Atonement

Rating:
Summary: The most memorable book I read in 2003
Review: Many reviewers seem to have found the novel to be plodding and contrived, but for me, it was a beautiful, compelling read. I didn't find part I to be slow at all. I was hooked from the start. The only part where my attention wandered somewhat was during part II, with all the war descriptions. But I see the purpose of that whole section, now that I've finished the novel.

The last two pages were heartbreaking.

Rating:
Summary: Atonement = Superb Attainment
Review: After a decade of memoirs-as-novels and novelists turned memoirists, it all seems to culminate in this brilliant work. It is difficult to pick which is the greatest pleasure: watching a novelist strive diligently for years after a certain "trick effect" (which I will not disclose here) and finally, achieves it; or that he has produced a work writers--undoubtedly wearing and writhing in various shades of green [sin #]--endowed with greater gifts than Mr. McEwan, have yet to come close to in conception or execution. Finally, it demonstrates beyond any doubt, the judgment of the Booker Prize people (who awarded Mr. McEwan's much lesser effort, AMSTERDAM)isn't unerring.

Rating:
Summary: Atonement
Review: Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement" (2001) has received deserved praise. The writing style is varied and superb, the pace of the novel carefully controlled, and the characters live from the inside. The book explores many large themes, the nature of guilt and atonement, tne nature of love, the nature of the writing of fiction, war, social change and social classes, and many others. The variety and breadth of these themes could easliy produce a sprawling, confused work. But in "Atonement" the themes are carefully controlled and integrated.

The book begins on an English upper-middle class estate in 1935. The protagonist is a 13 year-old precocious girl, Briony Tallis, who already has the ambition to be a writer. She witnesses an erotic flirtation between her older sister Cecilia Tallis, and Robbie Turner, a brilliant young man from an underprivileged backround (and of uncertain paternity) whose education has been sponsored by Briony's father. The plot unfolds slowly and inexorably with great descriptive detail and attention to character. At the conclusion of the first section Briony makes a false accusation against Robbie which results in Robbie's imprisonment. The rest of the book is the working-out of this carefully-laid opening chapter.

The outstanding features of this novel include the change of voicing and of pacing in each of the four sections. Each of the first three parts of the book are written in the third person but the voicing in each section is significanly and purposefully different.

The first and longest section, which I have discussed above, is written in the tone of the omniscent narrator -- one assumes it is the voice of the novelist unfolding his story. The second section of the book is set early in WW II with the British evacuation of France at Dunkirk just prior to the German air attack on Brittain. The story continues in the third person, but the pace and drive of the story increases rapidly. We are witnessing the British troups on their retreat to Dunkirk with the horrors of battle. The story is written, we soon learn, in the voice of Robbie Turner, who has been released from prison on condition that he enlist in the war effort.

The third chapter is set in London just before the air raids. We meet Briony Tallis again who is full of remorse for her false testimony years before against Robbie. Briony is becoming a nurse, (her sister Cecelia is also a nurse) and there are gripping scenes of wounded and dying men in the hospital returning from combat. There are some wonderful secondary characters in this section, including Sister Drummond, the supervisor of the young probationer nurses, and Mrs.Jarvis, a crusty British landlord in the best Victorian tradition. In this section of the book, we learn that Briony is continuing her efforts to write and she is also seeking forgiveness for the guilty deed of her girlhood. As the chapter progresses, we see that it is written from the perspective of Briony herself even though it continues in the third person.

The final section of the book is set in 1999 and is very short. The voicing shifts again, this time to the first person, and the story and the novel achieve a difficult closure.

This novel is ultimately a careful, well-crafted and reflective work which speaks eloquently of the power of writing to transform reality and of the still more important power of human love.

Rating:
Summary: A Favorable Book
Review: Overall an excellent book. Some certain similarities to 'What Was She Thinking (Notes On A Scandal)', 'Middlesex', and 'My Fractured Life.' Compares very favorably with all of them. One of the better books I've read in the past few months.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is an excellent read. It has so may lessons to learn in it. I could not put it down and rank it highly. I also want to recommend: NIGHTMARES ECHO-Lessons learned regarding a child of abuse/molestation and the courage to survive. as well as SECRET LIFE OF BEES-Sadness and laughter fill this remarkable book.

Rating:
Summary: A book well worth reading
Review: Overall, I quite liked the book.

The first part, I thought was pitch-perfect and couldn't have been improved in any other way. The language flows beautifully, too.

