Athena K's Review - Atonement

I finished this book a few months back, and it has taken me this long to finish a blog post about it. Its not that I didn't like this book - it was very well written, and the story sucked me in. Maybe because the end was so jarring - I sat back and reflected about the novel for a long time trying to piece the whole together. Maybe it is because it had come so highly recommended to me - and I really thought I would like this more. But having just finished watching the movie, I find my thoughts distilled enough to proceed.

Many people seem familiar with the plot: Briony is the youngest child in a affluent home. Out of boredom, powerlessness, naivete, and motives I'm not sure even Briony understood, she accuses a family friend of a horrible crime - and then suffers with the guilt of her knowledge for the rest of her life. Briony's choice to change the end of her story for her readers begs many interesting questions - what is the intrinsic value of honesty? How much guilt can and should a person suffer or self-apply in the aftermath of such an event? How much responsibility can be taken for the outcome of a series of events that one may have set in motion, but did not further contribute to?

Needless to say, the writing is exquisite. The story is vivid - especially in parts 2 and 3. describing the war scenes and the hospital. But the characters, while interesting, were not as compelling as I had hoped or maybe needed. Each of the main figures serves as a person and as a sort of allegory or type, which distanced my emotions from them in the book. Also, they were mostly annoying aristocratic types, which I did not connect well with. This was not so in the movie, which (unusually) was better in connecting my emotions to the rawness and tragedy of the plot in a way I was not able to in the book.

The film's ability to connect me to the story did not come without certain sacrifices. In the movie, many of the fascinating ambiguities are necessarily lost, and the story is reduced in its complexity. But perhaps that is precisely my problem with the book: the nuances and complexity were a bit too much to also permit a deep emotional connection. 

Instead of feeling the book was deeply meaningful, when I finished this book and put it down I was immediately over it. But watching the film has reminded me of the fantastic aspects of the book, and I find myself more than willing to keep and open mind and give it a re-read another time.

The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert (Jill)

The Dark Room
By Rachel Seiffert
Completed November 30, 2010

Over the past year or two, I have been drawn to books about World War II. Most are told from the perspective of the Allied nations or Jewish people affected by the Holocaust. I am glad to have stumbled upon Rachel Seiffert’s The Dark Room, which offers the perspective of the average German citizen affected by World War II.

The Dark Room is divided into three separate stories:

1) Helmet is a young photographer’s apprentice, whose family supported Hitler and prospered during The Third Reich’s heyday. Even at war’s end, Helmet still clung to Nazi Germany’s ideals. Then, one day, he stumbles into a round-up of gypsies by German soldiers and sees the gross mistreatment of these people. He took pictures of the atrocity and ran away from the scene. As he reflects over his photos, you feel his heartbreak for a nation lost in so many ways.

2) Lore is a teenage girl – one of six children – who must embark on a treacherous journey from Bavaria to Hamburg at the end of the war. Through Lore’s journey, you see how war affected the home front and the people who once were bound by the same cause. No longer united, they stole and cheated from each other. Like Helmet, Lore didn’t realize Germans was killing innocent people, until she saw pictures posted in a village. Confused by what she saw, she befriended a young man, Tomas, who confirmed the genocide. Lore was devastated, especially as she considered her father and brother might have been involved in these mass murders.

3) Michael is a school teacher living in 1990’s Germany who began wondering why his grandfather had been imprisoned for so long after World War II. He began to research and learned that his grandfather was part of the Waffen SS, the elite police force of the German Army. He traces his grandfather’s service to Belarus and traveles there to learn more. The important theme in Michael’s section is national guilt – how after 50+ years, some Germans truly mourned what their country did, while others didn’t grasp it, or were too far removed from the war to be impacted. Michael, though, couldn’t forget and carried the weight of guilt for his whole family.

Admittedly, The Dark Room is a bit bleak, but Seiffert pulls you right in so you can experience the characters’ emotions. Seiffert writes simply but effectively, and her sparse prose adds to the brevity of her stories. Despite the grim subject matter, I found this book to be enlightening and engaging – and would highly recommend it, especially to those who believe, like me, that war has no true winner. ( )

Atonement by Ian McEwan (Jill)

Atonement
By Ian McEwan
Completed November 2, 2008

I am learning that you can’t go wrong reading an Ian McEwan novel. My latest McEwan selection, Atonement, was no exception. Marked by superb storytelling, interesting characters and “a-ha” plot twists, Atonement wrapped around me like a blanket. It’s a story I won’t soon forget.

