Atonement

Rating:
Summary: The most subversive novel you'll ever love.
Review: _Atonement_ begins on a hot summer day in 1935, in an English countryside setting unusual for this author who is often drawn to extreme situations. Writing a quintessentially traditional third-person narrative, McEwan dances in and out of the minds of his characters, members of the Tallis family, cousins and friends. Central to the novel is an adolescent would-be writer, Briony Tallis, whose taste for drama and demand for attention lead her to tell a terrible lie about a family friend, Robbie Turner. McEwan fans will not be disappointed by the agonizing (and extreme) consequences that ripple out of her decision.

McEwan is often labeled a cold fish, and not without justification, but in this novel he makes us care more deeply about his characters than in any other that I've read. I personally found it hard to put down the book, I was so worried about the fate of his almost helpless dramatis personae. This is particularly true in the second portion of the novel, which leaps ahead to the early days of World War II. Robbie is in the British Army, in its infamous retreat to Dunkirk, while Briony and her sister Cecilia are nurses in London. McEwan's portrayal of this agonizing period in history is fantastic; Briony describes waking up every morning with an almost excited sense of something important about to happen, and then remembering what it is: a German invasion.

I won't ruin the novel's conclusion, and I'd recommend avoiding any "spoiler" reviews, because the shock of the epilogue is part of what makes this the best novel of the year, and the most unexpectedly metafictional. Having presented us with a prose narrative so conventional it is almost Victorian, and proven that the traditional novel retains its power to bridge the gap between people, McEwan trips off a final explosive charge that reverberates after the book is closed.

Rating:
Summary: Trials of a summer night
Review: This is an engaging story and so finely written that the reading is both effortless and seductive. After I had finished (that is, after drying my eyes and regaining my breath), I was amazed to realize how complex a plot it is considering how smoothly it is told. By far, it is the best book I have read in years.

The story starts on a summer day at a large country estate in pre-WWII England. For anyone who delights in the heady mix of intelligence, innocence and youthful imagination, the beginning is like eating rich chocolate: 13 year old Briony has written a play -- the references to Austen, Burney, and family performances within 18th century lore are abundant and perfect -- to be rehearsed and performed by her unwilling and displaced visiting cousins in order to celebrate her brother's return to home with his sophisticated friend. However, reheasals in the playroom for THE TRIALS OF ARABELLA (of course) do not run smoothly: the twins boys do not understand what is expected of them; there's tension between Briony and 15 year old Lola. During the hot summer afternoon, Briony looks out the window to see her older sister Cecilia and Robbie, the cleaning lady's son, having what looks like some kind of menacing (and intimate) interaction in the fountain. The rest of the day's events and mishaps play out without implication until nightfall when a real crime of a sexual nature occurs and Briony's overactive imagination and lack of sophistication lead her to make a accusation which results in genuine tragedy for everyone. Without revealing the entire plot and overwhelming descriptions of war and survival, Briny spends her life paying for this mistake. Near the end of her long life, and having enjoyed without enjoyment a successful writing career, Briony's birthday is celebrated by her relations. This party is held at the old country house, now a renovated hotel, where her grand nieces and nephews perform THE TRIALS OF ARABELLA, a deeply emotional and incomprehensible experience for all (the surviving twin boy, now an old man, breaks down completely, as will nearly every reader).

This book goes into my unofficial rank as one of the best reading experiences I've ever had. It tooks me days to shake the feeling that Briony was a part of my life. I was completely transported and I don't think there can be better praise than that.

Rating:
Summary: It grows on you...
Review: An amazing book. Wonderful writing. It has been weeks since I finsihed it, and I am still thinking about it. I have recommneded it to everyone I know. Once you finish, you will grow to love it more and more! Breathtaking!

Rating:
Summary: "If I give up my lies will I die?"
Review: The first half of Ian McEwen's stately "Atonement" takes place in 1935 (it's merely entitled Part 1 and it takes up 174 of the book's 351 pages). It's a conventional English novel of manners that will lure in fans of Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Henry Green. In its numbered chapters, McEwan describes, using multiple points of view, how the 13-year-old Briony, a borderline sociopath possessed of a writer's imagination, sees her older sister Cecilia (called Cee) and her friend Robbie (he's a gardener who's been to Cambridge and wants to be a doctor) in what might be considered a compromising position, misinterprets what she sees (almost certainly deliberately), and finds that her actions have consequences, her lies believed.

