...
Show More
“Was everyone else really as alive as she was? For example, did her sister really matter to herself, was she as valuable to herself as Briony was? If the answer was yes then the world was unbearably complicated, with over two billion voices, everyone's thoughts of equal importance and everyone's claim on life as intense, everyone thinking they were unique, when no one was. One could drown in irrelevance. But if the answer was no then Briony was surrounded by machines, intelligent and pleasant enough on the outside, but lacking the bright and private inside feeling she had. This was sinister and lonely, as well as unlikely. Though it offended her sense of order, she knew it was overwhelmingly probable that everyone else had thoughts like hers. She knew this in an arid way but didn't feel it.”
“The age of clear answers was over. So was the age of characters and plots. She no longer really believed in characters. They were quaint devices that belonged to the nineteenth century. The very concept of character was founded on errors that modern psychology had exposed. Plots too were like rusted machinery whose wheels would no longer turn. A modern novelist could no more write about characters and plots than a modern composer could write a Mozart symphony. It was thought, perception, sensations that interested her, the conscious mind as a river through time. She had read Virginia Woolf and thought that a great transformation was being was being worked in human nature itself, and that only a new kind of fiction could capture the essence of the change.”
************
‘Atonement’ by Ian McEwan was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker and James Tait Prizes. McEwan had previously won the 1998 Booker for ‘Amsterdam’ and was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 2011. It is set during three time periods, pre-WWII, WWII and post-WWII, during the time it was written. Made into a movie, it was nominated for seven American Academy Awards and fourteen British Academy Awards where it won Best Picture. It’s a coming of age story of a girl into a woman. The author can’t convincingly write from a female perspective so he uses a third person narrative with universal themes.
Briony Tallis is a precocious though not fully mature girl of thirteen, and a writer dotingly encouraged by her mother Emily. She has a much older brother Leon who lives in London. Her older sister Cecilia graduated from Cambridge and is training to be a nurse in a London hospital. She is effectively an only child who grows up in the 1935 English countryside, ensconced within a world of carefully curated fantasy, commanding the undivided attention of her mother while she weaves her narrative spell. Her cousins closer in age to her are coming to visit, asked to act in a play she is staging for the library.
The nine year old twins Pierrot and Jackson and their fifteen year old sister Lola arrive after a two hundred mile journey from the north. Briony is oblivious that they have been sent to escape the divorce of their parents, may stay indefinitely and aren’t in the least bit interested in acting. They agree to perform but demand to pick their own roles. Lola chooses Arabella, the melancholy beauty that Briony had created for herself. Deflated she retires to her room to sulk in self pity. Lola takes over directing and Briona realizes that she has never before been confronted with adversity during the course of her life.
Briony spies Cecilia from the windows of the estate with the half-adopted caretaker Robbie, and she imagines he is proposing to her. She thinks it her duty to end the affair, as she felt compelled to save Leon from a string of unworthy girfriends. She observes Cecilia removing her clothes, not realizing it is to retrieve a vase that Robbie carelessly broke in the fountain. Leon arrives from the city with his friend Paul as Cecilia wonders if he could be the man she marries. Suddenly in love Robbie writes a salacious letter of apology and sends it to her by mistake. He is attending dinner with the family later that night.
Asked to deliver the letter Briony opens it and is convinced that she needs to rescue her older sister from Robbie, while Cecilia is more offended by her invasion of privacy than its contents. The story is told from various points of view. What seemed to be a sexual assault to Briony was a consensual act. Its consummation resembles the soft core erotica found in romance novels, sprawling across pages before interrupted by Briony. The twins run away and during the search Briony sees Lola being raped and blames Robbie. In the dark they weren’t able to see who the antagonist was but he’s arrested and tried on her accusation.
Part II opens during wartime in 1940 with Robbie leading soldiers across the French countryside on his way to Dunkirk and across the Channel to Cecilia. She had studied nursing in London while he spent five years in prison and army basic training. The pace picks up halfway through the book during the action, with its Messerschmitt fighters and machine gun nests. Robbie has hopes of returning to England, clearing his name and marrying Cecilia, but hasn’t forgiven Briony who is now willing to retract her testimony. He muses that it was done out of jealousy for Cecilia as screaming Stuka bombers attack the roadside.
On the beach twenty thousand wounded and exhausted men await evacuation. An RAF man is lynched by infantry troops over lack of air support against the Luftwaffe. During the brutality of war Robbie begins to doubt his and Cecilia’s love, haunted by memories of what he’s seen, as the boats arrive from England. In Part III Briony is working at the hospital where Cecilia had served. Training as a nurse, her childhood pretensions challenged in the military environment and her intentions to follow Cecilia’s study of literature at Cambridge vanish with dreams of becoming a writer. She is rejected by publishers and her sister.
The publishers critique reflects McEwan’s personal criticism of ‘Atonement’. Briony treats the wounded arriving from France and she hopes to find forgiveness from Robbie and Cecilia. She has an urge to speak out at Lola’s wedding to Paul, the only two others who know the secret of the assault. Visiting Cecilia after years of their estrangement, there is a tense encounter with Robbie which ends unresolved. The story continues in 1999 London with Briony as an aging writer losing her memory still at work on her memoirs, the basis of the novel that the reader is reading, suggesting a confluence of fact and fiction.
