Atonement by Ian McEwan
Aug. 22nd, 2007 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge.
By the end of that day the lives of all three will have changed for ever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of the younger girl's imagination. Briony will have witnessed mysteries, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.
Nominated for the Booker Prize in 2001, this is one of those books that you always see raved about as being a masterpiece of literary fiction - if you can get through the first 200 pages, then I can understand why it received those plaudits.
The first half of the novel introduces the characters of Briony, Cecilia and Robbie, together with other members of the Tallis family and their guests and sets up the crime that Briony committed. It's a hell of a slog to get through - McEwan spends an awful lot of time giving details about the country house where the Tallis family lives, it's history, the history of the family and details of the grounds. We're also treated to a lot of information about the background to the characters - the fact that the Tallis family sponsored Robbie's education (he was the son of their cleaning lady), the fact that Robbie has a first from Cambridge whereas Cecilia has a third, the fact that Briony desperately wants to be a writer and crafts somewhat pretentious plays for her cousins to perform in. Whilst there is some pertinent information in there, it's really dull to read and I couldn't help but think that a lot of it was to try and bulk out the somewhat flimsy plot, which seems to turn on the following:
1. Robbie writes a crude love letter to Cecilia, which he accidentally gives to Briony to give to Cecilia.
2. Briony opens said crude love letter and convinces herself that Robbie is a sexual deviant. This is reinforced when she witnesses them having sex.
3. Briony convinces herself that by lying about Robbie raping Lola, she is saving Cecilia from a sexual deviant.
The problem is that despite some very fine writing (including some beautiful description), McEwan can't get away from the fact that his story turns on a contrivance. It's not helped by the fact that for all the careful detailing of Briony's character, it's never quite clear why she makes the assumption about Robbie, particularly because there's no real attempt at showing Briony's relationship with her sister, which would give it some credence.
Fortunately the rest of the book is much, much better. I was particularly impressed with the sections detailing Briony's stint as a nurse in a hospital during the beginning of World War II as well as by the section detailing Robbie's experiences in Dunkirk as he moves through the countryside to try and get to the evacuation point. Both sections are very, very moving and go so much further into showing both characters that they really highlight the turgid nature of that first section. I also enjoyed the ending, including the twist which is a take on the trick of having an unreliable narrator that nevertheless reveals a lot both about the character and the subject of the book - giving an atonement of sorts, although not the one you would have expected. McEwan moves effortlessly between points of view, writing in both the third and first person point of view in a way that always seems credible.
There are plot holes - for example, McEwan skirts over Robbie's trials and any inconvenient questions as to supporting evidence of Robbie's guilt and I think that the later appearance of Lola raises far more questions than are ever resolved. I would also like to have seen more of Cecilia in the final third of the book - I can see why McEwan chose not to use her more, but I still wanted to know more about her and what happens to her after the trial. However, the sheer quality of the writing in the second half pulls you through it and shows why McEwan is regarded as one of the best in the field.
The Verdict:
If it wasn't for the fact that the first half of the novel is really slow and a labour to read, I'd think this to be one of the best books I've read all year. The second half is very well written and evocative of the time, with some heartbreaking characterisation and a good twist at the end. Unfortunately, you have to get through the first half to get there and I suspect that the ponderous pace and the fact that so little happens for such contrived reasons will put people off.
On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge.
By the end of that day the lives of all three will have changed for ever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of the younger girl's imagination. Briony will have witnessed mysteries, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.
Nominated for the Booker Prize in 2001, this is one of those books that you always see raved about as being a masterpiece of literary fiction - if you can get through the first 200 pages, then I can understand why it received those plaudits.
The first half of the novel introduces the characters of Briony, Cecilia and Robbie, together with other members of the Tallis family and their guests and sets up the crime that Briony committed. It's a hell of a slog to get through - McEwan spends an awful lot of time giving details about the country house where the Tallis family lives, it's history, the history of the family and details of the grounds. We're also treated to a lot of information about the background to the characters - the fact that the Tallis family sponsored Robbie's education (he was the son of their cleaning lady), the fact that Robbie has a first from Cambridge whereas Cecilia has a third, the fact that Briony desperately wants to be a writer and crafts somewhat pretentious plays for her cousins to perform in. Whilst there is some pertinent information in there, it's really dull to read and I couldn't help but think that a lot of it was to try and bulk out the somewhat flimsy plot, which seems to turn on the following:
1. Robbie writes a crude love letter to Cecilia, which he accidentally gives to Briony to give to Cecilia.
2. Briony opens said crude love letter and convinces herself that Robbie is a sexual deviant. This is reinforced when she witnesses them having sex.
3. Briony convinces herself that by lying about Robbie raping Lola, she is saving Cecilia from a sexual deviant.
The problem is that despite some very fine writing (including some beautiful description), McEwan can't get away from the fact that his story turns on a contrivance. It's not helped by the fact that for all the careful detailing of Briony's character, it's never quite clear why she makes the assumption about Robbie, particularly because there's no real attempt at showing Briony's relationship with her sister, which would give it some credence.
Fortunately the rest of the book is much, much better. I was particularly impressed with the sections detailing Briony's stint as a nurse in a hospital during the beginning of World War II as well as by the section detailing Robbie's experiences in Dunkirk as he moves through the countryside to try and get to the evacuation point. Both sections are very, very moving and go so much further into showing both characters that they really highlight the turgid nature of that first section. I also enjoyed the ending, including the twist which is a take on the trick of having an unreliable narrator that nevertheless reveals a lot both about the character and the subject of the book - giving an atonement of sorts, although not the one you would have expected. McEwan moves effortlessly between points of view, writing in both the third and first person point of view in a way that always seems credible.
There are plot holes - for example, McEwan skirts over Robbie's trials and any inconvenient questions as to supporting evidence of Robbie's guilt and I think that the later appearance of Lola raises far more questions than are ever resolved. I would also like to have seen more of Cecilia in the final third of the book - I can see why McEwan chose not to use her more, but I still wanted to know more about her and what happens to her after the trial. However, the sheer quality of the writing in the second half pulls you through it and shows why McEwan is regarded as one of the best in the field.
The Verdict:
If it wasn't for the fact that the first half of the novel is really slow and a labour to read, I'd think this to be one of the best books I've read all year. The second half is very well written and evocative of the time, with some heartbreaking characterisation and a good twist at the end. Unfortunately, you have to get through the first half to get there and I suspect that the ponderous pace and the fact that so little happens for such contrived reasons will put people off.
