Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Atonement

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Emotionally draining yet resounding in its importance and significance, completely worth the read...

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2007

Upon reading `Atonement' one is completely removed from their lives, their places of dwelling and time of departure and transplanted to a place where nothing is familiar yet everything is impressionable. Being the first novel I've read by the acclaimed novelist Ian McEwan I was immediately made aware of his immense talent. The tale presented to the reader is one of remarkable effectiveness, one that is truly relatable and believable and in the end of dire importance for its overall moral is one that transcends the boundaries of this prose and cements itself in our very being, in our every interaction and in our constant memory. Separated into four sections `Atonement' is broken down in such a way as to make the true conclusion all the more shocking and heartbreaking.

Part one retells the events on one especially harsh summer day in 1935. I say `especially harsh' mainly because by the days end events take place that harshly affect the lives of everyone involved. 13-yearold Briony Tallis is a smart and imaginative young girl and she becomes the main focus of our attention as we hear of the day's events. As she attempts to orchestrate a theatrical production in honor of her brother Leon's arrival home she is met with a few snags and some ominous distractions that put her initial plans on hold and send her into a newfound direction. As the relationship between her older sister Cecilia and their housekeepers son Robbie begins to take a turn Briony finds herself in the know of a serious misunderstanding that changes the course of everyone's lives. With their three cousins Lola, Jackson and Pierrot visiting as well as Leon's friend Paul Marshall the house is quite full on the evening in question, so when events take a turn for the worse there are so many more eyes to cast their judgment.

Briony is a very interesting character. I found it truly fascinating as her character unveiled itself with each turning page. Her immaturity is emphasized by her incessant need to be the mature one despite her inability to do so. She's lost in her writing, an obsession that causes her to read deeply into matters that aren't her concern and imagine the possibilities no matter how devastating they may become. She also allows the actions of others to affect her too deeply, finding herself reacting irrationally and this leaves her in a position to do much harm. It's hard for the reader not to find themselves calling Briony out as the villain here, for it's her needless actions that cause so much pain, but in reality she's nothing more than a young child who was invested in a poor decision.

So, with an accusation made and a terrible crime committed we brace ourselves for the second and third parts of the novel where we follow Robbie and Briony respectably as they strive to patch up their lives. Robbie has been through hell, literally, and in the second part of the novel we follow his journey as he strives to get home from the war. The horrors he is witness to, the atrocities he is privy to are all sprawled out for us is detail, as is his dire need to be reunited with his lost love Cecilia. The third part covers Briony's struggles as a nurse during the war, but more importantly her struggles within herself for some ounce of atonement for her sins. She has grown up since that summer day, not only in age but in understanding, and she is finally able to grasp the seriousness of her lies. The pain she has caused will never fully be undone, but she desires to do all she can to write them.

The novel opens with such a brilliantly conceived idea, and is so effortlessly and elegantly penned that one is immediately engulfed in its design. I for one could not put it down and read the entire first section in one sitting. Sadly the second a third sections do not read as briskly, but their importance is all the more secured by the closing section as elderly Briony recounts her actions and the ultimate consequences of them all. The final pages are chilling to say the least, and are completely unexpected, so much so that the tears running down my face had all but dried before I realized I was crying.

`Atonement' is a brilliantly orchestrated tale of pain, despair, loyalty, betrayal and the ultimate yearning to make amends, to find atonement for our sins and attain forgiveness for our souls. Truly one of the most inspiring and ultimately absorbing novels I've read to date.

33 people found this helpful

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Anita Pomerantz

Gorgeous lush writing, plodding plot

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2003

I just finished Atonement with my book club. Out of seven of us, I was the only one who was happy I read it.
McEwan's writing is so sensual and detailed that you can truly picture his scenes in your mind's eye. It is truly poetic and beautiful description. For me, this made the book worth reading.
On the other hand, the book is divided into three segments and the first segment is excrutiatingly slow. If you can manage to slog through this first section, you will be rewarded by the remaining two thirds of the book which are much faster paced and culminate in a "twist". I should warn you that the twist is subtle and requires careful reading of the final chapter. It was the type of twist that left me thinking, not the type that I sat up and said "oh my goodness, how clever!".
In terms of the subject matter, you will follow the life of a young girl who accuses a member of her household of a terrible crime and in fact ruins his life. The book follows the accuser and the accused through time and through a war. I didn't feel particularly close to any of the characters by the end of the book so on some level the ending really didn't move me.
I did give it three stars though simply for the fabulous use of the language. I am anxious to try another book by the author to see if the plots are more engaging, because the writing is so rhythmic and lush.
This may be a great book to listen to on tape. I found that reading it aloud was actually more enjoyable than reading it silently.

