It took me some time to get into this lengthy book. The ‘lessons’ of the title are the lessons of life, in particular those of the main character, Roland. We follow his years from a small child through to old age. He has a family story which he grows up thinking is simple and straightforward but which turns out to be anything but. He has to make readjustments to his thinking as we all do through our lives as we find things are not quite as we thought.
Roland has a teenage affair whilst at boarding school, with his piano teacher. Much later he has to realign events once more as a confidante helps him realise that he was a victim in this situation, even though he protests that he was a very willing participant.
Roland has to cope with taking care of his infant son as his wife walks out on them both in rather unexplained and mysterious circumstances. All the while he continues to muddle through his life, as many of us may consider we do. He has allowed opportunities to slip through his fingers and so does not go to university or become the concert pianist that maybe he could have been. He had been looking for some sort of freedom but ends up with a mortgage and a child to rear and a series of somewhat unreliable jobs to pay the bills. As time passes, and it passes faster as we age, Roland wonders if he has been ridiculously naive in the way in which he has lived his life.
By the time he is old I had developed a great tenderness for Roland which as the last chapters of the book passed, took me by surprise. There could have been tears for this ordinary man, flawed in many ways as we all are. He finds true love but he realises that is what it is just too late. A great sadness for Roland and for the reader.
This story could only have been written by someone who has experienced the whole ageing process and who has more life behind him than in front. Ian McEwan is so impressive and so skilled as a writer. There is melancholy in this book and regret but also a powerful evocation of resilience that seems so often to be seated deep within the human spirit.