Having already seen the movie, I had a basic idea of the characters and story. It’s the love story of Cecilia and Robbie, whose fledgling romance was ripped apart when Cecilia’s sister, Briony, falsely accused Robbie of raping her cousin. It’s also the story of forgiveness and redemption, as an older Briony tried to rectify her error but recanting her story. And if that’s not enough, it’s the story of war: war between countries fighting in World War II – and strife in Cecilia and Briony’s families as they were torn apart by Briony’s accusation.

What I liked best about Atonement was the excellent characterization. It was easy to love Robbie and Cecilia and feel sorry for their fates. It was easy to dislike the young Briony with her 10-year-old smugness and soften a bit when you met her as a young nurse. Even the secondary characters held my interest.

I would recommend Atonement without reservation to any reader who loves modern literary fiction. I look forward to reading more by Ian McEwan – he is one of the best storytellers of his generation. ( )

Atonement - Wendy's Review

Real life, her life now beginning, had sent her a villain in the form of an old family friend with strong, awkward limbs and a rugged friendly face who used to carry her on his back, and swim with her in the river, holding her against the current. That seemed about right - truth was strange and deceptive, it had to be struggled for, against the flow of the everyday. This was exactly what no one would have expected, and of course villains were not announced with hisses or soliloquies, they id not come cloaked in black, with ugly expressions. -From Atonement, page 147-

Ian McEwan’s NBCC award winning novel (which was also shortlisted for the 2001 Man Booker Prize) begins in England during a heatwave. Briony Tallis, a dramatic child obsessed with writing stories, prepares for the arrival of her Northern cousins - beautiful and manipulative Lola and her twin brothers - and her brother Leon. Briony’s older sister Cecilia meanwhile laments the long summer ahead of her and spars with the charwoman’s son Robbie. The initial chapters of Atonement move slowly, setting up the characters and establishing the sense of place. Set in the mid-1930s, the novel feels old-fashioned. Despite the slow pace, I enjoyed McEwan’s beautiful writing…and so once the plot and characters are fully established and things begin to unravel at the Tallis residence, my interest was quickly engaged.

The structure of Atonement is unusual - spanning several decades, and written from multiple points of view in three distinct parts which take the reader from England to France during WWII. But, the structure is one of the things that works well for a novel which thematically examines the interpretation of truth. McEwan manages to keep his reader unsettled, wondering at the characters’ motivations and leaving loose ends. It is not until the final page is turned that the reader is able to verify the whole story.

I can understand why Atonement captured the attention of the judges for prizes like the NBCC and the Booker, as well as the scriptwriters. It is a fully realized, very literary effort by an author who understands how to string together words which inspire, intrigue and tug at the heartstrings. I am happy that I waded through the early parts of the novel when the going was methodical. The reader who sticks with McEwan as he sets up the story will be rewarded in the end.

Recommended; rated 4/5

Redheadrambles review of Number9Dream (2001 shortlist)

  Number9Dream is Mitchells 2nd novel and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001 (the year ( "True History of the Kelly Gang" won). Here is a plot synopsis taken from the Man Booker website

number9dream is a Far Eastern, detective/family chronicle, road-movie-of-the-mind. The summer is almost over and Eiji Miyake, his twentieth birthday looming, arrives in Tokyo with a mission – to find the father he has never met. number9dream follows Eiji on a search that leads through the seething city’s underworld, lost property offices, video arcades and his own imaginings, dreams, mother’s letters and memories. His journeys lead him back to the rainy island of Yakshima, where everything that matters to Eiji began and ended.

As usual with Mitchell, I was blown away by his powers of imagination and wordplay. This man has a prodigious talent. Number9Dream feels like a rollercoaster ride through Mitchells imagination, the trouble is sometimes you really want it to slow down so you can appreciate the view.  The premise of the story is simple, country boy Eiji seeks for his unknown father in Tokyo. However the telling of the story is far from simple. Each chapter has multiple narratives, so in the first chapter for example we alternate between Eiji's reality and his Bladerunner-type fantasys. The novel was most successful for me when I was compelled equally by both alternating narratives. The Yakuza chapter "Unclaimed Land" was electrifying, (death by bowling ball !?). However I really struggled with the Goatwriter section in "Study of Tales". Some sections I wished could be a whole other novel, - the WWII Kai Ten pilot for example.  The final chapter left me rather perplexed - but this was never a novel I expected to have a clear cut resolution.

