Saturday by Ian McEwan

Musings by a well-off 'Blairite' on the eve of the invasion of Iraq in 2003

The book, all set on one Saturday in the lead up to the Iraq war, is an internal portrait on one man. Henry is a typical Blair bourgeois middle-Englander in every sense, who is married with children in their early twenties. McEwan carefully constructs through Henry's internal musings the background and influences of one man and by extension the whole era of Blair's Britain.

This excellent book has a side plot of a psychopath who breaks into Henry's family life and humiliates him and his family. Though extremely well described and written I felt that this typical McEwan theme could have been dispensed with.

McEWAN Ian, Saturday, Vintage 2005