An action packed day in the life of Henry, a neurosurgeon with a loving family - journalist wife, musician son and poet daughter. The elaborately described and shared details of Henry's day could have been painful but for the insightful statements that emerge in the course of following his thought processes.
.....he knows that sleep is behind him: to know the difference between it and waking, to know the boundaries, is the essence of sanity.work - the ultimate badge of health.
..his free time is always fragmented, not only by errands and family obligations and sports, but by the restlessness that comes with these weekly islands of freedom.
Furthermore, nothing can be predicted, but everything, as soon as it happens, will seem to fit.
For a few seconds they enter one of those mute vacuous moments that follow an enthusiastic reunion - too much to be said, and a gentle resettling needed, a resumption of ordinary business.
When there are no consequences, being wrong is simply an interesting diversion.
Even as you struggle against the numbness of poor recall, you know precisely what the forgotten thing is not.
That so much happens in our heads during the course of a single day, is something we all realize - our thoughts wander to colleagues at work, to children when they were young, to our parents when we were young, to our spouse, to the state of the world and our changing surroundings, to the service we are subjected to at shops, parking lots and hospitals - but that it can actually fill an entire book in an interesting way, is something McEwan has accomplished.
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