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Andrew Ellington

Emotionally draining yet resounding in its importance and significance, completely worth the read...

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2007

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33 people found this helpful

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Christopher Farrell

Brilliant in spots, some overall issues

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2002

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The first two parts of Atonement are brilliant.
Part One features an inside look at a somewhat benignly dysfunctional early 20th-Century upper-class British family. There are segments written from the point of view of virtually every family member, and McEwan manages to powerfully convey the lifestyle and attitudes of not just the Tallis family, but of a segment of English society that really resonated for me. With the exception of a couple of minor passages that are a bit overwraught, the writing is wonderfully efficient, with everything having a place and importance, but with an effective pacing that isn't hurried.
Part Two features the experiences of one of the main characters (Robbie) in France, 1940, during the Dunkirk evactuation. This experience is apparently based on the letters from actual participants, and it shows in a real authenticity that makes it hard to believe that the author really *wasn't* there. This section really is better than a lot of non-fiction writing on the war, and like the first section, really manages to capture a time, place, and a real person caught in it.
Part Three is where the novel starts to fray a bit at the edges. We get another wonderful descriptive bit with the main character, Briony, and her experience as a nurse in a wartime hospital. But, it also starts to reveal what I believe is the key weakness of the book, and that's in the characters. All the wonderful setup done in part one (and to a lesser degree part 2) starts to fail to pay off here, as the characters seem to have been cast by their experiences in the first part - their development seems to abrubtly stop there despite just entering the primes of their lives. There is a scene between Briony, Robbie, and Cecilia that feels especially contrived. As it turns out, perhaps this particular scene is *supposed* to feel contrived! But that leads us too...
The last part (only about 15 pages!) is the most intruiging and also, to me, the least successful. Because as it turns out, despite the quality of the writing in the first sections, Atonement is a gimmick book. There are significant signals as to the nature of the novel throughout the first 3 parts, but it's unlikely to be enough to reveal the truth to all but the most attentive of readers. I think most will clearly realize that it's a novel-within-a-novel (and McEwen does some really interesting things here, with the style of the different sections undergoing important changes as the novelist-within-the-novelist matures), but there is more, and it's that "more" that causes some problems in interpreting the book. As it turns out (trying here to be somewhat circumspect), the novel is not *about* Atonement, it *is* Atonement, and is really *about* the writer's craft. The details of this "surprise ending that makes you rethink the entire book" not only really didn't work for me, but actually caused me to devalue the novel as a whole and walk away somewhat unsatisfied. When Atonement was "about" the trauma of growing up as a girl in a repressive English household in a repressive society, or the struggle for survival in a war zone or sanity in a hospital treating the mass of war wounded, it had power for me. When it turned out to "just" be "about" an application of the writer's craft, it lost a great deal of its resonance (and it seemed to needlessly aggrandize the power of the writer, although I suppose this point is open to interpretation - perhaps this just reflects Briony's desparation). Anyway, there was just no emotional payoff on all of the really powerful events many of the characters experience, just a small intellectual one on the nature of writing, and not being a writer myself, all of a sudden the relevance of the book to me seemed to rapidly fade. Regardless of how good the first 300 pages were, it's the last few that leave the lasting impression.
This ending is somewhat unfortunate, because after a slightly slow start, the book is frequently very well-written and really did keep me engrossed through most of it. And the meta-nature of the novel within a novel is a very interesting premise that is well-executed until the very end.
So I do recommend this book for the brilliant work in the first two parts, and part of the third - they really are that good. And the novel-within-a-novel format is well-executed and interesting. It's just a shame that the payoff is an intellectual unravelling of threads and motivations and analysis of writing rather than somthing with real emotional power.

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Jason

Excellent Read

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024

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Such a wonderful book that I simply had to share it with a loved one. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did! Thanks for the speedy delivery!

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Aleksandra Nita-Lazar

Superb!

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2006

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I have not read such a good, magically absorbing novel in a long time! The plot is constructed beautifully, without a flaw. The first part, which is also the longest, describes only one day - and during this day the reader is given the detailed portraits of all the characters (practically enough to feel like any of them), the author builds the tension up to the climax (at the end of the first part), and very believably describes the surroundings and the time.

