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Summary: Insight into the mind of a jealous girl...
Review: I enjoyed Atonement. I didn't know what to expect when I purchased it, but what I got was worth my money. The basic premise is that of a hundred made-for-tv movies: Jealous younger sister makes false criminal accusations against older sister's lover. What makes Atonement a "save" is that it follows all of the different parties involved instead of sticking on one lead character. We learn what happens to a man who's been falsely accused of rape, and of a girl who grows up holding her terrible secret close to her heart. I ran through this book in 2 days while out on the deck but you have to get into it so don't give up--it has a slow start that will reward you with a fairly rich story if you'll stick with it.
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Summary: ONE VULGAR FOUR LETTER WORD DEVASTATES LIVES - WOW!
Review: This was my first Ian Mcewan book and it was truly magnificent. It is a must read! Rather than re-encapsulate the plot as previous reviewers have done so well, I would prefer to make a few other observations about this fine novel.First, my experience reading the novel was that it WAS NOT a slow read, but, I ,in fact, did read it slowly because I wanted to relish and savor each wonderful page. The book brought me back to my childhood middle school English teacher who first introduced my class to the form of the novel with Dicken's "Great Expectations". From that day forward, I always thanked her for teaching me how to appreciate this form and I definitely do put ATONEMENT in the same classic category as "Great Expectations". My English teacher nearly 40 years ago told us that a novel can reflect an entire lifetime of its characters or a period of a few years of their lives or merely about one day! I could not conceive a story about ONE SINGLE DAY and her teaching confused me but I accepted it and learned what else I could. Now, with ATONEMENT, I fully appreciate her teaching because Mcewan does both. Also, the characters and the plot revolved around one VULGAR four letter word which I choose not to type here because I want this review to clear the editors. You will have to get the book and read it to find that one word. Thirdly, for writers or others interested in creative writing, sprinkled throughout the novel, the author muses on the craft of writing and although these paragraphs don't necessarily advance the plot of this novel so much, they are nevertheless fascinating and insightful. WRITERS, read this book for those few paragraphs! ...
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Summary: Love, Rejection, Redemption
Review: Love and Redemption are tried and true subjects for novels. However Ian McEwan's Atonement tells the story in an original, gripping manner. This book will get inside your head, and during the periods that you are forced to put it down, it will dredge up those times in your life that you made a mistake, and tried to make things right. Of course we can't make everything right all the time. Some things we can't ever fix--and here we are, with material for a novel. McEwan brings us characters in a disfunctional family in pre-war England. A big, terrible mistake by a naive young female family member changes everyone's lives, mostly for the worse. Years pass and the girl grows up and realizes just how big a mistake she has made, and sets out to make things right. This turns out to be dreadfully difficult. World War II has started. The rest of the family has their own problems. The end holds a surprise; it is delightful. Can hearts, lives, and people that have been broken be made whole again? Once a huge mistake has been made, does honesty, sincerity and truthfullness win the day? Or can our actions haunt us with unreconciled acts and estrangement. McEwan gives us hints. The judgement is ours. This is one of the best books of the last few years. If you like excellent, compelling writing, it will stick in your mind for a while after you're done.
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Summary: "The drama of a broken teacup," or vase in this case
Review: Not only is this a tightly-wound, suspenseful novel, it is also a brilliant realization of the power of fiction to create reality. Also amazing is the ability of this middle-age man to plumb the depths of a creative and psychologically complex pre-adolscent girl, Briony. Briony sins--there's no other word for it--and must atone for the wreckage she's caused. How this reckoning unfolds is at the heart of this powerful post-modern morality tale.
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Summary: Very slow read
Review: This was my first Ian McEwan book and it was such a slow read for me. Ian describes EVERYTHING in too much detail for my taste. I was impatient to get on with the story. I realize this descriptiveness is what appeals to others. I wouldn't recommend this book.
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Summary: Whole is more than the sum of the parts.
