My seventh McEwan. This one strikes me as a bit different from the others I've read. It's almost like a 'legal thriller' akin to a John Grisham althouMy seventh McEwan. This one strikes me as a bit different from the others I've read. It's almost like a 'legal thriller' akin to a John Grisham although I don’t mean to imply that Grisham’s popular writing style is like McEwan’s more literary style.
The main character is a woman at the peak of her career as a British family court judge (she is called 'My Lady.') In the acknowledgments the author cites his research on the subject and those who helped him.
The judge deals with issues such as a dispute between a devout Jewish husband and wife where the husband does not want further education for their two daughters but the wife wants them to get a liberal college education. Or child custody cases, some involving children spirited away to North African countries by their fathers.
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Adding to the pressure of her decisions, the London newspapers often carry news of the cases and her rulings. Some decisions involve life and death such as Siamese twins that will both die unless the weaker one is sacrificed for the stronger.
The main story involves a young man, just shy of 18, who will die because he is refusing a blood transfusion for leukemia due his religious beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness. (view spoiler)[ She rules that he can be forced to have the transfusion and the boy initially recovers. But after she interviews him in the hospital, he falls in love with her and stalks her. Eventually the case results in tragedy. (hide spoiler)]
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Layered over the legal stories are her problems in her personal life. She and her husband are 60, childless, and he’s counting: “We haven’t had sex for a month – I’m going to have an affair.” Although they talk about her cases, it’s clear that he has no idea of the impact these decisions have upon her psyche. They are both married to their jobs more so than to each other.
It’s an easy read and kept my attention. I thought it more of a popular read than most of his books are. As I look at the books I've read by McEwan, I still like Atonement best. I consider him a favorite author, and since I don't give a lot of books a '3' rating, I'm surprised to see that I gave 3s to three of the seven. The books that I thought were weaker were Saturday, Amsterdam and On Chesil Beach.
Photo of Lady Justice Smith from dailymail.co.uk Photo of Royal Courts of Justice from www.threesixfivecity.com/uploads- shutterstock
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