Ian MacEwan's Atonement was his first book that I have read. After I had read The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, which was the first novel I had read that had an unreliable narrator, I felt stranded into the sea of reasons. Reading a book is like venturing into childhood, into the innocence of the old days, at least that is my opinion. A book takes you to place and shows you its wonders, while you are in the seat just going through the pages with eyes open wide with wonder. Unreliable narratives often take your innocence and put it through a test, a test which gives you results and stains you with reasoning. That in itself, I think is an art, to guide the reader into an illusion within an illusion and it is lovely to realize it but at the same time it is like being stabbed right into that innocence.
The book is divided into three parts and a postscript which make the novel. The main characters: Robbie Turner, Cecilia Tallis and Briony Tallis paint the story into its existence. In short the book is about a mistake made by the young Briony which leads to ruin the lives of Robbie and Cecilia and herself too as she tries to atone for it, which takes a long time to atone for.
The book had a slow opening and I found it hard to engage in it until it got to the dramatic part of it, somewhere around middle of the first part. This doesn't mean that the beginning was disappointing but rather a slow starter which forms the base of this book and spans a single afternoon and evening. But like I said before it's an illusion within an illusion so you are left stranded with the characters open to your beliefs. It's a bit complicated but this creation in itself is flawless; doesn't have any holes in it that's why it gives the reader a complete feeling. What happens most of the time is that stories raise a conflict in the minds and gets the reader intrigued but this book gives the reader the authority to imagine, to imagine the story in however they want it.
The third part of the book where 18 year old Briony's activities are mentioned, I found it personally like reading a report. Ian McEwan personally must researched a lot and he has my respect for that and also for creating something out of it.
The ending is brilliant and surprisingly inevitable. It felt like Ian was totally aware of what he was creating and not just jotting down words for the sake of it.
The way the story moves through the afternoon to the evening and then to the World War and then to the nursing homes during the war and to the postscript, this journey is what gives the taste of completion. This completion resonates due to the journey and not because of the story, because the story is still running in the mind of the reader who reason and paints his own version.
Briony is seen in the book at three junctions of her 'life' and the way she grows from a 13 year old to 18 year old and finally to an aged woman moving to her end, the reader comes to believe that growth, which is quite firm at its roots and it makes you 'feel' her there sharing the same world, sharing the same possibility as you do.
The characters of Robbie and Cecilia were equally enthralling but at the same time they are handed in the hands of the reader to make or break.
Atonement is an enjoyable book and displays a great effort by its author. Now that I have read it, I am eager to watch it come alive in its film adaptation which to my knowledge has Keira Knightley and James McAvoy with motley of other artists.
The book is divided into three parts and a postscript which make the novel. The main characters: Robbie Turner, Cecilia Tallis and Briony Tallis paint the story into its existence. In short the book is about a mistake made by the young Briony which leads to ruin the lives of Robbie and Cecilia and herself too as she tries to atone for it, which takes a long time to atone for.
The book had a slow opening and I found it hard to engage in it until it got to the dramatic part of it, somewhere around middle of the first part. This doesn't mean that the beginning was disappointing but rather a slow starter which forms the base of this book and spans a single afternoon and evening. But like I said before it's an illusion within an illusion so you are left stranded with the characters open to your beliefs. It's a bit complicated but this creation in itself is flawless; doesn't have any holes in it that's why it gives the reader a complete feeling. What happens most of the time is that stories raise a conflict in the minds and gets the reader intrigued but this book gives the reader the authority to imagine, to imagine the story in however they want it.
The third part of the book where 18 year old Briony's activities are mentioned, I found it personally like reading a report. Ian McEwan personally must researched a lot and he has my respect for that and also for creating something out of it.
The ending is brilliant and surprisingly inevitable. It felt like Ian was totally aware of what he was creating and not just jotting down words for the sake of it.
The way the story moves through the afternoon to the evening and then to the World War and then to the nursing homes during the war and to the postscript, this journey is what gives the taste of completion. This completion resonates due to the journey and not because of the story, because the story is still running in the mind of the reader who reason and paints his own version.
Briony is seen in the book at three junctions of her 'life' and the way she grows from a 13 year old to 18 year old and finally to an aged woman moving to her end, the reader comes to believe that growth, which is quite firm at its roots and it makes you 'feel' her there sharing the same world, sharing the same possibility as you do.
The characters of Robbie and Cecilia were equally enthralling but at the same time they are handed in the hands of the reader to make or break.
Atonement is an enjoyable book and displays a great effort by its author. Now that I have read it, I am eager to watch it come alive in its film adaptation which to my knowledge has Keira Knightley and James McAvoy with motley of other artists.
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