Atonement by Ian McEwan.

[ladymacbeth]

I couldn't find a thread on this book so took the liberty of adding one.

 

I'm looking for a bit of advice actually. I am 5 chapters in to this book and so far NOTHING has happened. I would like to continue reading as the book seems to come highly recommended. However, if it continues on in this way then it's probably not for me.

 

Does anything interesting actually happen in this book?

 

Thanks all.

[SueK]

errrm - no. I'm afraid I gave up on it. If I get to see the DVD one day, it may prompt me to pick it up but again it has been pushed way back down the reading pile.

[ladymacbeth]

errrm - no. I'm afraid I gave up on it. If I get to see the DVD one day, it may prompt me to pick it up but again it has been pushed way back down the reading pile.

 

LOL. I'm glad it's not just me then. Just read another chapter- the mother has a migraine and lies in bed ruminating on her children. Yep, that's all. A whole chapter...

 

I feel a terrible sense of guilt at giving up though. Perhaps I'll just tick over a chapter every day or so while reading something else.

[nursenblack]

It really does get a lot better. I felt the same way at first too, but it picks up and was a great novel.

[poppy]

I read and finished this book, I found nearly all the characters irritating, particularly Briony. But I generally enjoy this type of book, reminds me somewhat of Evelyn Waugh and Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day.

[Greta]

Same here. I wondered what the fuss was all about but I think it gets better towards the end so keep hanging in there

[ladymacbeth]

After page 80 this book finally gained momentum. I'm finally starting to be interested in what happens.

[ladymacbeth]

Finally finished Atonement. It was readable but only just. The thing I found most frustrating about it was that I expected the book to be about a crime that needed to be atoned for. Whilst this was part of the book, for over 50% of the time the characters were either doing or thinking about something entirely unrelated. So most of the book seemed irrelevant and boring to me. I felt the book could have been a third it's size and better for it.

[Kylie]

Finally finished Atonement. It was readable but only just. The thing I found most frustrating about it was that I expected the book to be about a crime that needed to be atoned for. Whilst this was part of the book, for over 50% of the time the characters were either doing or thinking about something entirely unrelated. So most of the book seemed irrelevant and boring to me. I felt the book could have been a third it's size and better for it.

 

Ah, but what did you think of the ending? Some people loved it and some people hated it. Me, I still don't think I've made up my mind.

[ladymacbeth]

I'm not sure which bit of the ending you are referring to. My thoughts on the last chapter are

 

 

It made sense that Briony was the writer of the story as I felt she was the character judged the most harshly by the writer. And I do think we are usually our own worst critics.

I do remember thinking that as well as making a bad mistake Briony is a terrible waffly writer.

But I didn't really find the "crime" that Briony committed especially bad. How do we know it wasn't Robbie? I thought Cecelia was a bit of a mug for just accepting that it wasn't him with no questions.

I also thought Lola had something to answer to if the perpetrator wasn't Robbie as something funny clearly happened in the nursery with Mr Marshall before dinner which would have been relevant to the trial.

As for the fact that Robbie and Cecelia were both dead I was so disengaged from the characters that I didn't really care. I thought the fact that Robbie suddenly turned up at Cecelia's house in Part 3 was odd to start with as I suspected he was dead.

 

 

So overall, the last chapter tied up some loose ends but didn't leave me thinking about the novel or feeling there had been a remarkable twist in the tale.

[Elin]

I'm not sure which bit of the ending you are referring to. My thoughts on the last chapter are

 

 

It made sense that Briony was the writer of the story as I felt she was the character judged the most harshly by the writer. And I do think we are usually our own worst critics.

I do remember thinking that as well as making a bad mistake Briony is a terrible waffly writer.

But I didn't really find the "crime" that Briony committed especially bad. How do we know it wasn't Robbie? I thought Cecelia was a bit of a mug for just accepting that it wasn't him with no questions.

I also thought Lola had something to answer to if the perpetrator wasn't Robbie as something funny clearly happened in the nursery with Mr Marshall before dinner which would have been relevant to the trial.

