Atonement

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Work for avid Readers
Review: If you do a lot of reading, and get tired of the same simple story which is told in an obvious fasion, then this book will be a welcomed change for you. The writing style feels so classic, descriptive, and subtle. No line of any story in these pages will be forced to you, many things are left up to your mind and imagination to fill in. It is a nice refreshing shift, while the story is lined with dark undertones of family pain and horrible war time experiences, the writing style is not depressing in spite if it's content. Much of the story also revolves around a young girl, and the consequence of her decisions and actions on an entire family, yet it in no way is a book for women alone. Due to the style, and changing views of situations, everyone will feel pulled into the scene, and understand the price people pay for dishonesty.

You will follow several stories, both on the home front and on the war front (strangely the first was actually more intense for me, but this is a debated matter)and every aspect is wriiten with skill and style. The author throws in what I believe to be as a "twist" in the ending, which is entirely up to the reader to intrepret. I found this also very refreshing. While reading all this praise you may wonder why I give it 4 stars instead of 5, and that's a great question. For me personally, moments in the book ran a tad slow, not terribly, but enough that I can't rate it perfect, and sometimes the story moved to quickly on facts and events that I wanted to linger on, so again this is just a personal opinion.

If you love true "English" writing in classic, restrained style, or if you simply want a well written story that will be unlike most you have read lately, this book will be a nice choice. If you have friends that read and like to discuss books with you I can guarentee you will pass it on to them.

Rating:
Summary: A superb accomplishment!
Review: I agree with some of the reviewers that the book was hard to get into...Too much detail,too much character analysis.... I stuck with it, however, and was amply rewarded. We are too accustomed today to plunge immediately into the story; hence, the popularity of many of the current "throw away" novels. McEwan bucks the trend and lays out the plot slowly. In doing this, he creates a memorable experience for the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Overdone
Review: Reminds me of "...a dark and stormy night". Enough said.

Rating:
Summary: a very english novel
Review: I would imagaine that the detail and history which inhabits Atonement may perhaps be a little unfamiliar to some american readers, but then again it is a world often visited by literature.
The first part of the novel set in the english country house, portarys a vision of pre-war england which has been presented many times before, McEwan has put a little spin on this, but subtely.
The second book dealing with the evacuation from Dunkirk was excellent, and the strongest segement, leading nicely into the penultimate moving back to england.
The last part McEwan puts on his clever novelist hat again, and adds a quick sting in the tail.
very much a playing with novels within a a novel and storytelling about stories, ultimately could have been more satisfying, but still an enjoyable book.

Rating:
Summary: Huge disappointment.
Review: I read the first 100 pages or so, then skipped to the last 25. Need I say more?

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: McEwan's best book since "Black Dogs", "Atonement" is in one way quite similar: this, too, is the story of how another 'story' was written and why. But "Atonement" is more ambitious than its predecessor and ultimately more successful. There is just so much to enjoy here: the social comedy and undercurrent of burgeoning sexuality in a country house in the summer of '34; a rigorously researched and immensely moving account of war told from the twin perspectives of soldiers and nurses; and, of course, a plot full of the terrible menace for which McEwan is deservedly renowned. Writers will adore this novel, too, for it is ultimately about writing - its limits and its power - in various forms: letters, fiction, testimony. McEwan explores how what is said (and what is not said) has real influence on human lives. His characters are brilliantly realised - the developing perspective of Briony from age 13 to 77 is magnificently done - and his prose has never been more beautiful. "Atonement" is perfectly timed and structured, too. When the final section delivers up its heartbreaking conclusion, you'll know it could never have ended any other way. McEwan has had you in his thrall from the outset, and that's a wonderful place to be.

Rating:
Summary: Atonement
Review: Atonement requires great patience to read. Its author, an established and respected writer, takes great pain to write intelligently, stylishly, with an occasional abstruse reference to impress his colleagues and readers, I suppose. McEwan subject is scintillating, interesting, and would surely engage the reader were it not for the author's obvious attention to the written word, which steals the reader's attention from the issues introduced in this work. Nonetheless, McEwan is good enough at his profession that you'll want to read his latest effort, in spite of its failings.

