Atonement by Ian McEwan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atonement
Book Review: This year's THE CORRECTIONS, except even better!
Summary: 5 Stars
On March 31, 2002, Ian McEwan's ATONEMENT debuted at #4 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction bestseller list, ranking just behind distinctly non-literary fare by Patterson, Grisham, and Steele. The fact that people are buying such a beautiful book as ATONEMENT, in such HUGE numbers, almost single-handedly has restored my faith in the reading tastes of the American public.READ THIS BOOK, AND LEARN WHAT TRULY GREAT LITERATURE IS ALL ABOUT!!
Book Review: Youth, time and perception
Summary: 5 Stars
Atonement is a magical novel, at once a perceptive romp through the lives of several young people one long hot summer in pre-war England, a close examination of the realities of war, and a suspenseful drama. McEwan is at his best in the first half of the book, when he keeps the entertainingly literate thirteen-year-old girl at center stage; his descriptions of her consciousness blooming against the backdrop of a large country estate are a joy to read and the social nuances of the household are exquisite. But time speeds ahead, children grow up, war breaks out and choices are made, particularly as to how a moral dilemma will be resolved. Readers are sure to have different opinions about the ending and I will not give anything away here by commenting on it. While I would not call Atonement a perfect novel, I far preferred it to Amsterdam, which won McEwan the Booker Prize. Here, he is much more playful with his characters and takes additional chances with the narrative structure over the course of its several sections.Book Review: Caution: You'll Read It Twice!
Summary: 5 Stars
Never before have I finished a book and then immediately returned to page 1 to read through the entire thing again. That is what this book forced me to do. The delightful story was worth another trip through to see it again. I highly recommend this book to anybody who enjoys a great story whether they think that the subject matter is for them or not. Because it consists of interesting and well-developed characters, the resulting story is one that I am confident in saying anyone would be glad that they experienced.
Whether you are propelled through the book by the master craftsmanship of the prose or the suspense of the story, you may read it again to catch what you missed. A fun read, but one you will respect in the morning.
Book Review: Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Ian McEwan has sometimes seemed a writer of greater talents than the books he chooses to write allow him to express. His early work, slim, psychologically dense novels of macabre intensity, is powerful and upsetting, but one occasionally wished that he might allow his beautiful writing a wider canvas.Atonement does this in spades -- it is a love story of heartbreaking intensity, rendered in luminous prose, that simultaneously forces the reader to confront how exactly one responds to fictions of "heartbreaking intensity." Without a hint of ivory tower post-modernism (every bit of this story radiates a devotion to narrative and character), the novel is very much about the nature of fiction. It is as wonderful and powerful a book as I have read in recent memory.
Which isn't to say that McEwan has gone soft on us. Immediately upon finishing the novel I hated it, infuriated and disturbed by the final turn of events. It took a couple days of reflection to realize how much richer this made the book, and I've been pondering it ever since.
Atonement is a masterpiece, a richly imagined and written fiction that probes confidently into the essence of fiction, rending hearts, drawing tears, and prompting much thought and discussion in the process.
Book Review: A tour de force of characterization and introspection
Summary: 5 Stars
Ian McEwan's Atonement renders the story of the Tallis family during a crucial epoch-- the interwar period, 1935, just before WWII. The spotlight shines most directly on Briony, the early-pubescent daughter whose household will soon swell with the arrival of new family members. Briony has the insecurity and longings that remind a reader of Holden Caulfield, along with the latter's desire to set things right in her own preconceived way. Briony dreams of becoming a novelist but will later become a nurse to "atone" for the sins of her actions that lead to unintended consequences. In fact, true to the book's title, its characters in general atone in various ways for the often disastrous outcomes of their actions.Besides the depth of character development in the book, we the readers are also treated to a marvelously vivid set of images of a world gradually hurtling toward war. There is Briony's stripping in the fountain for Robbie Turner, and the latter's desperation several years later at Dunkirk, waiting in terror for an uncertain rescue as the Nazi death trap closes in around him and his compatriots. A worthy and in some ways superior follow-up to McEwan's Amsterdam.