The second part had me disappointed. Somehow, the events seemed rather unreal to me. It was as if McEwan was stringing every WW2 related stories that he had ever heard of w/o giving much thought to the organic connections between them.

The third part was improvement on the first part, though it, by no means, reached the quality of the first.

The epilogue, however, made up for everything. It gave a very beautiful ending -- and a very emotional ending. I read the book about a year ago, and I still catch myself on the verge of tears over the ending.

I've read some of the comments below, and many seemed to think that the first part was too much stream-of-consciousness and too little story. I love Virginia Woolf -- perhaps that's why I found the first part so captivating.

I would certainly recommend this book. <i>Atonement</i> is a relatively easy read, and is of a reasonable length.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Innovative
Review: This book is divided into three parts, the first of which has quite a different style--much slower with more stream of consciousness (but not too much). However, the book as a whole is cohesive. As the main character suggests about her own writing, the first part of the book (which some describe as plodding) owes much to Virginia Woolf's style, but not so much that the reader has a difficult time figuring out what is going on. I think the first part of the book is the manuscript that Briony submits to a publisher around the time she begins nursing. Thus, while the style is somewhat confusing, it helps us to understand the characters more--Briony herself, and also those around her who form the tragic events of the novel. Perhaps I am mistaken! The "twist" at the end was truly beautiful and tragic, without being "cute" (like the ending of Amsterdam). I highly recommend this book for plot, style, and innovation on the form of the novel itself.

Rating:
Summary: A Remarkable Story
Review: This is one of the best books that I have read in years. It tells of a crime in 1935 and how the subsequent cover-up affected each member of a family. All of the characters in Atonement are richly described. No one is entirely good or evil. What is most captivating about the book is its perspective on whether you can ever really take back a mistake. In addition, you get a fantastic portrait of Britain during WWII. My one recommendation is that you do not read the jacket cover of the book before diving in. The jacket gives away a key plot point that you won't discover on your own until you are a third of the way through the book.

Rating:
Summary: Totally overrated
Review: I was anxious to read this book, as I love books about the second world war. Plus, this book had received so many accolades.

Well, what a major disappointment. This is no masterpiece, or what can even be considered a good book. Part I is so slow, that you are ready to fall asleep by the time the "big event" occurs. Also, while there is a main character, 13 year old Briony, we are given too many points of view. I kept thinking, come on, can we get on with the story.

Now, we have a young man accused of rape, witnessed by a 13 girl. Well, we never know if the woman was actually raped. She never gives her side of the story. And what happened at the trial? Duh, there is no trial. Nada, zilch. Because, then part II opens, and rather than picking up where we left off--with Robbie being taken away, accused of a crime--we are suddenly in the middle of the British retreat at Dunkirk. Page after page of battle descriptions. For what purpose? I began skipping and skipping, hoping to find the story. It seemed odd that part II would center around what was a very minor character, and completely leave out every single detail of his trial and how he ended up in prison. All we know is that he was in prison for the crime that Briony accused him of, and now he's free.

Then part III, we meet up again with Briony, who is just as unlikeable as she was in part I. Part III was probably the best of the lot, but you still haven't a clue as to what actually happened. Since when does a person go to prison on the basis of the testimony of a 13 year old girl--who wasn't even the victim!

The ending is about as ridiculous as it gets. We are supposed to believe that this whole story we just finished reading is really just a novel that Briony wrote. That's the "Clever" twist of it. All I can say is that I'm thankful I borrowed it from the library.

This is one of those books that is so full of itself, that it pretends to be great and monumentous, but in fact, is very poorly down. This is so much missing, and much of it is so cliche. It makes so much of the great crime, but the crime really isn't all that great because as far as I know, England does have a trial system. A person goes to prison after being put on trial, and not because an obnoxious 13 year old girl says so. We are never told anything at all about how Robbie ended up in prison, or if anyone defended him, or what the victim herself had to say.

I felt nothing for any of the characters, except for Briony, who I disliked intensely. This book is just a pompous work where the author writes pages of descriptions that go nowhere, tell you nothing, and leave you wondering when the story will begin.

Rating:
Summary: Smart and Entertaining!
Review: McEwan loves to tackle enormous tragedy, and then, with a master's eye turned on the human heart, deconstruct the process of loving, hating, fleeing, embracing, turning inward, and lashing outward that becomes his subjects' fate. His prose is concise, sometimes almost clinical, and though his prose may read a little spare for some, his insights into the patterns of the mind due to the troubles of the heart put him a notch above his peers. I recommend this book strongly! Makes a great gift!

Also recommended: Life of Pi by Martel, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez