Atonement by Ian McEwan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atonement
Book Review: A Thing of Beauty
Summary: 5 Stars
When it comes to Atonement, I'm arriving late to the party. I have been aware of the novel almost since it was first published and I know of the major motion picture produced from its story but, for various reasons, it has taken me several years to get around to reading it.
Ian McEwan has written a complicated, multi-layered book that is simply beautiful when considered as a whole. It is a coming-of-age novel, a crime novel, a love story, a war novel, a mystery and an author's reflections on the art of fiction writing, all rolled into one. The book is structured in three distinctive sections, each with a very different story to tell, and an epilogue that flashes forward more than 50 years.
Part One, set in 1935, introduces thirteen-year old Briony Tallis, an aspiring novelist even at that age, who has a vivid imagination but a limited understanding of the motivations and emotions of the adults around her. Her imagination takes over when from a distance she witnesses a scene between her older sister, Cecelia, and the charwoman's son, Robbie, at the fountain in front of the family home. Imagining that Robbie has forced her sister to strip to her underwear and immerse herself in the fountain, Briony is filled with conflicting emotions. As the day goes on, she becomes more and more certain that Robbie is a danger to her sister and is so convinced that he is evil that her imagination leads her to identify him as responsible for a sexual assault that occurs that night.
Part Two picks up the story some five years later in France where Robbie, who has been freed from prison to join the fight against Hitler, is part of a British army retreating to Dunkirk in hopes of being evacuated to England in time to fight another day. Painfully carrying a piece of shrapnel in his side, he realizes that he is responsible for his own survival and slowly works his way to the coast with two others. But by the time he gets there to experience the chaos and further slaughter of the Dunkirk beaches his wound is causing him serious complications.
Part Three focuses on the now eighteen-year old Briony who has moved to London to study nursing at exactly the point at which her training hospital is overrun by casualties from the Dunkirk slaughter. Her experiences mature her in more ways than one and she longs to somehow undo the wrong she committed against Robbie and Cecelia who has been estranged from the family ever since Robbie's imprisonment as a convicted rapist.
Finally, there is the epilogue set in 1999 in which Briony, now a respected elderly novelist joins family to celebrate her seventy-seventh birthday, a section of the book in which McEwan has stashed one final surprise for his readers. This is an ending that readers will likely react to differently, some in surprise, some in admiration, and others in frustration and even a little anger.
Atonement paints a vivid picture of pre-war England and the days immediately after the British army collapse in France caused most Londoners to expect German bombers and troops to appear at any time. It explores the emotions of both those seeking to atone for transgressions against others and those who suffered those transgressions and find it hard to forgive or forget them. It studies the "truths" of fiction and what writers and their readers should expect from each other.
I may have gotten there late but this is one party I'm happy I didn't miss.
Book Review: A True Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Atonement escalates in substance as the story unfolds; the elongated beginning is prerequisite to the heart of the story and becomes significant to plot development. This is a book that I had to read without background noise (kids and husband asleep) because the language is pretty intense as it is beautiful.
Just as much as McEwan writing style is verbose, Cormac McCarthy's is sparsely written. Two vastly different styles, but I put them on the same pedestal as being the best minds at work in literature today.
Book Review: A Work of Art
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most beautifully written and emotionally captivating books I've ever read.
I'll be honest...I saw the movie before I read the book, but it wasn't at all difficult to get through even though I already knew the ending. The book is SO MUCH BETTER. Since the movie leaves out quite a few significant chunks, the book will have some "new" parts that you can appreciate. Ian McEwan has absolutely gorgeous prose...it's been criticized as "wordy," but I don't really agree with that. It's not nearly annoying enough to be wordy. Besides, the plot is intense and heartbreaking and the characters are well developed for the most part, even if they don't get much of a voice. If you hate his writing style, then you can rest assured that everything else is interesting enough to keep you going.
Calling McEwan an extremely gifted storyteller would be an understatement. He isn't gimmicky and he doesn't try too hard to either fit a mold, or do extreme things for attention just for the sake of being different. Even if you've already seen the movie, give the book a chance. Read the plot summary on the back cover or on Amazon, and then get started. This guy is now one of my favorite authors...his other stuff's pretty incredible too.
Book Review: A Worthwhile Book
Summary: 4 Stars
Atonement started out slow and dull, picking up pace and worth only at a snails pace. This is not a good book choice for a reader with little patients. In the beginning I was irritated by the lot of unnecessary words used to describe one simple scene, however Ian McEwans writing style grew on me bit by bit. Patient reader or not - keep with it. I didn't fully appreciate the novel until the last few pages, and only then did I ponder its significance.
Book Review: A masterpiece. I've read it 3 times.
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, I'm waiting for dinner to be ready, and have been passing my time reading reviews of "Atonement." This has led me to leave one of my own. I believe the book to be one of the very
best novels I have ever read (and I am a lifetime reading of high fiction). Very few novels will hold up to repeated readings, but "Atonement" only grows in one's estimation as one re-reads.
Part one is beautiful, languid, but fascinating. Part two is horrifying, funny, hair-raising. Part three is utterly believable and touching. But it is Part four, set in 1999, which put me away. Others
have written about the masterful structure, and I don't want to give anything away to unacquainted readers, but as I sped along, I thought, "Why in the world are Briony's initials there at the
very end of Part three. Well, by the end of part four, I damn well knew, and I was almost undone. I confess I had tears streaming down my face when I realized the brilliance of the
story and structure. To those of you who haven't read this book yet, I urge you to take the plunge. What a treat you have in store.