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Book Review
Dec. 15th, 2006 08:52 pmAtonement
by Ian McEwan
This book is extremely good - I enjoyed every sentence. It starts out in the 1930s at an English country house. Briony, 13 years old and the youngest daughter of the Tallis family witnesses the beginnings of the passionate love between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the son of the family's housekeeper. Unable to fully comprehend adult emotions and interactions, Briony tragically misunderstands what she observes. This misunderstanding and its results have repercussions that span the rest of their lives.
McEwan does a most amazing job with his characters. Never have I seen a writer be so perceptive about the ambiguities and complexities of people's motivations. His sense of the inner life of a girl on border between childhood and adulthood is also extraordinary.
So much of Atonement seems to be about the ambiguity of these border states. At the beginning of the novel Briony at thirteen stands between girlhood and womanhood; Cecilia and Robbie are between and old companionship and a new intimacy; Britain itself is between wars. Later on in the book, McEwan repeatedly brings us up to the edge of change, without showing us the moment itself or even much of the other side. We follow Robbie as a soldier as he retreats through France to Dunkirk, but we stop as soon as he gets to the beach(1). We see Briony training to be a nurse, but we never see her working as a nurse. We see the preparations for the Blitz, but the book skips over the Battle of Britain itself.
(1) I often seem to find the bleakest parts of books the most beautiful. I thought that Robbie's trek through France was one of the best parts of Atonement, even though it is also the grimmest. Similarly, one of my favorite parts of Kavalier and Clay is Joe Kavalier's time in Antarctica.
by Ian McEwan
This book is extremely good - I enjoyed every sentence. It starts out in the 1930s at an English country house. Briony, 13 years old and the youngest daughter of the Tallis family witnesses the beginnings of the passionate love between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the son of the family's housekeeper. Unable to fully comprehend adult emotions and interactions, Briony tragically misunderstands what she observes. This misunderstanding and its results have repercussions that span the rest of their lives.
McEwan does a most amazing job with his characters. Never have I seen a writer be so perceptive about the ambiguities and complexities of people's motivations. His sense of the inner life of a girl on border between childhood and adulthood is also extraordinary.
So much of Atonement seems to be about the ambiguity of these border states. At the beginning of the novel Briony at thirteen stands between girlhood and womanhood; Cecilia and Robbie are between and old companionship and a new intimacy; Britain itself is between wars. Later on in the book, McEwan repeatedly brings us up to the edge of change, without showing us the moment itself or even much of the other side. We follow Robbie as a soldier as he retreats through France to Dunkirk, but we stop as soon as he gets to the beach(1). We see Briony training to be a nurse, but we never see her working as a nurse. We see the preparations for the Blitz, but the book skips over the Battle of Britain itself.
(1) I often seem to find the bleakest parts of books the most beautiful. I thought that Robbie's trek through France was one of the best parts of Atonement, even though it is also the grimmest. Similarly, one of my favorite parts of Kavalier and Clay is Joe Kavalier's time in Antarctica.
