Rating: 
Summary: Heartbreaking, thought provoking novel
Review: I read this book in 2 days. I was unable to put it down as events unfolded. This is not an easy read and if you want quick "entertainment" this is not for you. The ending was heart breaking as we discover the outcome of 2 of the main characters-tears came to my eyes in the last 2 pages. I found Briony to border on the sociopathic and I don't feel as if she ever atoned for her terrible sin. The idea of making this a novel within a novel was very well done and I feel this McEwan novel should have won the Booker instead of "Amsterdam". This is a book that needs to be reread.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written but not the best novel
Review: Atonement is the story of the Tallis family and their housekeeper's son, Robbie Turner. It all starts in 1935 when young Briony Tallis witnesses events involving her sister Cecilia and Robbie, events she can't fully understand or accept. This leads Briony to give false testimony, accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. The first part of the novel revolves around the presentation of the cast of characters and the dinner that would change their lives. Part two centres mostly on Robbie, a few years after that night and the retreat from Dunkirk during the war. The last section brings us to 1999 at a family reunion where the whole truth is finally revealed. Although this story is in general very good and the writing excellent, there are many pages I spent reading wondering if the author would get to the point, or at least get somewhere. This was for me especially true during the long description of the retreat. Another problem was the extremely predictable episode where Robbie writes two notes of apology to Cecilia, one with obvious sexual comments, the other very polite. The reader can see what will happen many pages before the author gets to the expected conclusion. Although I loved the characters and the prose of this novel, I would not recommend it as a "must read" to anyone. However, if you are looking for a slow-paced, well-written novel, you will probably enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Try As I Might, I Could Not Get Into This Book
Review: I have three words for this one: plodding, plodding and plodding. It's a big seller at the bookstores, and I've *heard* it's great. I asked around and was told to hang tight and just try to keep going. But I kept getting Very Very Sleepy... Three more words: Avoid this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Actually 4 1/2 stars, but none the less a good read
Review: I have heard the endless buzz about this book, so I finally decided to find out if what most people were saying was true. In truth this book does start off slow, but the imagery Mr. McEwan uses makes up for any parts that tend to drag, he writes with such beautiful language that it is hard to not get caught up in Brionys fantasys and the pure panic from Robbie. McEwan uses a technique, that I find sometimes fails in novels such as these,he uses different voices for each charachter and it is one of the many great things about his wonderful novel. But because of the use of different voices, it is hard to stay sympathetic to one character the whole time. This novel is extremely well written and you will probably want to read it agai, but if you find it a tedious read you probably wont finish it or never read it agian. The novel has a strong plot that is easy to follow, and if you enjoy this novel check out Ian McEwan's other books.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been good - but a near miss...
Review: My main comments on this book are:- 1. Written in a good style. Was well polished by the author.
2. However, book took far too long to get going. Did we really need 170 pages about a 1930s family just at home on one day, before hitting any real plot? No. A writer developing the characters fully is all very well, and desirable, but he needs also to develop the plot early on in the book, to keep the reader interested and show the reader where the book is going and what the book is about. The writer here failed to do this. There must a lot of copies of this book lying around in homes only partly read because of this, with readers giving up after 50 pages and finding something else that does interest them to read instead, having become bored.
3. Part 1 was also about trivia which failed to interest me personally. A family in a big house on a hot day in the 1930s, with little children preparing a play? Not very interesting to most people, especially men. "So what - Hit me with something interesting," I was saying to myself during Part 1.
4. Some of the plot in Part 1 was a bit too contrived too. A very valuable vase (oddly being used as a household ornament despite its great value) was introduced with a lengthy explanation of the history of its acquisition. I thought, I bet the vase gets broken then, and it was duly broken just a few pages later. A young man writes two drafts of a letter at his desk - I thought, I bet he picks the wrong draft up then - and lo and behold, he did. A bit obvious. (But the writer didn't make the same mistake of doing the obvious in the hospital in Part 3 - the obvious would have been to have Robbie appear there as a patient, but that doesn't happen.)
5. When we actually hit the plot, such as it was, there was an incident. Nowhere in the book did we ever find out whether there was actually a "rape" or not. The victim never claimed herself to have been raped. As the book is intended to turn on an alleged rape committed by someone, it would have been helpful to see this fact stated clearly rather than being assumed or glossed over.
6. There was no trial scene. The subject of the book called out for one (compare "To kill a Mockingbird"). If Briony was giving false testimony, what did the cross-examination in court reveal? What did the victim herself say in court? What did the defendant say in court? The book omits all of this crucial information.
7. Why Briony was convinced Robbie was the perpetrator of the (alleged) rape and apparently gives evidence to a court to that effect, but then later firmly changes her mind, isn't made very clear. What made her change her mind?
8. Cecelia and Robbie's deaths are confined to about three lines in the final chapter, which is hardly proportional to their involvement in the book.
