Atonement by Ian McEwan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atonement
Book Review: Boring....too much fluff
Summary: 1 Stars
This could have been a very good book because is it shocking what the little girl does and consequences that result from it. But there was too much boring detail to make the book longer that it needed to be.Book Review: Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
It's difficult to describe the plot of this novel without giving it away. Briony is a thirteen-year-old aspiring writer. Her sister, Cecilia, and their tenant's son, Robbie, have just returned from Cambridge. On a hot day in the summer of 1935, Briony sees adult events that she can't understand and sets in motion a series of events that changes their lives forever.
This is not a feel-good story. But for those who are willing to recognize that there isn't always a happy ending, this is a brilliant and absorbing read. The structure that McEwan gives to his novel is complex but effective and not fully appreciable until the end of the book. The characters are realistically drawn, and the reader can understand each character's point of view without being forced to empathize with them. Perhaps most striking is the highly evocative imagery. The novel focuses mainly on three settings: the Tallis estate in Surrey, war-torn France, and a hospital in London, all of which are depicted with incredible detail. The novel is an incredible explication on the results of our actions.
Book Review: Brilliant piece on writing . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
It's odd that a book with so little action taking place can be so gripping. It was truly hard to put this book down, despite the fact that page after page is spent on character reflection.
Atonement follows the story of Briony Tallis, who witnesses the beginning of a love affair between her sister and the son of a charlady. But, being thirteen and prone to a vivid imagination, Briony's interpretations of what she sees causes her to accuse her sister's lover of a criminal act. This accusation goes on to change everyone's life, Briony's included. All of this is backdropped by the coming of World War II.
While at heart this seems to be a story about a young girl ruining lives due to her own ignorance, or the story of two lovers torn apart by circumstance, at heart this is a novel about the act of writing, about characterization, narrative development, and the act of an author playing God in the world he or she has created. It is for that reason that the long passages of character reflection are so engaging. This book asks the question, how can you atone for sins in a world that you created, where you are God and answer to no one?
I felt at times that the extended opener to the story dragged just a little--that at times McEwan tried to draw out the dramatic and tension in a scene to beyond its breaking point. There are also some who might find the ending completely unsatisfying in its lack of concrete answers. This is not a cut-and-dry war-time romance piece, so anyone looking for a story of that nature need not pick this up. But for anyone interested in the art of writing--whether you're a writer yourself or just an avid reader--this book is simply not to be missed.
Book Review: Briony as Unreliable Narrator
Summary: 5 Stars
_Atonement_ is a fine book, highly reminiscent of Elizabeth Bowen's work. But I don't understand why the common assessment of Briony as unreliable narrator seems to stop at her end-revelation that Cecilia and Robbie were killed without ever fulfilling their love.
Briony admits, in fact, to being a novelist throughout. She says she collapsed several hospitals she worked at into one. A common writing technique; after all, what is important is how her experience as a wartime nurse affects her.
Her rejection letter, which states that Elizabeth Bowen (who was said to not even work for the magazine) felt compelled to read her manuscript and loved it, is far too glowing for reality. Then there is the book's harmonious ending. Several generations of Briony's relatives assemble to see Briony's childhood play "The Trials of Arabella," which was interrupted and upstaged by the drama of Lola's sexual violation. Her cousin Pierrot ran away from rehearsals as a child, scotching the performance. Yet the final chapter of _Atonement_ asserts he was bitterly disappointed at not acting in it. To the extent that decades later he organized this performance, and is tearfully grateful to see it. This is pure wish fulfillment. Briony is giving herself a happy ending that she did not give Robbie and Cecilia--though she's still contemplating the latter.
Much more interesting is the description of the central event, Lola's sexual violation. Fifteen-year-old Lola is socially sophisticated--her mother just publicly eloped to Paris with a lover. Lola dresses and acts as much like an adult as she can. She's very pretty, dresses attractively, and her grooming and makeup are impeccable. Her interaction with the wealthy young chocolate magnate Paul Marshall is distinctly flirtatious. Like other girls of her generation, Lola would have been brought up to marry well, and Paul is an excellent catch. In another two or three years, Lola would be brought out into society, where her pursuit of a husband would be entirely acceptable.
While Briony is helping everyone to hunt for her runaway twin cousins, she checks the 18th-century "ruined villa" on an little island in the little lake. A spot that is both romantic, and easy for non-residents to locate (Paul Marshall has never visited the house before). Here she discovers Lola with a man on top of her, and immediately assumes this is a rape. Three years later, when Lola marries Paul Marshall, Briony admits the man was Paul. However, Briony, who her sister Cecilia describes as "a young thirteen," is not at the time sophisticated enough to understand the difference between consensual sex and rape. Only a few hours earlier, Briony discovered Cecilia and Robbie having enthusiastic sex in the library, assumed it was rape, and they have not had an opportunity to tell her otherwise. Very possibly Lola's sexual act is also quite willing, and Briony realizes that when she is somewhat older. Even Briony marvels that Lola "fell in love with her rapist."
When Briony discovers Lola and Paul, Paul immediately flees, leaving Lola to deal with the problems. And they have several. If it's consensual sex, Lola's aunt, uncle, and parents will be furious at her for losing her virtue. They'll be even more angry at Paul, who is a responsible adult. Paul can't immediately marry Lola to repair the damage--she's so young that "people would talk." Also, Lola's uncle (Briony's father) works for the War Ministry, and Paul is angling for a very lucrative army-provisioning contract. It's likely that Lola's uncle could make sure he didn't get it.
And here, Lola gets lucky: Briony, carefully led on, is willing to help Lola call the event a rape and to pin the blame on Robbie. Paul Marshall may merely have had a little sexual amusement in mind. But now that they've been seen, Lola could blackmail Paul into marrying her as soon as she's of age, by threatening to reveal the truth. Everything works out for them. Lola gets her wealthy husband and hangs onto him for the rest of her life. Paul gains his army contract. He also marries a woman whom he was attracted to when she was 15 and who is even prettier at 18.
I suspect that close examination of _Atonement_ would reveal additional examples of Briony as an unreliable narrator.
Book Review: British Drama
Summary: 5 Stars
I liked the book and its adaptation into a movie, although as is the case, the insight of the book into the characters outpaced the film images as a description of the characters. The number of events and outcomes, the folly and guilt of Briony, the lack of chronology from chapter to chapter made the reader feel like he/she were sweeping the cobwebs from the mind of the narrator. The reader had to consider the characters' feelings which prompted the tenor of their interactions. 'Atonement' is a story to savor as it is read. The end is bittersweet because the characters' fates coincide with the march of life -- youth, circumstance, age. Death lies below the surface as a fact of life, although it remains as a fact that has happened or that is about to happen. Like the lovers, life will continue in the imagination .