Atonement: A Novel
3 journalers for this copy...
Received from Paperback Swap. Been meaning to read this one for a while.
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From Publishers Weekly
This haunting novel, which just failed to win the Booker this year, is at once McEwan at his most closely observed and psychologically penetrating, and his most sweeping and expansive. It is in effect two, or even three, books in one, all masterfully crafted. The first part ushers us into a domestic crisis that becomes a crime story centered around an event that changes the lives of half a dozen people in an upper-middle-class country home on a hot English summer's day in 1935. Young Briony Tallis, a hyperimaginative 13-year-old who sees her older sister, Cecilia, mysteriously involved with their neighbor Robbie Turner, a fellow Cambridge student subsidized by the Tallis family, points a finger at Robbie when her young cousin is assaulted in the grounds that night; on her testimony alone, Robbie is jailed. The second part of the book moves forward five years to focus on Robbie, now freed and part of the British Army that was cornered and eventually evacuated by a fleet of small boats at Dunkirk during the early days of WWII. This is an astonishingly imagined fresco that bares the full anguish of what Britain in later years came to see as a kind of victory. In the third part, Briony becomes a nurse amid wonderfully observed scenes of London as the nation mobilizes. No, she doesn't have Robbie as a patient, but she begins to come to terms with what she has done and offers to make amends to him and Cecilia, now together as lovers. In an ironic epilogue that is yet another coup de the tre, McEwan offers Briony as an elderly novelist today, revisiting her past in fact and fancy and contributing a moving windup to the sustained flight of a deeply novelistic imagination. With each book McEwan ranges wider, and his powers have never been more fully in evidence than here. Author tour. (Mar. 19)Forecast: McEwan's work has been building a strong literary readership, and the brilliantly evoked prewar and wartime scenes here should extend that; expect strong results from handselling to the faithful.
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From Publishers Weekly
This haunting novel, which just failed to win the Booker this year, is at once McEwan at his most closely observed and psychologically penetrating, and his most sweeping and expansive. It is in effect two, or even three, books in one, all masterfully crafted. The first part ushers us into a domestic crisis that becomes a crime story centered around an event that changes the lives of half a dozen people in an upper-middle-class country home on a hot English summer's day in 1935. Young Briony Tallis, a hyperimaginative 13-year-old who sees her older sister, Cecilia, mysteriously involved with their neighbor Robbie Turner, a fellow Cambridge student subsidized by the Tallis family, points a finger at Robbie when her young cousin is assaulted in the grounds that night; on her testimony alone, Robbie is jailed. The second part of the book moves forward five years to focus on Robbie, now freed and part of the British Army that was cornered and eventually evacuated by a fleet of small boats at Dunkirk during the early days of WWII. This is an astonishingly imagined fresco that bares the full anguish of what Britain in later years came to see as a kind of victory. In the third part, Briony becomes a nurse amid wonderfully observed scenes of London as the nation mobilizes. No, she doesn't have Robbie as a patient, but she begins to come to terms with what she has done and offers to make amends to him and Cecilia, now together as lovers. In an ironic epilogue that is yet another coup de the tre, McEwan offers Briony as an elderly novelist today, revisiting her past in fact and fancy and contributing a moving windup to the sustained flight of a deeply novelistic imagination. With each book McEwan ranges wider, and his powers have never been more fully in evidence than here. Author tour. (Mar. 19)Forecast: McEwan's work has been building a strong literary readership, and the brilliantly evoked prewar and wartime scenes here should extend that; expect strong results from handselling to the faithful.
I hated this book for the first 100-150 pages. The story was moving painfully slowly and I felt distant from the characters and wanted them to hurry up to get to the center of the story. But then the perspective shifted and the book came together in a haunting and impressive way. While I'm often quite critical of novel-within-novel devices, this book was so well crafted that I ended up loving the post-script and the structure all the more than if it had merely told the first story. I'd like to see the movie; I don't know how they can convey all the intricacies of the story in a film, but I think it would be interesting now that I've read the book. Highly recommended.
Finally in the mail to lamelemon. So sorry for the delay in mailing.
Safely received, thank you so much! I'll do my best to see the book travel again shortly, I've loved my Ian McEwan-s so far :)
I saw the movie a couple of months ago, which meant two very good things: there was hardly any suspense left for me, so I could gently focus on the beauty of the writing; and, knowing the plot points, I saw the dozen of not-so-subtle-in-retrospect hints and recurring themes of the novel. I did enjoy my Ian McEwan so far, and he didn't disappoint me this time either. What impressed me the most was the cruelty and brutality of the war scenes and their aftermath.
Thank you for sharing, the book will soon be on its way to eileenvogelberg in Germany.
Thank you for sharing, the book will soon be on its way to eileenvogelberg in Germany.
Mailed to eileenvogelberg this morning. Enjoy!
This book came here as a surprise a few days ago. Thank you so much! I am looking Forward to reading it in my next holidays.