9. The main flaw in the book, which is a serious flaw and spoilt it for me, was its ending (if we are supposed to take the "Museum/party" scenes as the true ending for our own purposes). The book was written throughout from an overview perspective (a "god's eye view" seeing everything that is going on), including many details of events where Briony herself wasn't present (e.g. Cecelia arranging flowers on his own; Robbie alone in his study; mother lying in her bedroom alone; children preparing a play without Briony; soldier returning from war). The fact that the ending says that Briony herself wrote the book, not a separate writer, undermined the reliability of much of the book's contents. I was left saying to myself "...but you said on page N that this or that happened, but Briony wasn't present then, so she couldn't have known those details so as to be able to portray them in her book, so where does that leave the truth of the entire book then?" The ending (i.e. the Museum/party scene ending) entirely spoilt the book, for me, as the writer inadvertently destroyed the credibility of much of the material in the book by making clear Briony wrote it. The book could have been a good one if (a) Part 1 had been far shorter, with the plot being developed sooner to keep me interested in Part 1; and (b) the book had simply ended at the escalator at Balham Underground Station rather than also including the further chapter, the "museum/party" ending. But for me the book failed to satisfy, mainly because of its laborious start and its very badly thought-out ending.
Rating:
Summary: Very well done
Review: I am usually a non Fiction reader with Nightmares Echo at the top of my list right now. Well that is until I read Atonement. This book kept me sitting in my seat turning the pages deeply caught up in the storyline. This is really a good book.
Rating:
Summary: A Much Over Rated Book
Review: Unlike most other readers, I could not get into this story for I found McEwan's way of telling a story was both tedious and trifle and went on too long in setting up the plots and what went in between could at best be described as a story being well told (but could be much better told with a better Penmanship) and the final came rather too abruptly with unnecessary melodramatic mannerisms that left you with a feeling of bewilderment without knowing what and why all the big fuss was about. It was a simple story talked about very ordinary people and what went on in their lives after certain unjust had been committed against one person's better judgment, and thus it took her the whole lifetime to atone for her sin. But McEwan was trying very hard in making it into a much bigger story than it was with many unnecessarily pieces entwined in showing what went on with each individual's life and not near enough in getting into any charecter's inner world. Many people gave much credit to the Atonement for its wider scale and seemingly ambitious plots thought it for being a more ambitious novel than his Booker prize winner Amsterdam, and I tend not to agree with this assessment; for Amsterdam was a novel much focused on its main themes and plots, and the story itself was a more interesting one to begin with. Although, like Atonement I found McEwan's writing was equally remote, unemotional and does not convey a true feeling at all. But in this case, since the subject matter in Atonement was dealt with emotions and feelings, and the story itself should justly demand more feeling and McEwan's aloofness in his writing style was totally unsuitable for a work of this kind. Personally I don't think Atonement was a work should even rank along other masterpieces or deserved short-listed for Booker. And it did cover longer period and wider scope than other McEwan's novel as I was been so told (I only read two so far). And the wider scope it covered was in the expenses of the tension. I agree it was necessary to fully brief the readers of the characters in the story in order to serve its purpose in setting up for a plot, but the way it went in telling the story of each individuals regarding one's daily activities was not only trivial but also unconvincing. It did attempt to explore certain inner feelings in certain parts and had done it superficially. To give the book proper credits, the finishing section did seam very 'unMcEwan' in writing and was written with feeling and vigor and elegance, and come to think of it, an unimpressive story that lingered on and on seemingly unable to get into anything deep enough except filling the pages with uninteresting details largely due to the writer' s unexciting style and lack of true conviction, then suddenly it came with an impressive grand finale. After reading two highly rated but unimpressive books from McEwan, I could not stop but wondering why so many good things were said about this writer, and it will be a long time for me to summon enough courage and read another book from him. Given McEwan being an over rated writer amount today's pool of talents in literary writing, I truly sympathize those under rated ones who deserve much better credits and attentions than what McEwan received. I was been critical in reviewing this book because of this overwhelmingly consistency in voting it a 'masterpiece' but in fact it was just an okay book not without its merits, and it was a much over rated one from a good writer, and there are many better writers and books around and this one deserves at most a 3-star.
Rating:
Summary: Melodrama or tragedy? It's in the eye of the beholder
Review: Reviewing ATONEMENT is tricky. Whether you want to explain why it is wonderful or why you don't admire it, you can easily run afoul of the prime directive of speaking about a book to someone who has yet to read it: you aren't supposed to give away the surprises. This book is rigged with surprises. What can be said about the story: it begins in 1935, with one fateful weekend at an affluent country house in England where the younger generation runs from ages 9 to 25, and the matriarch is ineffectually absorbed in migraines and the father is absent. The younger children, led by the precocious Briony, a budding 13-year-old playwright, are putting on a morality play for the young adults, about love and attraction and things they about which the playwright and actors really haven't a clue. Meanwhile, the young adults are engaging in all those things. The play gets called off, but Briony continues to impose her vision of reality of these things, and she ends up affecting adult lives dramatically. The story then moves forward to the war years and finally to the present (1999). This book earned orgasmic praise from America's most estimable literary critics. What is good about it? The sentences are beautifully rendered. The characters are drawn knowingly, honestly conceived. Period detail is well done. The description of a gifted young writer is very true, and it is not spoiling anything to say that one of the major themes better handled by McEwan is the nature of being a writer. But . . . . I have some negatives but that would require spoiling surprises. I can say that because the sentences are so very fluid, the reader overruns the plodding action constantly. That and while I thought most of the motivations and actions were quite credible, particularly in the 1935 section, the guiding emotion at the center of the book does not seem so real. For the most part, this story belongs to BBC/Masterpiece Theater melodrama.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: Truth has a way of coming out in the end whether your reading fiction or non fiction. This is a good book...with many turns to it. I really enjoyed it. I also have several other books I rate as tops next to this book. Nightmares Echo, Secret Life Of Bees, and Running With Scissors. All poignant,truthtelling books.
Rating:
Summary: A great work from one of the world great novelists
Review:
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