The book isn’t based on McEwan’s own experiences, its main characters animated inventions divided into three parts of exposition, conflict and resolution. As it is written in his exquisite but laborious prose enthusiasts of McEwan may admire the passages of meta-fictional musings, dwelling upon Briony’s literary vision and creative process, likely those of McEwan himself. The first hundred pages of this book are painfully drawn out but afterwards the action mounts considerably. The passage of time alters people’s perceptions and McEwan employs stream of consciousness writing to reveal their thoughts.
“The age of clear answers was over. So was the age of characters and plots. She no longer really believed in characters. They were quaint devices that belonged to the nineteenth century. The very concept of character was founded on errors that modern psychology had exposed. Plots too were like rusted machinery whose wheels would no longer turn. A modern novelist could no more write about characters and plots than a modern composer could write a Mozart symphony. It was thought, perception, sensations that interested her, the conscious mind as a river through time. She had read Virginia Woolf and thought that a great transformation was being was being worked in human nature itself, and that only a new kind of fiction could capture the essence of the change.”
************
‘Atonement’ by Ian McEwan was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker and James Tait Prizes. McEwan had previously won the 1998 Booker for ‘Amsterdam’ and was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 2011. It is set during three time periods, pre-WWII, WWII and post-WWII, during the time it was written. Made into a movie, it was nominated for seven American Academy Awards and fourteen British Academy Awards where it won Best Picture. It’s a coming of age story of a girl into a woman. The author can’t convincingly write from a female perspective so he uses a third person narrative with universal themes.
Briony Tallis is a precocious though not fully mature girl of thirteen, and a writer dotingly encouraged by her mother Emily. She has a much older brother Leon who lives in London. Her older sister Cecilia graduated from Cambridge and is training to be a nurse in a London hospital. She is effectively an only child who grows up in the 1935 English countryside, ensconced within a world of carefully curated fantasy, commanding the undivided attention of her mother while she weaves her narrative spell. Her cousins closer in age to her are coming to visit, asked to act in a play she is staging for the library.
The nine year old twins Pierrot and Jackson and their fifteen year old sister Lola arrive after a two hundred mile journey from the north. Briony is oblivious that they have been sent to escape the divorce of their parents, may stay indefinitely and aren’t in the least bit interested in acting. They agree to perform but demand to pick their own roles. Lola chooses Arabella, the melancholy beauty that Briony had created for herself. Deflated she retires to her room to sulk in self pity. Lola takes over directing and Briona realizes that she has never before been confronted with adversity during the course of her life.
Briony spies Cecilia from the windows of the estate with the half-adopted caretaker Robbie, and she imagines he is proposing to her. She thinks it her duty to end the affair, as she felt compelled to save Leon from a string of unworthy girfriends. She observes Cecilia removing her clothes, not realizing it is to retrieve a vase that Robbie carelessly broke in the fountain. Leon arrives from the city with his friend Paul as Cecilia wonders if he could be the man she marries. Suddenly in love Robbie writes a salacious letter of apology and sends it to her by mistake. He is attending dinner with the family later that night.
Asked to deliver the letter Briony opens it and is convinced that she needs to rescue her older sister from Robbie, while Cecilia is more offended by her invasion of privacy than its contents. The story is told from various points of view. What seemed to be a sexual assault to Briony was a consensual act. Its consummation resembles the soft core erotica found in romance novels, sprawling across pages before interrupted by Briony. The twins run away and during the search Briony sees Lola being raped and blames Robbie. In the dark they weren’t able to see who the antagonist was but he’s arrested and tried on her accusation.
Part II opens during wartime in 1940 with Robbie leading soldiers across the French countryside on his way to Dunkirk and across the Channel to Cecilia. She had studied nursing in London while he spent five years in prison and army basic training. The pace picks up halfway through the book during the action, with its Messerschmitt fighters and machine gun nests. Robbie has hopes of returning to England, clearing his name and marrying Cecilia, but hasn’t forgiven Briony who is now willing to retract her testimony. He muses that it was done out of jealousy for Cecilia as screaming Stuka bombers attack the roadside.
On the beach twenty thousand wounded and exhausted men await evacuation. An RAF man is lynched by infantry troops over lack of air support against the Luftwaffe. During the brutality of war Robbie begins to doubt his and Cecilia’s love, haunted by memories of what he’s seen, as the boats arrive from England. In Part III Briony is working at the hospital where Cecilia had served. Training as a nurse, her childhood pretensions challenged in the military environment and her intentions to follow Cecilia’s study of literature at Cambridge vanish with dreams of becoming a writer. She is rejected by publishers and her sister.
The publishers critique reflects McEwan’s personal criticism of ‘Atonement’. Briony treats the wounded arriving from France and she hopes to find forgiveness from Robbie and Cecilia. She has an urge to speak out at Lola’s wedding to Paul, the only two others who know the secret of the assault. Visiting Cecilia after years of their estrangement, there is a tense encounter with Robbie which ends unresolved. The story continues in 1999 London with Briony as an aging writer losing her memory still at work on her memoirs, the basis of the novel that the reader is reading, suggesting a confluence of fact and fiction.
The book isn’t based on McEwan’s own experiences, its main characters animated inventions divided into three parts of exposition, conflict and resolution. As it is written in his exquisite but laborious prose enthusiasts of McEwan may admire the passages of meta-fictional musings, dwelling upon Briony’s literary vision and creative process, likely those of McEwan himself. The first hundred pages of this book are painfully drawn out but afterwards the action mounts considerably. The passage of time alters people’s perceptions and McEwan employs stream of consciousness writing to reveal their thoughts.
