving with the crowd, he is mistakenly taken for an East Berliner. The reporter asks him:

 “It’s a fantastic day. How do you feel?

“I feel fantastic.”

“You’ve just crossed no-man’s land, the notorious Death Strip. Where have you come from?”

“London.”

Meandering through Roland’s second marriage (which tragically didn’t last long), the novel later transitions into Covid lockdowns.  Roland is in his seventies. Once more, he tries to do things that seem reasonable, thinking “only a fool would show up in hospital at the emergency department, complaining about his heart. And go down with the plague inhaled from some unmasked moron wandering about the waiting room.”  And once again, such a train of thought gives him a sense of control.

We follow Roland Baines on his life journey, so beautifully told by the author. I feel that this novel’s protagonist can be seen in all of us – his joys, his worries, and the way he’s trying to navigate difficult times. There is just one shot at living one’s life, and lessons might not be learned. We live it in a way that might not be the best, but who’s there to judge what the best is?

LESSONS, by Ian McEwan, Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 2022