Then, just as Beethoven suddenly, daringly tosses singers into what has been up to then a conventional classical symphony, the rest of the book goes off in unexpected directions, as we learn in parts 2 and 3 (each about half as long as part 1) what happens to Cee, Briony, and Robbie in the epochal year of 1940, during the British army's evacuation of Dunkirk and the German bombing of London.

These sections, we learn, are written by the imaginative Briony perhaps in an attempt to atone for her misinterpretation of events, or perhaps merely to prove to herself that she's an author worthy of being published. Or perhaps both. (Briony's grande geste, giving up her own chance to go to Cambridge to work as a nurse in a hospital is perhaps an over-dramatically way to atone.) One thing is certain: after the classical nature of the first part, the events here, not divided by chapters, tumble along almost out of control as they describe the horrors of war and then the horrors of the wounded as they are taken to hospitals.

Finally, in an eleagic (and more than somewhat self-serving) coda, dated 1999 and told in the first person by Briony, now 77 and near the end of her life, we get still another interpretation of events.

The prose is elegant; the emotions are raw. And in the end you'll wonder whether there's been any atonement at all. You may even wonder if it matters.

The book has an ice-cold crystalline clarity that resonates. It's not to be adored; it's to be admired. If you can.

Rating:
Summary: A self-contained gem
Review: Ian McEwan writes beautiful sentences. I read a portion of Atonement out loud and it delighted my tongue. In many ways the book reminds me of Henry James, from his ironies and shifting points of view to his rich appreciation of class and transgression. The book continually surprises the reader, whether by taking a dark turn into the horrors of war or presenting literary criticism in the midst of a hospital scene. I enjoyed the way atonement continually beckoned but was never achieved, even in the creation of such a perfect book. From beginning to end I was delighted and intrigued, and yet I put the novel away with the sense that it was over and done. Even though some strands were left amusingly unraveled, they didn't tug at my conscience or feelings. I prefer books that embed themselves in the skin and leave you changed. Some of McEwan's earlier novels did just that, but this one was too self-contained. Many books need a reader to bring it to life, but this one seems just fine on its own. Maybe that accounts for some of its popularity.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Novel, one of best of the year
Review: Ian McEwan's novel, Atonement covers 3 generations of British history. It starts from 1935 and the childhood of a person, Briony, progresses through adulthood to old age of one person and her family. It is enchanting in the way it depicts each phase of the person. It shows the childhood and all of its intricacies of the dreamer, the youth and changes in Britain such as the war and how one person's life is ruined by the lie of a child living in her own world. The relationship between Robbie and Cecilia is brought out beautifully as it is the only thing that keeps him going.

As a novel, the second part is completely different from the first and is heartwrenching. The war parts are very realistic and scenes in France are brought out in such detail that one can almost picture them. Briony's change is also depicted well. Cecilia withdraws from everyone in her family due to their cruel treatment of Robbie, who was the son of their housekeeper. When the war ends and Briony withdraws her testimony and is confronted by Robbie about it, she gives one of the best replies, simple and elegant, "Growing Up."

It also shows the changes in Britain such as the class structure ebbing away and gradual transition of people. It is very realistic in its portrayal of people without boring you with mundane details. It is sad that this book did not make the Booker, I think that it created a deeper impression among the readers than "The True History of the Kelly Gang". The writing style is wonderful and is eclectic. A lot of people felt that the book was too long and not realistic. However, the fantasy in this book matches that of "Room with a View". So is the style of writing. To date, it is probably the best book of Ian McEwan. I read his other books such as Amsterdam and they do not compare in style or story to this one. In summary, this is a brilliant book.

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Summary: Penance for Penning
Review: Is it possible to make up for a seemingly harmless action that affects the life of your loved ones; sending them spiraling irrevocably into nightmarish misery? Is it possible to forgive someone who destroys your chances for love and happiness just as you're in their throes? If the culprit is a naive young girl, is she any less culpable? If this was the sum of McEwan's aim in writing this book, it would still be enough to shortlist him for the Booker Prize.

