Review of Atonement

Atonement by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is a moment in this novel that hinges the entrance and the exit together.  Cecelia's landlady, asking Briony, "Are you in or are you out?"  The whole story of one person's mistake leading to a lifetime of doubt and second guessing can be balanced easily on that question.  Mcewan's skill in painting the whole story around outliving the past or carrying it with you as a balast is so impressive, it is easy to see past the simplicity.  The finer points of the novel, the vernacular, the common usage of british idioms, the subtlety of youth, the perniciousness of lust, the blind destruction of war all converge in the reader's palms.
The proclivity to accept sensationalism when it appeals to an audience is also evident, and any reader familiar with Annie Proulx or Norman Mailer might recognize tones of sexual predation leading to damaged lives - those knots tied in youth are permanent and as Mcewan convinces us, impossible to atone for.  The most appropriate response seems to be learning ones own pride is the strongest reason.


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