That day in 1935, when there is a lingering shadow of the war, but at the same time its perspective is so remote that all the other aspects of normal life seem to go on normally. The Tallis family in the English countryside mansion prepares for dinner celebrating the visit of the son, Leon. The story in this part is told from the point of view of the youngest sister, thirteen-year old Briony, who has an overgrown imagination and wants to become a writer. To honor her brother, she prepared a play, but some events, invisible perhaps to the others (like jealousy for her two years older and feminine cousin, Lola), lead her to abandon the project of its staging. At the same time, we are witnesses to the love emerging between the older sister, Cecilia, and the son of the resident charlady, Robbie, both freshly back from college. The development of their awareness of the feelings to each other and mutual desire, only in this single day, is exceptionally caught. Briony's fragmentary observations of the couple and her extensive use of the imagination lead to the tragedy, which changes the lives of Robbie and Cecilia forever and lead Briony (very slowly though) into deeper and deeper feeling of guilt.

McEwan pushes the reader gently to the right direction, without too much leading and showing the obvious, but it is easy, reading carefully, notice all that he wants to show, ever so subtly. The language is rich, but crystal clear, without any excessive ornamentation, nothing unnecessary, all the words have their use either in the plot, or in the construction of the mood. The next parts create a perfect counterbalance, everything calms down, gets from the complete chaos to the natural order, more static situation - the circumstances are, for a change, very dramatic (a middle of the war actions, a hospital).

Already the story, the moral problem and its presentation, are a great start and enough for praise. But there is more, since there is a lot of metatext, comments about literature and the author's role (mostly put into Briony's mouth, but also in the editorial letter from "The Horizon"), and the ending makes a twist, when old Briony thinks about her story, considering different possible endings. This makes the reader realize that what they just passed through, is just fiction, the writer, its creator, is like God in the fictional world and we are at the end not any closer to the truth than we were at the beginning.

I could praise McEwan into infinity here, so as the last sentence I will just say that another of his achievements as a writer is that each of his works is truly original and unique, there is no self-plagiarism in any sense, no repetitive themes, only the ease with which he uses English and his ingenuity remain the same. Five stars don't do him justice.

14 people found this helpful

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Anita Pomerantz

Gorgeous lush writing, plodding plot

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2003

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36 people found this helpful

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A. J Terry

Briony as Unreliable Narrator

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2008

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_Atonement_ is a fine book, highly reminiscent of Elizabeth Bowen's work. But I don't understand why the common assessment of Briony as unreliable narrator seems to stop at her end-revelation that Cecilia and Robbie were killed without ever fulfilling their love.

Briony admits, in fact, to being a novelist throughout. She says she collapsed several hospitals she worked at into one. A common writing technique; after all, what is important is how her experience as a wartime nurse affects her.

Her rejection letter, which states that Elizabeth Bowen (who was said to not even work for the magazine) felt compelled to read her manuscript and loved it, is far too glowing for reality. Then there is the book's harmonious ending. Several generations of Briony's relatives assemble to see Briony's childhood play "The Trials of Arabella," which was interrupted and upstaged by the drama of Lola's sexual violation. Her cousin Pierrot ran away from rehearsals as a child, scotching the performance. Yet the final chapter of _Atonement_ asserts he was bitterly disappointed at not acting in it. To the extent that decades later he organized this performance, and is tearfully grateful to see it. This is pure wish fulfillment. Briony is giving herself a happy ending that she did not give Robbie and Cecilia--though she's still contemplating the latter.

Much more interesting is the description of the central event, Lola's sexual violation. Fifteen-year-old Lola is socially sophisticated--her mother just publicly eloped to Paris with a lover. Lola dresses and acts as much like an adult as she can. She's very pretty, dresses attractively, and her grooming and makeup are impeccable. Her interaction with the wealthy young chocolate magnate Paul Marshall is distinctly flirtatious. Like other girls of her generation, Lola would have been brought up to marry well, and Paul is an excellent catch. In another two or three years, Lola would be brought out into society, where her pursuit of a husband would be entirely acceptable.

