Atonement

Rating:
Summary: Evocative, thought-provoking drama about life, love, and war
Review: Our book club decided to take on British dramatist Ian McEwan, representing a departure from our normal servings of mystery and thriller best sellers. "Atonement" is the author's eleventh book, including two of short stories and eight novels, all penned over the last two decades or so. We're treated to a three-part story: half the book describes a scene set in a 1930's English mansion in which 13-year-old Briony, an aspiring writer who lives mentally in her own fantasies much of the time, witnesses first a sexual encounter between her older sister Cecilia and essentially a foster son, gardener Robbie, both recent college grads, and later that same day, the rape of her cousin Lola. She is convinced in her own mind that the perpetrator was Robbie and largely on her unflagging testimony, he goes to prison. Much of the story is told through little more than mental meanderings, whole sections without dialogue but just one character's inner thoughts. No doubt this technique is what has earned the author his repute for intimate characterization.

In the second shorter part, Robbie has gone off to war (WW-II) and is part of the British retreat to and rescue at Dunkirk. The imagery of this section was so vivid, it was almost like a movie unreeling in the reader's mind, attesting to McEwan's gift for descriptive, evocative prose. Finally in the last section, Briony is grown up and a wartime nurse trainee. A brief encounter with Cecilia and Robbie, reunited lovers, discusses her desire to recant her misguided testimony and help clear Robbie's name. In a somewhat remarkable epilogue, it is revealed she spends the rest of her life writing about her guilt and regret, naming the real culprit in a book to be published after the deaths of the players.

At first we found this tale a little tedious, even dull. Yet we had the {correct} feeling we waited on the verge of a big event, after which the story line did not disappoint, and we started turning pages considerably faster. We have here a true drama, where characters and their thoughts and emotions are more important than in a melodrama where actions and deeds tend to take precedence. McEwan has much to say about life, relationships, and truth and consequences. He has the craft to not merely entertain, but to provoke reflection and incite thought. Scary!

Rating:
Summary: Very slow gowing
Review: A friend warned me that the first 50 pages were very slow going, but that he thought it picked up after that. At 65, 70, 75 pages it was still creeping along.

It may well be all that the five-star reviewers say it is. But if you're the "get on with it" type who has another 10 books in your read pile, I think you'll be apt to move on to the next book relatively quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not Great
Review: The brilliance of this novel eludes me. Although it is very good--well worth reading--it is not the exploration of its theme that I was expecting, that it should be to draw these reviews. They say it is well-crafted, and it is that; they say it is suspenseful, and it is that, as well; but, they also say it is comparable to his Booker Prize-winning book _Amsterdam_, and it isn't even close. It's a notch below it. Everything should come together in the end to reveal its message, theme, and ideas. It doesn't. In the end, it's a good book--well-crafted, well-written, thoroughly engaging, almost perfect. I recommend it, but I don't celebrate it.

Rating:
Summary: atonement : a novel
Review: This is one of the most beautiful books I ever read in my life. It's powerful, intriguing, spellbinding. The writing is so rich , the story so intense, the characters so very real. It starts slowly during a hot summer in England in 1935, it develops in an unsuspected and dramatic way during a span of 5 years of time . It ends beautifully in 1999 . I was so involved in the story I wanted it to never end.

Rating:
Summary: Annoyingly Slow
Review: The story was slow, the characters stirred no empathy and failed to engage me. I abandoned the story in favor of a better read.

Rating:
Summary: Succeeds on so many levels
Review: I have read and enjoyed several of McEwan's novels, but none surpasses "Atonement." It is wonderfully written, each sentence well crafted. But McEwan is far more than just a good "writer," he is a good storyteller, as well, which seems to be an increasingly diminishing capability with so many of today's authors. From the initial moments of deceit at the beginning of the novel, to the incredible description of the horrors of war which comprise the middle of the book, to the resolution in the final pages, this is a beautiful page-turner. To borrow an over-used saying, but one which is true in this particular case, McEwan is truly a writer at the top of his craft.

Rating:
Summary: beautiful prose--shaky plot
Review: I think the writing style in this book is powerful: I was impressed by McEwan's evocation of the different characters' thoughts and interpretations (sometimes misinterpretations) of the same events, and I enjoyed his prose (though I didn't like his occasional laziness, such as when a character states an opinion in the first section of the book, and is given the opposite opinion in the second). The sections of the book that deal with the approach of WWII are particularly resonant to readers in 2003. I also liked the character of Briony, which many Amazon reviewers hated. But the virtues of the writing are ill-supported by a weak foundation of plot. Briony's misunderstanding of the crime she witnesses depends on a complicated and sometimes implausible chain of events and coincidences, and I wasn't convinced that every person involved with the investigation and trial (which are barely mentioned by McEwan) would so easily convert to one point of view. McEwan paints a compelling picture of how a witness can misinterpret what they see, but fails to give equally compelling reasons for the reaction of the crime's victim--her motivations are inadequately explored, to say the least. I also became frustrated with the characters of Robbie and Cecelia: Robbie is supposed to have read Freud, but it never occurs to him that a child might be upset by the sight of two people having sex, and Cecelia never bothers really trying to talk to Briony, or to the victim, which might have helped her discover the truth. Cecelia is also guilty of the crime Briony commits--she repeatedly accuses another innocent person--but she's so consumed with self-righteousness that she never notices the parallel. McEwan's book could have made a more powerful statement about assumptions of guilt and innocence, but instead he directs a disturbing amount of hatred at a 13-year-old girl. The wronged characters are angrier with her than they are with the person who actually committed the crime. The book muses on the power of authors, and it seems to me that McEwan misused his: he laid a trap for his character, and then punished her for falling into it.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't live up to my expectations
Review: "Atonement" was good but not great. Parts of it dragged terribly (especially the middle section), and I really didn't care what happened to the characters, especially Briony. One of the earlier reviewers said Biony was a spoiled brat who never grew up. I agree. There are so many interesting books out there -- why waste time reading about a high-strung, bored little rich girl?

Rating:
Summary: Do not waste your money!
Review: I had to force myself to get through the book. The author spends too much time on his writing style and not enough on the plot. I was extremely disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Bring an IQ
Review: I see that some character below has submitted the same two-star "review" many times, to chip away at the book's overall star rating. Recalls the story of the deformed janitor who burned down Kyoto's Golden Pavilion because its perfection made him feel like a worm.

Those readers who gallop through novels--or rather skate over their surfaces--or even throw them away half-read when they become too difficult, should be warned that this one demands some thought and attention.

Those who find the criminal conviction in this story "improbable" need to remember when the story is set. Actually it's all too likely, given the "victim" and the significance of class in pre-war England. In any case, many people (e.g., Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel) are still being convicted of rape or murder on far less evidence.

This book's brilliant design does not emerge until the final pages, and its full power comes only upon reflection. So bring something along or you'll miss the parade.