Atonement

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It's a hit!

I often walk away from an Ian McEwan novel shaken by the fear that a seemingly innocuous moment can become a catalyst for tragic consequences.

... (show more)

I often walk away from an Ian McEwan novel shaken by the fear that a seemingly innocuous moment can become a catalyst for tragic consequences.

In ‘Atonement’, 13-year-old Briony Tallis bears false testimony in a state of misguided self-righteousness, which sends an innocent man into prison, and estranges her from her sister, Cecilia, whom she had thought she was protecting in the first place.

What is chilling in the narrative is McEwan’s convincing portrayal of how a precocious child witnesses more than she understands, comes to a brash conclusion, and armed with what she passionately believes to be legitimate motives, chooses to propagate her interpretation of events.

A significant portion of the novel traces the central characters separately in the midst of war-strewn England and France during WWII. However, Briony learns that the collective pain and suffering meted by the carnage of war can never displace her more personal act of betrayal. Neither time nor distance, not even her attempts to rewrite what has happened, are able to let her gain atonement to her very last days. (show less)

 

 

by Josh Ang

No, it's a flop!

Okay. I decided to give this book a chance, even though I couldn't get through the movie. Sometimes the book is way better than the movie...or most... (show more)

Okay. I decided to give this book a chance, even though I couldn't get through the movie. Sometimes the book is way better than the movie...or most of the time. Well, at first the book is very involving. I found myself really getting into the book right away. I would take 10 minute breaks at work and just get lost in the book. I actually looked forward to reading it. The first part was great; couldn't wait for the rest. Afterwards though, it just dropped. The author was getting increasingly descriptive on every detail to where my mind would wonder and then I would get lost. I went ahead and finished. The more into the book, the more bored I became. It felt like so did the author. He just didn't care about the book any longer. And the ending?! What happened there! It dropped. In the beginning, it seemed like the author was really enthusastic about his characters and at the end, he was just as bored with it and decided to just finish. No real backbone to the end. Build-up to a bummer ending... (show less)

 

 

by Brie Weidenbacher

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  Much like all of Ian McEwan's work, this book is perfect and unique. The world he creates is so vibrantly real, so alive, one cannot help but become completely engrossed. I could not help but see myself in every fragile character and every destructive situation. As the plot continues to twist and entangle itself, I feel like my own mind is being read and all my worst fears and tenderest emotions are being laid bare for the world to see. The longing is my longing, the emptiness is my empti... (show more)

  Much like all of Ian McEwan's work, this book is perfect and unique. The world he creates is so vibrantly real, so alive, one cannot help but become completely engrossed. I could not help but see myself in every fragile character and every destructive situation. As the plot continues to twist and entangle itself, I feel like my own mind is being read and all my worst fears and tenderest emotions are being laid bare for the world to see. The longing is my longing, the emptiness is my emptiness, the rage and passion belong to me. Everyone should read this book, or any book by Ian McEwan. Only by reading his work can one fully comprehend McEwan's utter and complete understanding of the human animal. He knows what we desire, what we need, and either gives it to us fully or makes us beg for it with every turning page. He is a master of his craft, and Atonement is exactly what a novel should be. (show less)

   

  by Jon Senigaglia on Dec 11, 2007 at 05:55AM

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  I haven't seen the movie. I doubt I will ever see it now. I found it to be a novel about the importance of time and the horror of time lost or wasted. It's like the Pat Barker books on WWI or the poetry of Winifred Owen, told through the unforgettable tragedy of war.
  It begins as a tragedy, but the war just compounds that tragedy. Like Gone With the Wind, except they never fall out of love (and that is the real tragedy) that this couple burns at both ends, taught by early separation that lo... (show more)

  I haven't seen the movie. I doubt I will ever see it now. I found it to be a novel about the importance of time and the horror of time lost or wasted. It's like the Pat Barker books on WWI or the poetry of Winifred Owen, told through the unforgettable tragedy of war.
  It begins as a tragedy, but the war just compounds that tragedy. Like Gone With the Wind, except they never fall out of love (and that is the real tragedy) that this couple burns at both ends, taught by early separation that loss is always up ahead).
  Maybe it's just me, but I fail to see how this novel is "boring" or "hard to get into." But if you get slowed down in the first couple pages, keep going. The ending I'm unsure of. I think I DO wish, as the narrator had said it, leaving off as she did not in the 1999 section. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Oct 27, 2009 at 02:50AM

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