Atonement by Ian McEwan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atonement
Book Review: 3 Different books that never become one
Summary: 3 Stars
When a highly touted book receives such varied customer reviews, I've got to read it. And I can't resist adding my voice to the many reviews already posted. What an odd book this is.
It begins portraying domestic life in the English countryside. The only person who regularly goes to town is the sketchily drawn father. The mother takes to her bed frequently to avoid the apparently very real, migraines she is cursed with. The children and staff live in the country as if insulated from the world by a chintz tea-cozy. The oldest daughter's dilemma in choosing a dress for dinner is described, "...she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment's thought...Soon her mother would appear and want to discuss the table placings, Paul Marshall would come down from his room and be in need of company, and then Robbie would be at the door. How was she to think straight?" Difficulties, indeed. This tightly enclosed domestic scene is set, and the hypocrisy of the British upper class is gently skewered. This portion of the book climaxes when the youngest daughter, Briony, a self-centered, overly dramatic 13 year old mis-interprets actions of the adults; accuses, testifies, and is the cause of the public damnation of one of the young men. Suddenly, the scene shifts dramatically.
WWII descends on their lives abruptly. The wrongly convicted young man is fighting in France. The story of his service is not of predictable noble heroism. It is the ugly, dispiriting retreat of the English army from France back to Britain. This may be the most affecting portion of the book, but any waggish views of British life are left firmly in the first part of the book. It is a sad, cruel journey he makes. And his fate is telegraphed loud and clear; the continuous jabs of shrapnel in his side, into his ribs, against his organs, leave little doubt that he will not complete his journey.
Before this ends though, the book shifts (again) to the life of the now grown Brionywho is in nursing training. Her duties, mostly the lowliest in the hospital, include endless cleaning of bed pans and other distasteful jobs. So, is this the "atonement" for her former errors we have been promised? It seems not. The older daughter who had so much difficulty choosing a dress becomes a nurse and is promptly promoted to Ward Sister; a position which requires a "she who must be obeyed" personality. No explanation for this personality shift is explored. It just happens.
Then things get dicey indeed. A walk the younger girl takes to visit her long estranged sister is described in tremendous detail. It is not a very interesting walk, but each observation, no matter how mundane, is recorded. In fact, in my paperback copy, the description of this tedious walk goes on for 17 pages! Even the most naive reader can tell something is up the author's sleeve. This boring segment has a purpose though; everything that occurs after it, (until the last chapter) is untrue. While some people have been delighted with this over-used plotting technique, I was unimpressed. To describe a vivid love story resolution, and then to find out it was all made up by another character is over-used, cheap, and manipulative. It didn't help that in this book it was also obvious as all get-out. But Briony writing an untrue happy resolution of the love story between her sister and the young man who's life she ruined, seems to be the best "atonement" we're going to get. She actually has the nerve to muse, "How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God?" WHAT??? She didn't decide an outcome of people's lives, she decided the outcome of her fiction. And her foolish, wrong-headed error becomes unforgivable, because she never asks for forgiveness.
I would not classify this amongst the worse books I've ever read but I certainly wouldn't recommend it. Writing a nice sentence, even one that can be described as "lyrical" is one thing. Writing a good book is quite another.
Book Review: A Chore to Read
Summary: 2 Stars
I decided to read this book because of the enthusiasm and hype that has surrounded it. I took it with me to read while on a plane trip. The only reason I was able to get through the first 100 pages was because I had no appealing alternatives as I was trapped next to the window for my several hour airplane ride.
As others have said, the book is overwritten. While there is a lot of descriptive language, it is overdone and often irrelevant. At times it felt like the author wanted the reader to know how many words he knew or could use to describe something that was quite simplistic. The characters, except for Briony, are mostly absent, and Briony is just plain unlikeable. I had read that Ian McEwan did an outstanding job of infiltrating the psychology of the characters--I wholeheartedly disagree. The characters were barely present, therefore hard to care about or empathize with.
