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From Dusk To Dawn-The Past, Present and Future Saturday, February 15, 2003 a date that will resonate in many of our minds. The day the Iraq War began. Into this day, Henry Perowne, a neurosurgeon by trade, starts the day with a dream of an airplane crashing. He awakens with his wife, the love of his life, and they start their day by making love. He showers and shaves and thinks of the past day. The harrowing surgery he performed on a brain and the many surgeries to come. The Past, Present and Future, all within the first hour of this day. Much symbolism- remember this, the novel is full of them. "Saturday" is a novel of greatness and of reflection. Ian McEwan has written a masterpiece that sometimes falls but then rises again. A period of 24 hours- from dawn to dusk in the life of a man. This man, a neurosurgeon, with a high class background and life, a wife he loves and two children who are intelligent, articulate and succeeding in life. This is a man who is very happy with his life. The day brings a squash game and while on his way, Perowne runs into a protest of the Iraq war and all of its symbolism. As he takes a detour he is involved in an accident that threatens his life. The person whose car was hit, is a con man and threatens Perowne until this remarkable neurosurgeon is able to make a diagnosis of a chronic disease from some small symptoms the man exhibits. The man, Baxter, is so shocked he runs off and Perowne is free to continue to his game. The squash game is overly lengthy but gives us more information about this man, Then onto to see his mother who has a form of Alzheimer's disease and is in a home. Back onto his own home for dinner with his wife, children and father. The talk of success and the joys of their life. The poetry of his daughter and the jazz of his son. Then into this mix, comes Baxter- breaking into the home and causing havoc and ruin. The final scenes are remarkable in their simplicity and sometimes unbelievable in their pattern. A fitting ending it seems but is it trite? This is a remarkable novel. It grips you in its symbolism, and I did enjoy it as much as "Atonement". It gives us a story of great love, happiness and the misery that can be interjected into our lives. What we come to expect as just another day turns into an event that is quite unexpected with reverberating consequences. A little like life in general. A book for everyone- highly recommended. prisrob