Atonement

Rating:
Summary: Two Books In One ?
Review: Part One of the tale is beautifully written, in an old-fashioned Britannic way, and does a good job of setting up a situation which the reader might hope will lead to the "atonement" promised by the title. Part Two, unfortunately, fails utterly to deliver; the "atonement" is an unsatisfying copout. It's hard to justify the many rave reviews this book has garnered.

Rating:
Summary: Fine Novel On Guilt, Atonement and Absolution
Review: Quite simply this is the finest novel from Ian McEwan that I've read, replete with much of his eloquent, poetic prose. Although one may not be initially compelled by the characters, most notably the protagonist Briony Tallis, the author creates a captivating, mesmerizing look at English country life near the eve of World War II. And then he skips ahead a few years, immersing us in the bloody aftermath of the fall of France and the British retreat from Dunkirk, where he picks up anew the tangled web of intrigue surrounding the lives of Briony, her older sister Cecilia and their neighbor Robbie Turner. Some may question the novel's brief epitaph-like ending, towards the close of the 20th Century, but here the author dwells on the choices - or lack thereof - made by his protagonist. Without divulging more details of the plot, this splendid novel is a powerful contemporary exploration of guilt, atonement and absolution; one which shouldn't be overlooked.

Rating:
Summary: workshoppish
Review: Book I of Atonement was the best. McEwan does a fantastic job in describing chaos and scenes in the nursing ward. Some of the language is quite beautiful like:
"He thought he had no expectations--until he saw the beach"
"He could not spit or swallow, he could not easily breathe, and he could not think. Then, at the sight of the farmer with his dog still waiting patiently under the tree, it came back to him, he remembered everything and he turned to look back. Where the woman and her son had been was a crater. Even as he saw it, he thought he had always known. That was why he had to leave them. His business was to survive, though he had forgotten why. He kept on toward the woods."
"...he now had a memory in the bank and would be drawing on it for months to come. He was drawing on it now, in the French barn, in the small hours."

These were a few of many beautifully written passages. The passages that I thought were sort of juvenile or workshoppish (mostly poor metaphors) were:
"A solitary sunbather in his underpants, facedown on a towel, had patches of uneven sunburn on his shoulders and legs--pink and white like a strawberry and vanilla ice cream."
"With a wild hollering yodeling sound, like Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan, he picked up the clerk from behind in a bear hug, lifting him eighteen inches clear of the ground..."
"They lay on the far side of a great divide in time, as significant as B.C. and A.D. Before prison, before the war, before the sight of a corpse became a banality."
"Half a dozen twenty-five-pounder guns were piled beyond the ditch, as if swept up there by a heavy bulldozer."
"He appeared to her like a giant chess piece."
I think the war scenes are described very well. McEwan is a master at moving characters around from spot to spot. At most, I adore the relationship between Robbie and Cecilia and enjoyed the rejection letter written to Briony. Didn't like her character from the beginning to end. Lastly, I had a difficult time feeling the 30s. It was hit or miss. It has so much potential, but doesn't quite make it.

Rating:
Summary: so incredibly disappointing
Review: perhaps the hype surrounding this book was too intense. i waited about 3 months to retrieve this book through the library system and several times i debated buying it just so i could feel part of the critical adulation of this book. boy, i would have been so sad if i had actually paid for this book! i hated all the characters right from the beginning and found all that foreboding to be totally obnoxious. i wish someone could just explain to me the merits of "atonement."

Rating:
Summary: Atonement
Review: It's really not such a great book.

It's the story of a thirteen-year-old girl, Briony Tallis, bearing false witness against Robbie Turner, longtime friend of the family. Turner is grappling with burgeoning attraction for Briony's older sister, Cecelia, and she is starting to contemplate Robbie as more than just a friend. The worst that might be said of Robbie is that he is uncertain of where his future lies--he dabbles in gardening but then sets his eye on the medical field--but this has never stopped Cecelia's father from supporting Robbie, financially, in all his endeavors (Robbie has not had a father in a long time). Enter Briony--she of the fanciful imagination, who attaches a false air of the sinister to some of Robbie's behaviour towards Cecilia, simply, it seems, because her young writer's view of the world prompts her to look for real-world cads. Admittedly, Robbie is a bit loutish around Cecelia when the story starts, but his physical attraction to Cecelia is reciprocated, in an encounter that Briony, unnoticed by the new lovers in their passion, condemns as disgusting and evil. And then, Briony witnesses an attempted assault against her relative, Lola, in the dark, the perpetrator the same build as Robbie...