As for the fact that Robbie and Cecelia were both dead I was so disengaged from the characters that I didn't really care. I thought the fact that Robbie suddenly turned up at Cecelia's house in Part 3 was odd to start with as I suspected he was dead.

 

 

So overall, the last chapter tied up some loose ends but didn't leave me thinking about the novel or feeling there had been a remarkable twist in the tale.

 

I felt that ending to be heartbreaking! Its just awful what happens to them all, one little mistake and everyone's doomed..

 

It's been a while since I read it so might get it confused with the film, but

I'm pretty sure we are told that it wasn't Robbie who did it, so Briony's lively imagination not only ruined Robbie's chances of a life, but his mothers, Cecelias and Brionys as well. She spends the rest of her life trying to atone a mistake she will forgive herself. And when she does realise her mistake it's too late to clear it up and would only end up ruining more peoples lives so she waits what must feel like an eternity before she confesses it. To bear that all your life, that you are responsible for their deaths, I thought that was some powerful things to think about.

 

Edited September 23, 2010 by Elin

[ladymacbeth]

I disagree that we are told Robbie didn't do it. As the book is still a subjective account written by Briony, she believes as an adult that Robbie didn't do it so this come through in the narrative, but the reader can never know 100% as the book is not written as an independent factual account.

[Elin]

 

I disagree that we are told Robbie didn't do it. As the book is still a subjective account written by Briony, she believes as an adult that Robbie didn't do it so this come through in the narrative, but the reader can never know 100% as the book is not written as an independent factual account.

 

 

The book is told from Briony's pov but by using the third person narrative (or how to say it) we're told things Briony isn't..

this quote from when B has found Lola after the rape confirms that it wasn't Robbie who did it:

 

And so their respective positions, which were to find public expressions in the weeks and months to come, and then be pursued as demons in private for many years afterwards, were established in these moments by the lake, with Briony's certainty rising whenever her cousin appeared to doubt herself. Nothing much was ever required of Lola after that, for she was able to retreat behind an air of wounded confusion, and as treasured patient, recovering victim, lost child, let herself be bathed in concern and guilt of the adults in her life. (...) Lola could not, and did not need to, help them. Briony offered her a chance, and she seized it instinctively; less than that - she simply let it settle over her. She had little more to do than remain silent behind her cousin's zeal. Lola did not need to lie, to look her supposed attacker in the eye and summon the courage to accuse him, because all that work was done for her, innocently, and without guile by the younger girl. Lola was required only to remain silent about the truth, banish it and forget it entirely, and persuade herself not of some contrary tale, but simply of her own uncertainty.

 

And later when B witnesses the wedding between L and Marshall

(...)Briony insisted on doing the talking and blaming. And what luck that was for Lola - barely more than a child, priced opened and taken - to marry her rapist.

Can't really get any clearer than that... We're told throughout the book, not by Briony but by the author, that Marshall was the rapist, not Robbie.

 

[ladymacbeth]

 

We're told throughout the book, not by Briony but by the author, that Marshall was the rapist, not Robbie.

 

 

 

The last chapter makes it fairly clear that Briony IS the author. Therefore we can't be told things that Briony doesn't know. She has written it in third person but the big twist at the end is that Briony is the author and that part of the book is fictional as robbie and the other chick are dead.

Coming back to your point, as Briony has grown older she has come to some realisation that Marshall was the rapist but that is Briony's opinion based on her observations and thoughts and guilt. It is not based on factual evidence. Maybe she has been feeling guilty for years about nothing? Maybe she got it right the first time.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2010 by ladymacbeth

[Elin]

 

The last chapter makes it fairly clear that Briony IS the author. Therefore we can't be told things that Briony doesn't know. She has written it in third person but the big twist at the end is that Briony is the author and that part of the book is fictional as robbie and the other chick are dead.

