This paper examines the way in which Ian McEwan’snovel Saturday deals with highly topical issues of the current century. The 9/11 attack still functions as a highly debatable topical subject today and this novel deals with precisely this moment in time. The violence behind this action is usually the aspect foregrounded in any intellectual debate, but McEwan deals with it in a slightly offbeat way. The focus throughout the book is not the event and the violence, but the varying opinions on it, whether from the media, from the powers that be or from the everyday masses. The author seeks to juxtapose two twenty-first century landmarks, the 9/11 disaster and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The re-writing of history here takes a different turn as…show more content… Perowne believes, like many scientists, in the innate rationality of human beings and thus renders phases of human history as something ‘that too shall pass’ and truth will prevail. These traits of the main character are enhanced by painstakingly detailed descriptions of his profession. Medical phrases are used throughout and his complete knowledge about every part of the human body renders him incapable of swallowing the fact that there can be situations and events in the world that are out of his control. He is shown throughout possessing the clinical, rationalising mind of the born surgeon who is ignorant that history and humanity are vast, ever-changing and completely devoid of fixed powers or meaning. To highlight that he is a man of medicine, highly technical terms such as “trigeminal neuralgia” and “tic douloureux” (7) are employed and the confident, controlled way in which the doctor performs his surgeries is painstakingly described in these few pages. What becomes evident is his extreme assurance during operations and the unshakeable smugness that he can cure or at least contain these patients’ troubles with barely any effort; “all done in fifteen minutes; three years’ misery, of sharp, stabbing pain ended”
