Product Description
On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.
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Amazon.com
Ian McEwan's Booker Prize-nominated Atonement is his first novel since Amsterdam took home the prize in 1998. But while Amsterdam was a slim, sleek piece, Atonement is a more sturdy, more ambitious work, allowing McEwan more room to play, think, and experiment. We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama "The Trials of Arabella" to welcome home her older, idolized brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting prospects of preoccupation come onto the scene. The charlady's son, Robbie Turner, appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Ammo" chocolate bar; and upstairs, Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present.... The interwar, upper-middle-class setting of the book's long, masterfully sustained opening section might recall Virginia Woolf or Henry Green, but as we move forward--eventually to the turn of the 21st century--the novel's central concerns emerge, and McEwan's voice becomes clear, even personal. For at heart, Atonement is about the pleasures, pains, and dangers of writing, and perhaps even more, about the challenge of controlling what readers make of your writing. McEwan shouldn't have any doubts about readers of Atonement: this is a thoughtful, provocative, and at times moving book that will have readers applauding. --Alan Stewart, Amazon.co.uk
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 Loved it! ( notyouraveragedame )
I almost gave this novel 4 stars, because there was a point at the near-end where I didn't like where the author was going. But in the last pages, he redeemed himself, and I see why it *had* to be told the way it was.
That being said, I loved Atonement. It is one of the best books I've read in years. Robbie and Cecilia's fiery love made me catch my breath, and I know this is a book that will leave me thinking for days.
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 Contrived and predictable ( sarahheartburn )
What an overrated piece of soap-operatic junk! I can't recall when I was so disappointed in a book. With all the accolades, I was expecting something really special (tho' I should know better by now, as commercial/popular success seems these days to be inversely related to quality). While the prose itself is nice, the entire book hangs on an event that occurs early on and is so contrived and unbelievable, with an outcome that is so predictable, that it was difficult for me to keep reading -- and the only reason I did keep reading was because I kept hoping it would get better, that an intelligent and complex structure would ultimately emerge to justify the contrivance and its predictability -- but alas, it never does. I can't get into specifics without giving away details that shouldn't be revealed to those who still want to read this trash, but if you're looking for an intelligent read with some substance and honesty, DON'T read this book!!
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My favorite book... ever.
I first picked this book up about 6 or 7 years ago, read it over the course of 4 nights and immediately read it all over again. I laughed. I cried. I got excited/scared/happy/hopeful/devastated/etc. as the story went.
My favorite thing about Atonement is that the story is one I have never read before. It's so refreshing after reading hundreds of books I find that so many follow the same base plots, and while they can still be good, this book transcended any I had read before, and any I have read after.
My hands-down favorite. I've read it 4 times now as well as anything else by Ian McEwan I could find.
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 So-So
Yes, Ian McEwan writes beautifully. Yes, I actully liked the last section of the novel where as a reader, I understood more about Briony. But the novel felt sluggish, and the characters seemed shallow. I just never connected, which was a disappointment. It seemed on the surface to have all of the elements I usually enjoy.
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A Writer Learns About Life ( crojoh )
There are so many reviews of this book already that I am loathe to add more redundant verbiage to the pile. So I'll just say that this is my third Ian McEwan novel (having read "On Chesil Beach" and "Saturday" before I read this one), and I must say that he is now one of my favorite writers. This book functions on so many levels and in the end is really as much about the craft of writing as anything else. We first meet Briony, who is really the protagonist, as a young adolescent, and we see into her young mind and heart, and understand, before she does, the disaster that her overactive imagination will cause in the lives of her friends and family. She is precocious and thoughtful, but she is young and fails to understand that she is wrong, in so many ways, about what she sees before her own eyes. Her emotions and her imagination get the better of her and although she ultimately realizes the mistake she made and seeks atonement for it, she has nonetheless changed forever the lives of her Cecilia, her sister, and of Robbie, the young man with a promising future whose mother works for the Tallis family. Ironically, though, it is her imagination that will serve her well as a novelist. The book flows through personal lives, society, as well as world history and moves from mid-20th century to the end of the century. A good deal of ground to cover, but McEwan does it well, I think. The characters are interesting and real and the story is compelling.
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