But, no, McEwan is interested (perhaps primarily) in portraying a young author who writes a story-within-a-story. As Briony observes her sister Cecilia with their neighbor Robbie, a shocking scene shakes her world, hurdling her from the safe and simple plays of her innocence to the dangerous and exciting edges of adulthood, sexuality, and sober reality. Engaging his heroine (if she may be dubbed one) with the story from her writer's point of view, McEwan engages the reader in following this interaction.

Atonement, although similar in concept to previously published works, eschews covered ground by shifting perspectives and narrative voices-not only between individual characters but between the same characters over time-thus keeping us on our feet. We are never quite sure whose point of view is more accurate, and whether we can even trust them. Scattered clues throughout the text only lead literary explorers to a mystifying culmination where the truth offers little value and satisfaction, and a melancholy resolution moves us with its forlorn reticence. An exquisite read.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Acclaimed Mediocrity
Review: ATONEMENT demonstrates again that, when she filled her pockets with stones and walked into the river, Virginia Woolf took the English novel with her.

ATONEMENT is a mediocre book, unqualifiedly in love with its own prose, which is workmanlike. Both the narrator and the characters signal their punches throughout, so when we discover, at the end, that one of the characters, a highly acclaimed writer, IS the author of the book, that the book is her atonement, then we feel that those she punished have been punished doubly so.

ATONEMENT presumes its readers are rather dense, won't see right away that Paul is the one who raped Briony's cousin nor that she will marry him. Are English readers dense? are they terribly distracted? they cannot be as dense as McEwen presumes.

Anyway, if you seek a contemporary British novel, highly acclaimed but actually run-of-the-mill, then try ATONEMENT.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly contrived; real people do not act this way
Review: McEwan wastes his abundant talent in deciding to play tricks with the reader in a plot so obvious that you know what will happen 20-30 pages before it does. On a hot summer's day in 1935, at an upper middle-class English country house, the neglected thirteen year-old daughter, Briony, lodges false rape charges against the charwoman's son, a brilliant Cambridge graduate who has been raised with the family and financially supported by the patriarch. The accused, Robbie, who has become the lover of the family's eldest daughter, Cecelia, is charged with raping (maybe) the vampish teenaged niece who is visiting. The first section ends with Robbie being taken away in handcuffs, and the book immediately and inexplicably jumps ahead five years, to the disastrous evacuation of the British army at Dunkirk, where Robbie is serving.

Excuse me, but too many questions are left open. Did the "victim" ever speak on her own behalf? What actually happened (we are never told)? Was the "victim" ever questioned by the police? Was Robbie's accuser, Briony, ever questioned? Any fool could have questioned them separately and torn the charges apart. Did Robbie have a barrister? Even the most incompetent attorney could have ripped holes in the ludicrous charges. Was there a trial? What was the testimony? Did Cecelia, the eldest daughter and Robbie's lover, have ANYTHING to say in his defense? Did she ever confront Briony with her suspicions? Or did she mutely stand by and allow this travesty? If so, why? Are we supposed to believe that British class bigotry is the driving force? Come on, this was 1935, not 1835, and a World War had been fought. And what was the significance of the Dunkirk portion? That was totally out of left field, and extraneous to the story. The matriarch of the manor, perpetually sequestered in her bedchamber with migraines, is nothing more than a caricature from the Victorian era, a two-dimensional, milk-and-water prop.

This novel fails precisely because real people just do not behave in this way. McEwan is too cute by half, and the ending is a total fraud, just too big a rabbit jumping out of the hat at the reader. I do not recommend this book, even though the writing is superb.

Rating:
Summary: A definitive example of the modern novel
Review: An incredible book, which I cannot recommend highly enough with any qualification. With Atonement, McEwan has set a new standard for the modern novel. All the elements are superb: story, structure, characterisations, obersevations, and an absolutely engrossing writing style. His story leads the reader in, and every page builds on the many false climaxes and leads. But the clues are all there. Just when one thinks one has worked out the story, the next page holds a surprise - and not a single gimmicky twist in the book. Such is his mastery of the medium that a simple, seemingly afterthought of initials and date turns the entire story around. Absolutely wonderful, readable, emotional, and brilliant.