In this quasi-autobiographical novel, McEwan raises questions about what our futures would be like had we made different choices, had different parents, married different spouses, chose different careers. And what about those of us who do not opt for a reasonably content life with children and family, and choose instead to forego all that in a driven press to reach fame and/or a career pinnacle? Is one path really better than the other, or are they simply different?

A man looks back over the more than seven decades of his life, mentally zigzagging through time and place, unsure sometimes about the accuracy of his memories. He can't shake off his seduction, at age 14, by his piano teacher at the school where he was a student and which lasted for 2 years. The abuse has a long term effect on him, most particularly in his relationships with women. When his first wife leaves him and their infant son for a successful literary career, he is angry but also questions why he is unable realize his own potential as a talented pianist.

McEwan somehow tightly integrates a lot of characters and multiple time periods into an intelligible whole. I always knew exactly where I was in this book, what year it was, and which characters were present. His prose is lyrical and feels effortless, although I'm sure it's not (it takes him 2-3 years to complete a book). Like many of his other books, the story is set against a backdrop of current events, from post WWII London, to Thatcher's England, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, to 9/11 and up to the 1/6 insurrection. Climate change is also a constant theme.

I bristled a bit when Roland, the protagonist, returns as an adult to confront his piano teacher. She goes off on him in a kind of self-righteous screed in which she portrays herself as the victim. It's difficult enough to have a female child molester as a character, but to have her mostly defend what she did was uncomfortable to read, and I don't see what the purpose is.

The end of the book tilts a bit towards maudlin, but I didn't mind. In fact I liked it. I am almost exactly McEwan's age and the thoughts, events, and ideas of the baby boomer generation that are incorporated in Lessons are very familiar. Roland, the protagonist, poses the question: "By what logic or motivation or helpless surrender did we all, hour by hour, transport ourselves within a generation from the thrill of optimism at Berlin’s falling Wall to the storming of the American Capitol?" Through the very intimate stories of their lives, Roland and the other characters do their best to answer.