Overall I felt this novel was too much like a string of short stories, albeit with a strong central character. Just when I felt the story was gathering speed we would digress and lose some momentum. 

I agree with other reviewers, this work is not as strong as Cloudatlas and probably not the best introduction to Mitchell. However there is a lot in here to enjoy. It is a book that warrants a second reading to pick up all the little nuances.  

I now need to read Ghostwritten to complete the Mitchell oeuvre. I would also like to get some more Murakami  under my belt. 

4 stars

Trevor's Review of McEwan's Atonement

Fascinating, strongly written piece of metafiction.

A majority of the first part of the book takes place in one day in early 1930s England. McEwan's prose is a perfect evocation of Virginia Woolf's style, flowing from the thoughts of one character to another seamlessly. The second part of the book takes place during WWII, and the events of that one day still affect all of the characters deeply. I enjoyed this book throughout, but by the end I felt that this book went beyond just a great book to a masterpiece. It is an incredible look at the power of words and writing, and a deep look at guilt and how to get out from under its weight--even when it is next to impossible. Guilt is hard to get rid of, especially when there is no apparent way of attaining forgiveness.

Sometimes it looks like McEwan is showing off. At times he even appears to get in the way, pointing things out to show the reader just how clever he is. This is a potential turn off, but I didn't feel it when reading this book. On the contrary, it fit with the voice of the narrative. Highly recommended.
5 stars out of 5.

Atonement - 3M's Review

This was not an easy book to read. It is in three parts, of which I found the first to be the most difficult to get through. By difficult I mean slow, detailed, and plodding. There is very little dialogue throughout the book. Most of the writing consists of the characters’ inward thoughts and feelings.

It is a story about Briony, who at 13 years old accuses a family friend of a horrible crime. This occurs in Part 1, which takes up half the book. The aftermath of that accusation, along with the characters’ involvement in World War II make up Parts 2 and 3. I don’t like reading about war, but I actually liked this part of the book the most. That was a surprise to me. By the end, Briony is 77 and reflecting on her life events and how they have affected her family.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book very much, but I am glad I read it. I’ll probably read at least one more book by this author before passing a final judgment.

2002, 351 pp.
NBCC - 2002

Rating: 3.5/5

Atonement - J's Review

I'm writing this review a bit differently than I have in the past, in that I'm not quite half-way through the book, and I've got a lot of thoughts swimming around in my head that I want to get out and on 'paper', so I can just get back to the book without them clouding my brain. They're not big, important, deep thoughts. Just thoughts.

First, this book makes me want to smoke. It just seems like the kind of book that a person should read in a big chair or something, smoking a cigarette ala' Out of Africa, sort of to show how serious I am while reading it. Not in a way that is connected in any way whatsoever to smoking in real life.

Next, and most importantly at this point, I'm having a heck of a time getting into this novel. Thus far, the tale is told mainly in the voice of a young girl, 11-year old Briony, who witnesses several incidents one scorching hot day in 1935. She witnesses a scene between her 21-year old sister (Cecilia) and their neighbor (Robbie), who is about the same age, which she completely misunderstands. He sends a note through Briony, apologizing to Cecilia for the scene, which Briony reads and finds repugnant and somewhat threatening. Lastly, she happens upon a violent crime, her 13-year old cousin being raped by a man, in the dark, whom Briony identifies as Robbie. OK, this is bugging me, because it so clearly wasn't Robbie committing the crime, and there are clues leading in that give that fact away. It bugs me that Briony ignores these clues, as does everyone around her. Her insistence that she knows beyond any doubt that Robbie committed the crime is frustrating.

That's all for now, I'll write more when I finish the book.
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OK, I finished the book, and I'm happy to say that I enjoyed the second half much more than the first. Of course, the repercussions of Briony's insistence of Robbie's guilt are immediate and dire. That he is so quickly shut out of the family, and that obvious clues are ignored speaks to the fact that he is lower class, the son of a servant, whereas the girl, and the actual rapist, are both upper class, and therefore the blame easily goes to the poor man, rather than the rich one.