Rating:
Summary: Reminiscent of Henry James, but with a touch of metafiction
Review: Ian McEwan's Atonement has the feel of classical literature: an elegant and slightly formal style, generous details, and a straightforward plot. Briony Tallis, a spoiled British 13 year old, spies her older sister Cecilia and the caretaker's son Robbie as they wrestle with an antique vase next to a fountain. Although Briony imagines herself as mature, she does not yet have an adult understanding of the world. When the events that follow do not fit her scope of comprehension, she forces them into place with a lie that forever changes the people she involves. The novel follows the principals through the war and ends as Briony faces her own mortality in 1999.

Especially during the first part (there are four) which takes place just before World War II, I could not help thinking of Henry James and his intricate exploration of character and relationships. I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a contemporary novel. The only aspect that jarred me into the 21st century was McEwan's use of metafiction (fiction about writing fiction.) Briony is an aspiring writer when the story begins, but we are told almost from the start that she will become an accomplished novelist. Throughout, Briony is keenly aware of the demands of her craft and how they distort the truth. As the novel progresses, the reader is made more and more aware of this self-conscious side until the end, when the final section deals with this issue alone.

Personally, I'm tired of metafiction and find it contrived; however, McEwan's polished writing atones for this literary sin. The details of life both before and during the war are extraordinary, as are the intricate characterizations. Although parts of this novel are overdone, it is McEwan's expertness that triumphs.

Atonement is a fine book that deserves widespread attention. I recommend this book for serious readers and those who yearn for more classicism in contemporary literature. You'll want to skip this novel, however, if you don't have the patience for detail or are looking for a suspenseful or complicated plot.

Rating:
Summary: An Overwritten Bore
Review: On the recommendation of a friend and its literary reputation, I wasted two nights ploughing through the first 85 pages of this book and skimming another 20 before I gave up entirely. It had the "literary" quality of endlessly describing the unimportant - details which might be interesting if you cared about any of these people, but I did not. I agree, the first chapter was charming. But nothing after it gave me a single reason to want to waste more time with these characters and their torturous, petty, over-analyzed lives.

Rating:
Summary: It Will Bring Out Your Humanity
Review: McEwan has crafted an epic around the unfortunate events that befall the main characters Briony Tallis, her sister Cecilia, Robbie Turner and Lola. A horrible set of events begin to spiral further out of control as a result of Briony's adolescent interpretation of those events and her subsequent personal judgments and decisions relating to them. Once committed this sequence of acts cannot be undone and thus begins a lifetime in which the "original sin" becomes the common thread that weaves through the remainder of each character's life. On one level it is a story about the loss of innocence and the life long implications of that loss. On another level it chronicle the realities of human frailty. And finally, the story shows the impact of a crime on the innocent.

From the gripping scene at the family home on a hot day in the summer of 1934 to the graphic description of war torn northern France in 1939 and 1940, this book is compelling. McEwan's plot and descriptive skills are intricate and powerful. The oily smoke rising from Dunkirk as France fell and the military hospital scenes are memorable examples. The descriptions of pre-Blitz London are uncanny. The reader can feel the approaching doom. While I did not expect it, this book was hard to put down. The reader is swept into a sensation of wanting to see how a particular scene or exchange will end or how a relationship will develop. And, of course, throughout there is a sense that the "other shoe" will drop at any moment.

At a human level this book is an illustration of life's many ironies. I have read many reviews that found the complexity and drama of the relationships here to be unreal. On the contrary, I found them highly plausible. McEwan is simply able to capture these sentiments and, perhaps, because it is so infrequently done in modern literature, some find it "unreal". In "Atonement" the wronged are not vindicated and those who have wronged either seek a life of "atonement" or appear not to pay any price for their transgressions or crimes. Perhaps the original crimes have motivated a life of "good". But then again can "good" be a viable outcome from a crime? Isn't there always collateral damage to real people however unintended? That is for the reader to decide. These are the irony's of life and thus, I choose to see this wonderful novel as a vivid lesson. Be honest in your understanding of relationships and intentions. Be mindful of how others may interpret events. Be willing to admit mistakes. Know right from wrong. Do not bow to pressure from others when you know your heart tells you otherwise. Don't underestimate the power of love. Be human.

Finally, the book is simply very well written. I often found myself saying of the author; "How does he do it? This total command of the details; this almost biologic weaving of the plot; this otherworldly wisdom. How does he do it?" Ian McEwen has done it without question and it is worth reading because it will cause the reader to become more human. And that is an extraordinary contribution.