Anchor Books Atonement

Three nightmares dominate 'Atonement'.The first, set in a country house during the oppressively hot summer of 1935, is the build up to the commission of a terrible crime. The offence is the false accusation made by one of the three main characters, Briony, against another. She knows the accusation is at best doubtful, and probably false, but she persists in it, even under oath, to the point of wrecking the life chances of a man who isn’t just innocent but also did her nothing but good.This is the crime for which atonement must be made.Five years later, we find ourselves plunged, again in sweltering heat, into the middle of the British Army’s catastrophic retreat in front of German armoured troops through Northern France to Dunkirk. This is the most powerful account I have read of the torment felt by individual men, especially a wounded man, struggling to keep up with what was practically a rout – undisciplined, chaotic and painful. It’s a tribute to the research McEwan carried out at the Imperial War Museum in London that he was able to capture the atmosphere of that harrowing time, and further proof of his outstanding qualities as a writer that he could convey them so vividly.And the third nightmare is the one experienced again by Briony, in a first step towards atonement, as she trains to be a nurse at a hospital recognisable as St Thomas’s in London. That culminates in an extraordinary day of frightening and intense work, as she nurses wounded men from the Dunkirk evacuation. McEwan gives us a detailed account of the many hours she works, with men lightly injured, with men suffering terrible but treatable wounds, with men who cannot be saved.Finally, there is a kind of coda in which McEwan deepens the dreamlike feeling of the novel still further. Because he leaves us wondering whether what he has given us is a novel of his own creation, or one written by Briony herself, a character he created. We see her going from a first attempt at writing the story, rejected by a publisher who nonetheless gives her excellent advice on how to improve it, to the final work, the one we’ve just read. And she asks us whether she hasn’t told the story as it deserves to be told. She tells us that she could have changed its details is significant ways but chose not to, and calls on us, the readers, to agree that she was right.This reader is sure she is. My view is that Briony turned an indifferent first draft into an excellent novel. And Ian McEwan did well to make her work, and his own, available to us.

I imagine this book is like a three hour meal in the fanciest of restaurants. Everything is perfect, but you still leave feeling hungry.As someone that hates skimming and skipping when reading, it pains me to say this, but this book could easily have been told in a quarter of the pages. As others have said, the story doesn't even start until half way through. (This is not an exageration, I looked at the % on my Kindle.)If you enjoy reading about war, both at The Front and in hospitals, this book could be for you, but otherwise don't put yourself through the unnecessary pain.Ironically, Wikipedia has a decent summary of the book in a couple of screens. Q.E.D.

The first half of the book is excruciatingly boring. Just a bunch of sisters mulling around, nothing doing anything, raking over their stinking feelings. Really nothing happens apart from a vase getting slightly damaged, yawn. I persevered and after Robbie leaves things really start to look up. The account of trainee nurses was excellent. It has been one of the most gripping and engrossing books I have ever read. Apart from the first interminable 50%. I read The Innocent and absolutely loved it and so thought I would read another Ian McEwan novel and I was (eventually) not disappointed.

Atonement is the second book I have read by Ian McEwan and it only confirms that I am a McEwan fan. I found Atonement extremely interesting and it's a novel that people will take different things away from and will interpret in different ways - it's a must read!In a strange way I felt that not much happened throughout the novel yet I was intrigued and captured by the characters and their thoughts. It is definitely a slow mover of a story and although this is what turns a lot of people off the book, it is instead what made me love it. For me, the beauty was in the structure of the novel and the different writing styles that McEwan employed.The first part is told from different perspectives whereas in parts two and three he switches to follow two characters' journeys. The final section of the book really made me think - McEwan somehow brings everything into doubt and makes you question the beautiful and emotional story that he has set out. I sat and pondered on it by myself for a while and then wanted to know how people interpreted the ending and what their thoughts were on the story as well. I love it when a book does that to me.

I rarely give up on a book once I've started, especially if I've reached half way. I've given it three stars in an attempt to recognise the skill of the writing, if not the story telling. Many of the descriptions are very skilfully done and short passages are of the highest order. The problem for me was that in the end I didn't really care about the characters. I lost interest in the them and the convoluted plot. Everything seemed to take an age to happen and I found myself being more irritated than pleased when I put it down each night. I fully accept that this may say more about me than the book however.