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A return to earlier themes Ian McEwan is one of the most compelling writers around, and I picked up "Saturday" eagerly, in anticipation of a new, fresh, exciting experience. And at first I wasn't disappointed. McEwan writes some of the finest first chapters I've ever read anywhere. No one who's read "Enduring Love" will ever forget the completely gripping ballooning accident of the first chapter, or the excrutiating description of the kidnapping of a child in the first chapter of "Child in Time." "Saturday" opens in the pre-dawn hours, when Henry, a highly succesful and respected neurosurgeon, goes to his window and by chance witnesses the emergency landing of an airplane at nearby Heathrow. McEwan does a wonderful job of evoking the mystery of the hour, the underlying anxiety of the post-9/11 era, and the eeriness of the experience. But the aura is lost as the day begins, and McEwan returns to the "crazy man invades life of normal family" theme. Henry is involved in an accident, and uses his medical knowledge to out-psych the other driver and escape physical attack. Henry's subsequent agonizing over whether this was ethical was wearying, especially in light of the book's ending. I won't ruin it for you, but it was inconceivable that any physician would do what Henry did at the end of that Saturday. The themes seemed lame--life can change in a moment, comfort and security are illusions easily stripped away, life is fragile. "Atonement" was a breakthrough for McEwan, a completely new set of themes and subjects for him, and I expected great things after that. I was disappointed to see a return to well-trod ground. It pains me to give this book a only a 4--it's masterfully written and plotted--but McEwan is capable of so much more.