Ian McEwan - Atonement - 7

[SlowRain]

Atonement



This is a story of a young girl whose overactive imagination and incomplete understanding of adults combine to misinterpret the actions of her older sister and the son of the family’s housekeeper. What follows later that day is a crime for which the girl must spend the rest of her life atoning for.

Ian McEwan has two strengths on display in this novel: a detailed narrative with vivid descriptions of the most minuscule object or action, and brilliant characterization. You’ll notice that plot isn’t listed among those. The story, unusually enough, is set in one- or two-day time frames over the course of many years, told from different points of view: one day in 1935, one day in 1940, another two days in 1940, and one day in 1999; however, most of the events in between are covered in flashbacks.

While the information in the novel is quite fascinating and well researched, much of it is told separate from the plot, and hardly relates. So, while the British retreat to Dunkirk and the duties of nursing are well described, and do provide a limited amount of characterization, they mainly serve to lengthen an already lengthy novel, rather than compliment it. The detail is so much that approximately the first half of the book (I would guess about 160 pages in paperback) is only one day. No item goes undescribed, no event gets overlooked: more often than not, they are milked for every last drop. Is that good writing or dragging it out? I don’t know, but I tend to lean towards the latter.

The story, what little there is, is not without merit. When you strip away all the excess, McEwan has good things to say about how people can perceive the same event differently, seeking attention, sexual awakening, forgiveness, and, yes, atoning for one's sins. There is even a discourse on writing, which comes off as a little self-serving as McEwan seems to be defending his style more than anything else. If you have to defend your style in your own novel, there’s a good bet the reader will see through it.

It was an okay novel, but I think it would have gone down easier and would have been more poignant as a novella: for all of the words, there really wasn’t much to it. It’s also the first time where I feel that the forthcoming movie, if done well, will be better than the source material.


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[Annarf]

I thought that the description made the book more beautiful, more lyrical; with a sparse plot like that the book needed to be held up by something more. Also, the existentialist slant at the end - "choose your ending", in a way - is by far a masterstroke in literature. It's sheer genius, really. I feel so bad for Briony.

[SlowRain]

I couldn't find much beauty in the language: it seemed more detailed than poetic. I don't mean that to sound like a criticism (well, not too much, anyway), as the novel was extremely descriptive--it just felt very formal.

The funny thing is: I didn't feel sorry for Briony. We all have to live with our mistakes, and she is no exception. Yes, she was young at the time of her initial transgression, but she never did much of anything to right the wrong, even when she became an adult. She stuck herself in a rut and refused to get out of it, even passing it off as the fault of the lawyers and publishers. She could have done something if she had really wanted to.

Was it a choose-your-own-ending? I thought she came pretty clean at the end.

[felonius]

Isn't this now also one of the favoured films at this year's Oscars?