The "mystery" of the book was easy enough to figure out. After finally making in through the first part, I was intrigued and wanted to keep reading. While I thought the "mystery" wasn't really a mystery at all and an obvious conclusion, I was hoping for some great twist or turning point -- hoping that I hadn't figured out what really happened on the night around which the story was built. Unfortunately, there was no such twist, just disappointment that the truth was so obvious.
Then, in hoping that Briony might recant, I continued to keep reading. Again, disappointed with the anticipation of something that never came to fruition.
The parts of the book are abrupt transitions from one another. Each part requires the same determination as the first one to keep going even when it seems like the story isn't. When I finally was able to get interested in the new section, the book abruptly transitioned to the next section.
I read the book before reading any reviews, and was somewhat relieved to see that I wasn't the only person who was so sorely disappointed with the book. With all of the hype surrounding the book, I surely thought there must be something that I was missing.
I always try to take something away from the experience of reading a book, and there were a few instances throughout that caused me to stop and really think. One was when Briony was relating to her cousin and realizing how others and our reaction to others often help us to learn about ourselves. It is through how we relate and respond that we can learn something about ourselves that we didn't previous know, or hadn't thought about.
Another example was the depiction of the experience of Briony telling her story and then feeling trapped in her story with no space to modify it or turn back from it. This made me think about how often this probably happens with situations of similar magnitude as well as seemingly insignificant situations.
These are two examples of how I was able to use the book and relate it to life beyond the book.
Overall, two stars.
Book Review: A Mistake in Perception Has Tragic Consequences
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow! There are almost 800 reviews already for this book. I'm glad about that because this is a book that should be read.
Ian McEwan certainly has a way with words. This novel is beautifully written and the plot is so intricately developed that it reminds me of Russian stacking dolls.
Without giving away the crux of this wonderful book, let me say that it weaves in and out of the present into the past and back again. In World War I England, Briany is a young impressionable girl who witnesses an event that she misinterprets. Does she really believe what she says she saw or does she tell a tale for her own devices? Regardless of her motives, her story has lifelong irrevocable implications for her sister and her lover.
This is a book that will be long remembered once the last page is read. It is poignant, tragic and beautiful. I feel enriched for having read it.
Book Review: A Writer Learns About Life
Summary: 5 Stars
There are so many reviews of this book already that I am loathe to add more redundant verbiage to the pile. So I'll just say that this is my third Ian McEwan novel (having read "On Chesil Beach" and "Saturday" before I read this one), and I must say that he is now one of my favorite writers. This book functions on so many levels and in the end is really as much about the craft of writing as anything else. We first meet Briony, who is really the protagonist, as a young adolescent, and we see into her young mind and heart, and understand, before she does, the disaster that her overactive imagination will cause in the lives of her friends and family. She is precocious and thoughtful, but she is young and fails to understand that she is wrong, in so many ways, about what she sees before her own eyes. Her emotions and her imagination get the better of her and although she ultimately realizes the mistake she made and seeks atonement for it, she has nonetheless changed forever the lives of her Cecilia, her sister, and of Robbie, the young man with a promising future whose mother works for the Tallis family. Ironically, though, it is her imagination that will serve her well as a novelist. The book flows through personal lives, society, as well as world history and moves from mid-20th century to the end of the century. A good deal of ground to cover, but McEwan does it well, I think. The characters are interesting and real and the story is compelling.Book Review: A book that will stay with me forever
Summary: 5 Stars
Since people here have already provided excellent reviews of the book itself, I would just add that I read it five years ago and I still remember reading the last page. I remember where I was when I read the last page.
I remember fighting back tears and almost feeling disoriented, because the book had touched me so deeply. This book is an incredibly moving meditation of life and art, loss and regret. The book spoke to me about human frailty, as well as art as an act of compassion, despite its limitations.
I don't think there are many writers today that can match McEwan's gift of language, and the Dunkirk passages are incredible. Easily one of the best books I've ever written, a book that will stay with me forever.