Atonement by Ian McEwan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atonement
Book Review: A rewarding read!
Summary: 4 Stars
I can't add any new view-point of this novel but I must say that this is a dense read. But it is also rewarding as you get a beautiful account of Briony's attempt to...well it will become more clear as you read it (even though the title gives a good hint). I'd recommend the movie as well. It captured many things like different views of the same scene quite well (for example the "fountain" scene).Book Review: A sad tale
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel set initially in 1935 is essentially a tale about the potential for destructive consequences when imagination and creativity, not tempered by maturity, are applied to social relationships. The main character is Briony Tallis, a thirteen-year-old aspiring writer, who has led a mostly solitary existence in an English country manor - her much older siblings attending college, her mother confined to bed with migraines, and her father consumed with work in the city.
A chain of events is set in motion with the prospective visit of brother Leon - sister Cecilia having already arrived for the summer. Briony has written a play, The Trials of Arabella, for the occasion, but her cousins conscripted as actors are proving to not be capable. Further frustrations and miscomprehensions occur as the romantic interactions of sister "Cee" and Robbie Turner, a gardener on the estate and Cambridge graduate subsidized by their family, prove to be the undoing of Briony. In fact, Briony is so mystified by what she sees that she fingers Robbie for an assault - not of Cee - because she is so certain that he is a maniac.
Briony after several years realizes her egregious mistake and its ramifications: Cecilia completely disowning her family and Robbie being incarcerated and forced to be a part of the English military force in France that failed to repel the Germans.
At the end we see the seventy-seven-year-old Briony having written her final novel, one of atonement, concerning the devastation that she has caused in the lives of two people with so much promise. And in fact, the novel here seems to be that novel with an ending that assuages the terrible guilt that Briony has born for nearly sixty-four years.
Beyond the basic plot, the book surely captures the flavor of the times and the world of social elites. The last half of the book movingly captures the horrors of WWII, especially for the English, by following Robbie in France and Briony as a probationary nurse in London. The movie with the same title is good, but the book is better.
Book Review: AMAZING
Summary: 5 Stars
Where to start with this book... This was an amazing book! Atonement is told from many different points of views: Briony Tallis, Cecilia Tallis, and Robbie Turner. Briony Tallis is introduced to as a 13-year old who has a passion for writing, and for creating imagined worlds. Cecilia Tallis, Briony's older sister, is more concerned with relaxing and smoking while her mother has one of her "headaches". Robbie Turner, a son of one of the household maids, dreams about going to college for medicine.
The main events behind the whole pot of this book all occur in a single day. Briony misinterprets an interaction taken place between Cecilia and Robbie while looking out her window. To add to Briony's imagination of what she "thinks" took place she intercepts a note written by Robbie addressed to Cecilia. Robbie gave this note by accident, with the intended note still at his house. Inside this note sexual and personal thoughts of Robbie's send Briony's thoughts array. Later on Briony see's an intimate event take place between Robbie and Cecilia, not understanding at all what it means - she believes that Robbie has "assaulted" Cecilia and is thus a bad man. If this wasn't bad enough, one of Briony's cousins is found violated later that night in the woods. Briony automatically believes and accuses Robbie as the assailant.
Briony's accusation sets in motion the events for the rest of the book - Robbie is given the choice to either go to Jail or to serve in the Army; he chooses the Army, which changes him completely. Cecilia becomes a nurse, as she too is changed by Briony's accusation. As Briony grows up she starts to question her actions and realizes her mistake. Can she ever make up for the pain and heartache she has caused, for tearing apart two people who loved each other?
Book Review: ARRRRGGGGGGHHHH !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Brioney Tallis is one of the most despicable, manipulative, outrageously egotisical characters to ever grace the page...Ian McEwan is a master of creation....Who was the inspiration for this monster of a girl- woman? There are are many real- life Briony's off the page. Sadley, real Life Briony's exist OFF the page.Book Review: ATONEMENT OR IS IT?
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't make it a rule to throw around the word, classic, especially when refering to a book that not been out even a decade, but there it is: this book is a classic. It's not just that the writing is amazing, it's how McEwan weaves the story, the way the story falls back on itself. It's more or less written in three acts and a sort of epilogue. The last part of the book was my favorite, the writing was the wittiest in book. The story is of course one of Atonement, it's Atonement for an egregious lie, that destroys several lives. I liked how McEwan takes his time setting up a scene, how he describes everything in illustrious detail, his prose are erudite and beautifully spun together. Spoiler alert: One thing that bothered me was that Briony never really Atones for her horrible act, even in the end, her story will have Robbie and Cecilia together like some fairy tale, instead of the tragic way it all ended, she never even apologizes to Robbie for ruining his life and again, Briony lets herself off the hook for their deaths, her book will end with them living happily everafter and she apologizing and recanting her lie, which she NEVER does. Robbie would not be in the North of France if not for Briony, and Cecilia certainly would not have been a nurse and she would not have been in the tube station when the bomb hit. All, I could think of when the elderly Briony goes to her 77th birthday party was, what on earth would these people think of you if they knew what you had done? She has become this famous author, and she has lived with this lie her whole life, even after Robbie and Cecilia had died in 1940, she could have set the record straight she could have still tried to clear his name, if not for Robbie, for his poor Mother, but Briony did nothing, she was a coward, though I laughed at her thoughts at the last of the book and she had made a wonderful life for herself, all I could think of as the book ended was, Briony you're a coward to the end, how on earth can you sleep, I dont know how you have ever slept knowing your actions lead to the death of you sister and her innocent Robbie, it's obscene, but that Briony always living a fairy tale....Great Book.