As early as the week that followed, the glazed surface of conviction was not without its blemishes and hairline cracks. Whenever she was conscious of them, which was not often, she was driven back, with a little swooping sensation in her stomach, to the understanding that what she knew was not literally, or not only, based on the visible. It was not simply her eyes that told her the truth. It was too dark for that. Even Lola's face at eighteen inches was an empty oval, and this figure was many feet away, and turned from her as it moved back around the clearing. But nor was this figure invisible, and its size and manner of moving were familiar to her. Her eyes confirmed the sum of all she knew adn had recently experienced. The truth was in the symmetry, which was to say, it was founded in common sense. The truth instructed her eyes. So when she said, over and over again, I saw him, she meant it, and was perfectly honest, as well as passionate. What she meant was rather more complex than what everyone else so eagerly understood, and her moments of unease came when she felt that she could not explain these nuances. She did not even seriously try. There were no opportunities, no time, no permission. Within a couple of days, no, within a matter of hours, a process was moving fast and well beyond her control.

The second segment in the book is told from Robbie's point of view. A few years have gone by, and he is in France, retreating from the German army, from Dunkirk to the ocean, where they await a squadron to remove them from France. This segment was the most compelling to me. Robbie's internal world is much less convoluted than Briony's, his motives much more straightforward. His shame at leaving is palpable, as is his desire to get home in one piece to Cecilia. The nuance of his desire to get home, his confusion over his feelings, and his understanding that war removes the labls of guilty and innocent, are very moving.

Through the material of his coat he felt for the bundle of her letters. I'll wait for you. Come back. The words were not meaningless, but they didn't touch him now. It was clear enough - one person waiting for another like an arithmetical sum, and just as empty of emotion. Waiting. Simply one person doing nothing, over time, while another approached. Waiting was a heavy word. He felt it pressing down, heavy as a greatcoat. Everyone in the cellar was waiting, everyone on the beach. She was waiting, yes, but then what? He tried to make her voice say the words, but it was his own he heard, just below the tread of his heart. He could not even form her face.

..what was guilt these days? It was cheap. Everyone was guilty, and no one was. No one would be redeemed by a change of evidence, for there weren't enough people, enough paper and pens, enough patience and peace, to take down the statements of all the witnesses and gather in the facts. The witnesses were guilty too. All day we've witnessed each other's crimes. You killed no one today? But how many did you leave to die? Down here in the cellar we'll keep quiet about it.

The third segment of the book is mainly Briony's point of view again. It is 1940, and she is working as a nurse in a military hospital in London. She has been changed in ways she could not have imagined, both by the war, and by the outfall of her accusation of Robbie in the rape of her cousin. She has grown up a lot, and is faced with the task of seeking Robbie and Cecilia's forgiveness. She is looking for atonement for her insistance at that earlier time, when she now knows the truth of what happened that day, even more than Cecilia and Robbie do.

I very much liked the book, at least the second half. The writing was beautiful, and painted a picture that was at the same time bleak and lush. Not an easy feat.

Atonement - Marg's Review

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 been 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.

This is a book that I was always going to read, for a number of reasons. The first was the "there's a movie" coming hype, where I think that a movie sounds interesting but I really want to read the book first. The second reason was that there was a LOT of Atonement love happening over at at one of the forums I am a member of (rather I should say IS a lot of love) and the third reason was that having read On Chesil Beach not too long ago and not minding it, I was curious as to whether I really would like to read more of McEwans books. The answer to that question, having read this book, is a definite yes. Of course, the fact that I liked this is no guarantee that I will like the others, but it's a good sign.

It is more difficult than usual for me to write about this book, because even to try to give basic explanations of plots will be to spoil. What I would say is that the love story that is contained within this book is very strong, thriving in spite of huge difficulties that are placed in its path, and has a star-crossed lovers feel to it.

There are three main setting in the novel - one the country estate that the Tallis' call home, where events take an unforeseen turn that very nearly destroys both one individual and a whole family. We also found ourselves in the desperate days just before the evacuation of the British troops at Dunkirk, and then again later in the hospitals of London as they try to cope with the influx of wounded. McEwan does a great job at giving each of these locations very distinct atmosphere and emotional charge without losing any of the emotional depth associated with the events that happen in each of these places.

As to whether the main character atones or not...well....I'm not sure she does, but she is definitely a character about whom it is not possible to be ambivalent.

Overall, a very satisfying read, and I am looking forward to seeing the movie now that I have finished the book!


Cross posted at Reading Adventures