Part One of the book is slow-moving, but nevertheless compelling, with its feel of impending injustice. A young girl risks destroying lives and tearing apart a family, by convincing herself of an untruth that, once it is out of her mouth, the adults seize upon and pressure her to sustain. But--the book skips ahead to World War 2, a jaded Robbie who had his promising life with Cecelia washed away struggling to stay alive long enough to restart a new life with her. We also rejoin Briony as she tends to injured and dying soldiers and tries to come to grips with what she did in the past. The scenes are effective, but I couldn't help feeling cut off from lengthy Part One, which set such a powerful stage, contained such interesting side-characters who got summarily dismissed by the jump-ahead, and began to feel like some kind of extended prelude that possessed more punch than the following Parts. This novel certainly does not adhere to Unity of Time, Place and Action; I for one feel like certain key moments, that would have occurred right after Robbie is confronted by police believing a young girl's story, got skipped, sadly, as we jumped instead to characters far-removed from the crux of the story, who performed grueling daily tasks while ruminating on their past. Certainly, Robbie slogging through the war wanting to get back to always-out-of-reach Cecelia creates tension, and watching Briony begin her life of penance washing blood from wounded soldiers evokes strong emotion. But I was still unsatisfied, as if I had been robbed of the truly meaningful moments. The book sits in distinct sections, all frustratingly cut off from each other, somewhat.

We leap ahead again at the end--this time far ahead. The wrap-up is a bit quick and neat, though at the same time deliberately mystifying. I sense the author trying to work out some burden of his own through Briony the grown writer, wrestling with the notion that a writer can try to make life all better by depicting it a certain way to make amends for past sins. Unfortunately, though I don't feel there is full-out author intrusion, Briony's final scenes seemed to further distance me from the once-meaningful first stage of the story. The book concerns itself with tying up loose ends well in the future, after lots of lives have been altered, and even this is dampened by the author dabbling in the idea that writers with penance to perform can seek catharsis by documenting lifelong pain in a manner that attempts reparation but can never quite achieve it at the very end. A self-indulgent move?

A thought-provoking book, but chopped cleanly into pieces at the bare bones, and a bit too much about writers' angst at the finale, considering where we started out.

Rating:
Summary: Solid book
Review: I have gone through the reviews for this novel and read the ones that HATE it and then read the ones that LOVE it. Well, I am somewhere in-between. I, by no means, feel that this is the best book ever written. However, it is one of the best books of the year 2002 (perhaps even deserving of the claims that is the BEST book of 2002).
I will not go through a synopsis of the novel because quite a few people have done that already. One of the problems that I faced while reading the book was that the main character, Briony, was not very likable. Yes, she commits a huge mistake and the "atonement" that the title is referring to is atonement for her mistake- yet, as a reader, I felt no sympathy for her character and did not care whether or not she came to terms with her error. She was (as others on ... have described her) a typical thirteen year old spoiled brat and did not progress beyond that during the course of the book. Furthermore, there are general inconsistencies with her character. On the one hand, this character contemplates her place in the universe and the concept of "self" (very lofty philosophical thoughts) - on the other hand, she cannot recognize that her sister is interested in Robbie and is not a victim in his hands. A lot of the thoughts that are presented from Briony's point of view do not go with the "crime" that her character commits.
The good points of the novel are, of course, that the book is written extremely well, the language and style are wonderful and the plot is very interesting. Over all, a very solid and good book. I would recommend it if you are looking to have a good read over the weekend, but I would also recommend that you wait for paperback and/or go to the library for a copy. It is not worth it to buy the hardcover.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing Story About Guilt
Review: This book does start off slow,but don't be put off by that. Just stick with it as it evolves into an intriguing,multi-layered story about a young girl with a very over-active imagination and the tragic results it causes within her family. Each section of the story has it's own special tone,from the leisurely lifestyle of pre-war 2 England,to the tragedy of the war itself and the aftermath of young Briony's actions still reverberating years later. An expertly told story by a very talented writer.

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!!
Review: After finishing this wonderful novel, the first of McEwan's I have read, I came on line to read some reviews. Those that hated the book genuinely puzzled me. I found it absolutely enthralling.

McEwan evokes such an immediate sense of time and place despite switching locales and timelines, that the reader is drawn in further and further. The book soars on several levels: the tale of the crime and its repercussions, the Writer-as-God aspect that ultimately envelopes the entire narrative, to name but two. In addition, there is the wonderful use of information NOT revealed, be it secondary characters such as Lola and Marshall into who's heads we barely get a glimpse.

This book is a wonderful read. With subtle similarities to The English Patient amongst others, it is the most thought provoking character study told from multiple points of view I have read since The Poisonwood Bible. Highly recommended!!

I, too, plan on exploring all of Mr. McEwan's work.

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating Reading Experience
Review: After all the hype about how amazing this book is supposed to be, I am disappointed. The first part was interesting; the second part was boring (I skimmed most of it); the third part was okay. I wish I had just reread "The Life of Pi," which is perhaps the best novel I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated. Don't believe the hype
Review: This novel reads like an exercise in a creative writing class. Its a concept more than a real story. The characters are flat, the story is implausible and it just keeps going on and on and on. It maybe could have worked as a short story.