Monday, February 16, 2009

Atonement by Ian McEwan

For the first half of the book I could not decide if I liked it or not. There is great character introspection and philosophising by a 13 year old girl. I got tired of it, but I loved the picture the author created. England in the early 1900's, beautiful landscape, rich characters going about their rich lives, and the such. The first half of the book takes place in one day. It has the "Clue" like feel of getting the story from every one's perspective until the "crime" happens. The main character is a 13 year old girl who does not understand her own naivety. Her lack of understanding causes a chasm between the two lovers of the story. I liked this book. Once the plot of the story came out I was hooked and could not put the book down. The sister , Cee, is quite funny to me. She is messy, has a temper, and true to herself. I was worried that I would end up dissapointed in her, but I am happy to say I wasn't. I think this book shows why there are things that we don't show or let our young children read. Children have such a limited understanding of emotions and feelings and their assumptions are often wrong. I ranked this a 3 on goodreads. I would warn you that this occurs during world war 2 and the soldiers like the "F" word a little too much.One of my favorite lines or ideas from the book was "Falling in love can be told in one word..." I won't finish it because I think for everyone that one word would be different.

3 comments:

Tanja said...

I did not mean to push the publish button, but I did. This book is Atonement by Ian McEwan. Sorry for my idiocy

L said...

Fixed it for ya darlin'.
I'm excited to read this now. I've had it in my to-read pile for quite awhile.
I'm wondering if the movie is any good? Have you heard anything about it?

Tanja said...

Thanks for fixing that. I read the back of the movie case and it pothered me the way they seem to be portraying Briony. I don't like it when they change what I consider key points