Saturday, a unique Saturday, a frightening Saturday. While Ian McEwan is British, the events of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, in America had a tremendous effect on him. For a time, he says, he couldn't write. I know the feeling. I was writing at the time and stopped for one-and-a-half years because my story included a terrorist element. I simply couldn't continue for awhile. This book is a product of McEwan's own introspection regarding the events of 9/11. Henry Perowne, the central character in Saturday, is a neurosurgeon and a family man. His wife is a lawyer. He has two healthy and very capable children. In the middle of the night he awakes to see what he thinks is a meteor streaking toward Earth. The meteor turns out to be an airplane, engulfed in flame, about to crash not far off. The event shakes him to his core and he spends the rest of the day thinking about this horrific incident, about the possibilities as to its cause, and, eventually, about his own life, his very existence. He shares with his readers the intimate details of his world as he tries to make sense of the terror he feels as the day progresses. Perowne's obsession with work seems less necessary as he reviews his life and the things he's deemed to be important. His interactions with people, especially those he loves the most, are not all he would like them to be. He looks inward, seeking and discovering his own spirituality, rejected long ago. He finds comfort there, if not understanding. The events of the day become more horrific as time goes on and Perowne has to come to terms with his own demons in order to deal with the situation his family faces. Parts of this book remind me of The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West because there is so much personal introspection and less plot-driven text. It's a very thought-provoking read.