Atonement

As a huge fan of Ian McEwan’s early novels with their dark drama, especially The Innocent, I initially gave up on this book after the first 70 pages—but then, thankfully, resumed a while later. 

What seemed a genteel novel about manners transforms into something much more sinister and dramatic. I loved the tense atmosphere of it, with much of the story condensed into one hot pre-war summer’s day and then the later serious repercussions from what, at the time, seem fairly harmless childish actions.

This novel is a shattering tale of how a child’s error in judgment changes the lives of everyone around her. When I finished reading it, I was so shocked I started trembling.

The novel is a magic trick—it inspires you with its art, while at the same time making you weep for the fate of its characters.

A compelling and moving story set partly in pre-war London and partly in wartime  London. Before the war, a jealous, misguided teenage girl accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit. This act ruins lives. The lover goes to prison, and the older sister cuts off her younger sister and her family.

By the time the war begins, the younger sister realizes her dreadful mistake and seeks to atone for it. This is an exquisitely written and original story of love, relationships, innocence, and guilt.

I loved the three-part format of this book divided by time periods. The first part, set in 1935, describes an event that took place on a hot summer day in the grounds of the family’s country house garden. It’s seen from the different perspectives of thirteen-year-old Briony and her older sister Cecelia. The story evolves from there in parts two and three in unpredictable and devastating ways.

I appreciated the book’s in-depth exploration of the power of a lie and the devastating consequences of that lie. This psychological study of adult Briony’s guilt and subsequent atonement eloquently depicts how war… show more.

This amazing book reveals how a single mistaken perception, influenced by jealousy, envy, and the snobbery of social class, can wreak havoc on so many innocent lives.

McEwen writes with great delicacy and passion in constructing a story in which it becomes almost impossible to atone for a terrible accusation that cannot be rescinded. 

Atonement is a historical novel by McEwan, also made into a very fine movie with James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. Before you watch the film though (and even if you have), try the book as it’s a different experience (as books to films often are).

This book is really all about stories, narratives, and lies. Set in 1935 and beyond, the protagonist is a young girl Briony – a budding writer from a wealthy family and highly observant kid – who becomes fascinated by her older sister Cecilia’s relationship with local working-class lad Robbie.

The central romance between Cecilia and… show more.

You know those books where you remember not just the plot or storyline, but the actual experience of reading it? Atonement is of those for me.

A sweeping wartime novel, the fate of its characters is determined by the events of a summer party. This was one of the first novels I read where I was repeatedly struck by the writer’s gift of prose and storytelling, so I often come back to it for inspiration.

In Atonement, McEwan got everything right, both at the sentence level and with the story and characters – except, in my writerly opinion, for… show more.

No English novel from the last hundred years impresses me more than this one.

It’s the story of thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis, daughter of a landed British family, and her tangled relations with her older sister—for whom she feels admiration, jealousy, and a precocious but fierce protectiveness. The results are life-shattering.

McEwan shares Hughes’s ability to chart the unruly territory of a child's mind, and he leaves you fascinated and horrified by what can happen when the adult world listens too trustingly to words “from the mouths of babes.”

Atonement is also about writing and the ways written words can both… show more.

Atonement is a heartbreaking portrait of the dark side of an impassioned girl determined to be a writer, who is certain she understands what is going on in the lives of the adults around her, but who makes a terrible mistake.

This novel is constructed for her to tell her story as a way to atone for her naivete and her brutal lie. Devastating and a masterpiece. 

McEwan is a modern master, one of the few we have. And like most true masters, he’s often flawed. Not every sentence is perfect, his plots sometimes have potholes, and he’s been accused, at times, of borrowing without attribution. But I’ve been reading him for forty years and I think Atonement has a fair claim to be his masterpiece. The novel takes place in three time periods – 1935, the Second World War, and 1999 – and traces the implications of child’s misapprehension in witnessing a sexual encounter. The novel was published in 2001 and I suspect that some ideologically-minded… show more.