Coming back to your point, as Briony has grown older she has come to some realisation that Marshall was the rapist but that is Briony's opinion based on her observations and thoughts and guilt. It is not based on factual evidence. Maybe she has been feeling guilty for years about nothing? Maybe she got it right the first time.

 

 

 

In a way we see the things we wanna see.

Briony's glorified image of Robbie was rather shattered after reading his sexual note and so in her mind he became the obvious rapist. It's only when she gets older that she can see and put together all the obvious signs that it was actually Marshall who did it.

The Marshalls doesn't seem to be on speaking terms with Lola's family during the last chapter and Briony says then that "it was accepted that [they] never mentioned [Pierrot's] sister" something that shows she wasn't the only one who had it figured out, or?

Briony did witness the wedding and Lola's reaction when she sees Briony there showed some guilt..

 

A part from McEwan's respond during an interview: "Briony (...) makes a misjudgement in indicting the wrong man. She wants things to fit with the story she has in her head. (...)It is a story that she plans to write, but she has no idea that she is going to spend her whole life writing it and that this is going to be an atonement. But she does what I think we all do one way or another - (...) 'believing is seeing'. If you have your mind set in a certain way, you will see things in a certain way. And Briony is determined that this man, not that, committed this crime. But that's just his thoughts and he never really clarifies that it was Marshall.

 

 

The thing I found most frustrating about it was that I expected the book to be about a crime that needed to be atoned for. Whilst this was part of the book, for over 50% of the time the characters were either doing or thinking about something entirely unrelated.

 

The crime itself is only used a catalyst, it's the atoning that the book is about, especially Briony's but also the other characters.

[ladymacbeth]

 

 

The crime itself is only used a catalyst, it's the atoning that the book is about, especially Briony's but also the other characters.

 

I disagree, from my observation vast parts of the book were neither about crime or atonement. Which is why I thought the book was boring. I would have enjoyed it more if it was shorter and that relevant parts were condensed without the waffle.

 

I'm glad you and others enjoyed it.

[Elin]

I disagree, from my observation vast parts of the book were neither about crime or atonement. Which is why I thought the book was boring. I would have enjoyed it more if it was shorter and that relevant parts were condensed without the waffle.

 

I'm glad you and others enjoyed it.

 

I liked the film, and the subject of the book but never really his writing... So I do agree with you about that big parts of the book felt boring and could have been cut out without hurting the story.

[Vicky]

Oh dear - I seem to be the only person around who really enjoyed it! I absolutely love Atonement. Partly, I think, because I'm the youngest and have a brother and sister who are more than twelve years older than me, so I can relate to a lot of Briony's narrative, the perspective of always being slightly on teh outside, always observing the 'grown ups', and could definitely relate to her feelings that that's still what she was doing in later life.

 

A great point of debate among my family and friends (One whom I've pressed this book -- lucky them!) is whether it's a happy ending or a sad ending. Ex-husband thought the ending was tragic and spoiled the whole book, Mum and I think it's a happy ending in the respect that

[synecdoche]

Oh dear - I seem to be the only person around who really enjoyed it! I absolutely love Atonement. Partly, I think, because I'm the youngest and have a brother and sister who are more than twelve years older than me, so I can relate to a lot of Briony's narrative, the perspective of always being slightly on teh outside, always observing the 'grown ups', and could definitely relate to her feelings that that's still what she was doing in later life.

 

A great point of debate among my family and friends (One whom I've pressed this book -- lucky them!) is whether it's a happy ending or a sad ending. Ex-husband thought the ending was tragic and spoiled the whole book, Mum and I think it's a happy ending in the respect that

 

You can add me to your list of people who really enjoyed the book! And unlike the other posters to this thread it seems, I actually liked his prose. It has a sort of backseat placidity that sort of parallels Briony's dream-like misunderstanding of the adult world.

[Hyzenthlay]

I also thoroughly enjoyed this book. Interestingly enough I also have older siblings. I think McEwan's subtlety is fantastic, and I think the last chapter changed the entire reading experience. I disagree that the book is not about atonement.