While Briony is helping everyone to hunt for her runaway twin cousins, she checks the 18th-century "ruined villa" on an little island in the little lake. A spot that is both romantic, and easy for non-residents to locate (Paul Marshall has never visited the house before). Here she discovers Lola with a man on top of her, and immediately assumes this is a rape. Three years later, when Lola marries Paul Marshall, Briony admits the man was Paul. However, Briony, who her sister Cecilia describes as "a young thirteen," is not at the time sophisticated enough to understand the difference between consensual sex and rape. Only a few hours earlier, Briony discovered Cecilia and Robbie having enthusiastic sex in the library, assumed it was rape, and they have not had an opportunity to tell her otherwise. Very possibly Lola's sexual act is also quite willing, and Briony realizes that when she is somewhat older. Even Briony marvels that Lola "fell in love with her rapist."

When Briony discovers Lola and Paul, Paul immediately flees, leaving Lola to deal with the problems. And they have several. If it's consensual sex, Lola's aunt, uncle, and parents will be furious at her for losing her virtue. They'll be even more angry at Paul, who is a responsible adult. Paul can't immediately marry Lola to repair the damage--she's so young that "people would talk." Also, Lola's uncle (Briony's father) works for the War Ministry, and Paul is angling for a very lucrative army-provisioning contract. It's likely that Lola's uncle could make sure he didn't get it.

And here, Lola gets lucky: Briony, carefully led on, is willing to help Lola call the event a rape and to pin the blame on Robbie. Paul Marshall may merely have had a little sexual amusement in mind. But now that they've been seen, Lola could blackmail Paul into marrying her as soon as she's of age, by threatening to reveal the truth. Everything works out for them. Lola gets her wealthy husband and hangs onto him for the rest of her life. Paul gains his army contract. He also marries a woman whom he was attracted to when she was 15 and who is even prettier at 18.

I suspect that close examination of _Atonement_ would reveal additional examples of Briony as an unreliable narrator.

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Literature Reviews

Engaging but difficult

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2024

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This book is very enjoyable to read overall. However, I found myself searching up definitions to words often. The author does an excellent job at building a world and lovable characters. You should pick it up if you have the time.

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Kassondra Gooley

Plot Twist

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2024

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Recommended as an English Major and Teacher

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Jane Bennett

A drama of injurious fantasy

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2024

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The character development is wonderful, particularly with Briony, a precocious young teen with an overly active imagination, and a need for attention and recognition. Her accusations were set in a believable context so much so, she dared to believe the story herself.

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G-Rain

The ending killed it

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2011

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This is a hard one for me because I absolutely loved the book until the end, which actually left me MAD. I loved the author's writing style, his beautiful metaphors, the way he goes into such detail, explores the mundane, and investigates the metaphysics. The part where Briony stares at her finger, making it move, wondering about the intersection of human conscience and physical reality and existence, is one of my favorites. This book also has this quality I like so much in good books - it forces you to think differently, look at life from different angles, and it just works the magic that great writing can do. I like how we're led to feel so much anger and hatred at Breony - and then we're thrown into Robbie's war stories, all the killing, selfishness and baseness of mankind that war brings out, and then he has the realization, aren't we all guilty? I thought some parts of the plot were cheesy and undeveloped, but the writing style was so engaging and the overall plot was so suspenseful that I just read past them and still enjoyed the book tremendously.

And then I got to the end, the last chapter, and was literally like, WTF. I guess it's sort of like, going to a great restaurant and eating great food, but the dessert left you with food poisoning. You think about your experience at the restaurant and you think what a great appetizer and entree but then you get sick again thinking about the food poisoning the dessert gave you. Loved the food but just can't get past the dessert. Don't know if I would go back again. Still mad that the dessert ruined what could've been a really exceptional experience.

(***spoiler***) We read about how Robbie comes back from the war alive and well. We're told that Cecilia and Robbie's love was so deep that it survived through the war and the injustice of the rape mis-conviction. We're told that Breony built up the courage to finally confront her sister. And then we're told, SIKE!! that was all a LIE!! I (Breony) JUST MADE IT UP!! I just put that in to make myself feel better. I never made it to see Cecelia, I was walking on my way but didn't have the guts to go the whole way. I turned around. Robbie and Cecilia never fulfilled their love. But somehow, making up this story, telling her publishers to publish the story only after she dies, and by the way the version that's published isn't even the truth (so we're told in her 1999 diary entry) - somehow that is the atonement? So, this is atonement... Breony finally decides to publish a story revealing part of the truth but again she lies and makes up the "happy ending." I was left with an impression of Breony that aggrandizes her sins even more. Once again Breony's immature cowardice preferring her fantasy made up stories prevails. What a stupid ending. Still a good appetizer and entree though.

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