Review: Atonement consists of 4 sections, with the first section comprising about half the book. This section is set at an English country house between the world wars, takes place primarily in one day, and is populated with a mother, 3 siblings, a visitor, 3 cousins, and a family protégé. It shifts narrative perspective between the characters, but it is the youngest sibling, a young 13 year old aspiring writer, who is the primary character. The writing in this section is often beautiful; however, it has that almost repetitious quality that, while very effective, made this reader sometimes want to say, 'enough'. This first section begins with the production of a play by the 13 year old, and this entire narrative thread is unnecessarily long. The rest of the book is written with an economy of style and is quite arresting. The second section is narrated by an infantryman during the retreat to Dunkirk, and really stands on its own as a an excellent piece of writing, although it fits into the overall schema of the novel. In fact, one of the outstanding qualities of the novel is how all the sections fit together, so that the whole is so much more than the sum of the parts.
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Summary: Why does everyone love this book??
Review: Atonement has been described as a "symphonic novel." This is due to the fact that the novel has four parts, as a symphony has four movements; Atonement is not a novel of any great lyrical quality. It is one of the few works that I have read, that managed to raise expectations and suspense to a high level, and then not remotely deliver. In the engrossing Part 1, our heroine Briony sees her sister (Cecilia) and her family's servant (Robbie) in some overtly sexual situations. She secretly loves Robbie so this makes her upset, and she decides to get revenge. When Briony's cousin, Lola, is attacked later that day, Briony pins the blame on Robbie, and he is shipped off to prison. Predictably, Briony will now atone for her wrongs. But Part 2 begins, and with no transition whatsoever, the reader is whisked off to World War II, and the British Army's retreat from Dunkirk. Robbie is no longer in prison, he is in the army. Then, predictably he retreats and goes home to England. Part 3: Briony is now a nurse and she treats wounded soldiers. At the end of Part 3 she meets up with Cecilia and Robbie and tells them that she will atone for her wrongs. Then Part 3 ends. Part 4 begins 60 years later, in the present day. Briony is old and muses about how she has never atoned for what she died. She has written a book called, you guessed it, Atonement, in which she atones, but she has never published this book. Part 1 of Atonement showed great promise. It was tautly written, and ended with suspense. How was Briony going to deal with what she had done? However, in the remaining 3 parts, this fundamental question is never answered! The final 3 parts skip around to different locales and seem to be different novels sharing the same characters. They bear no resemblance to the themes in Part 1. After raising my expectations to a high level, Atonement did not deliver. It likely has the least-fulfilling conclusion, and resolution that I have ever seen in a novel. Don't come to Atonement expecting a plot dealing with atonement, because the plot doesn't deal with it.
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Summary: Brief Bottom Line Review
Review: On a scale from 1 to 7 (7=outstanding, 4=average, 1=horrendous) ... Plot: 4
Structure: 7 (Can't rave about it enough)
Language: 6 (Very accessible, beautiful without calling attention to itself)
Character Development: 6 (Briony will definitely stay with you)
Action: 3
Descriptions and settings: 4 While on the surface not much happens in this story, the implications are huge, and McEwan's ability to make you identify with the different characters is superb, even though the characters are not always likeable and their actions are complex. The way the story is structured is so magnificent that it makes up for the plot's lack of interest overall. The middle section dealing with the retreat from Dunkirk while treating the subject realistically, lacks drama for a war scene. But all of these are minor quibbles. The story will have you thinking about it's implications for days and weeks after you've finished reading it. Some of the other books I've read this year including Franzen's "The Corrections," Faber's "The Crimson Petal and the White," Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," McEwan's own "Amsterdam," and even the first three Harry Potters are fading from my memory, while "Atonement" continues to linger on along with another disturbing (though far less accessible) masterpiece I recently read for the first time, "The Sound and the Fury." I think McEwan's book will last in the public's memory as well as Faulkner's.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it
Review: Atonement may start off a little slow, but ends up very good. I really liked this book alot and i would suggest it to any kind of reader. McEwan is an excellent writer with an intellegent style. His diction is amazing and makes the book that much better. However, the conclusion to the book really could have been left out. I found it tedious and tiresome. Read this book though, you wont regret it!
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Summary: Wonderful Read!!!
Review: After much hype about this novel, I was hesitant in reading it. However, that hestitation was misguided as it was one of the better novels I have read for awhile. For me, "Atonement" started off as a kaleidoscope of sorts, where the situation is the same, but everyone's point of view is tainted by their experience (or in Briony's case, lack thereof). McEwan combines a picturesque mirage with a sort of "Catch 22" absurdity in the second chapter. The unreliable narrative flows very well. At the end, you end up wondering if the novel is the figment of Briony's imagination, starting from page 1.
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