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Atonement

“A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama.” --John Updike, The New Yorker“Flat-out brilliant. . . . Lush, detailed, vibrantly...more
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Showing 10 of 1366 reviews
few weeks ago
Decided I had to read the book after seeing the movie, which I thought was fantastic. The sad thing is that the book is far slower than the film (and I usually hate movie adaptations). The storyline is excellent, but McEwan's penchant for over-describing landscapes and over-analyzing his characters (something best left to his readers) leads to long, soporific passages that add little to the...more
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few weeks ago
Did I love this book? I'm still debating that. But is this book a great book? yes it is. While the constant shifts between points of view did leave me reading some pages a few times. Ian McEwan gives his characters real honest to God humanity. He creates characters both with strengths and weakness and how perception is such a weird thing. how different people can interpret a simple event...more
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few weeks ago
If for no other reason, read this book for insight into a writer’s mind. Some write for the simple joy found in words and rhythm. Others, to teach basic truths and be in control. Some may want to reveal the inner self, secret thoughts, or the power of the mind. For others it's all about just plain fame. Briony covers it all, as her career progresses from its embryonic start with Arabella...more
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few weeks ago
For my own memory: (SPOILERS) Lot of narration, lot less dialogue--would have preferred more. Was trudging along until the epilogue taking place in London 99 when I finally realized that Briony was the one writing the whole account...and it started to make sense. Why it was signed BT 1999 right before the next chapter begun, why there was so much narration(Briony loved narrating) and why there...more
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few weeks ago
Listening to the hype, I went out and read this as fast as I could and planned to see the film adaptation immediately after. I succeeded in doing this. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this is probably the must beautifully written book I have had the fortune to read. He plays with language venturing into emotions, philosophies and imagination. His descriptions are vivid with his...more
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few weeks ago
The young writer who is the center of McEwan's tale reminds me very much of the most annoying character on the LWord. Jenny. Referring to the rejection letter written to Briony, the central character, McEwan writes:"She had come to see that, without intending to, it delivered a significant personal indictment. Might she come between them in some disastrous fashion? Yes, indeed. And...more
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few weeks ago
I just finished reading "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. Although I enjoyed the book as being intellectually superior to much of the modern "literature" that I've read recently, I also found it a bit snobby. It was almost as if McEwan was attempting to show off his intellectual superiority and thorough knowledge of literature by thinly disguising it behind prose. Every other page, there are references...more
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few weeks ago
I did something I don't normally like to do: I saw the film before I read the book. I was disappointed and impressed when I eventually got to the book. The book, as always happens, added another dimension to what I had already read, but the disappointment was that I already had a fixed idea of what the characters looked like. I had to actively work to reconjure them in my mind to fit in with Mr...more
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few weeks ago
Hmmmm Atonement.... It's received a hell of a lot of great press, so i went in with some reasonably high expectations, unfortunately they were never fulfilled. Anyone with a reasonably wide reading range will have picked up on the transparent similarities to Lady Chatterley. Rendells A Fatal Inversion and countless other 'upper class lounging around in the summer' novels from Gatsby on...more
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few weeks ago
"Atonement" was my first Ian McEwan book but it certainly won't be my last. Set in 3 different eras (1930's, 1940's, 1990's) the novel tells the story of 13 year old Briony who witnesses a series of events one hot summer day in 1935 that change the course of her life along with her sister Cecilia's life and that of the housekeeper's son, Robbie. Beautifully written, even if at times overly...more
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Editions
  • ISBN-10: 038572179X
  • ISBN-13: 9780385721790
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