Atonement Book Review

Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please read with caution.

Atonement was a struggle to read. I had seen the movie literally a decade ago, so my vague recollections of its plot points kept me going until I hit them, but I don’t think I would’ve finished otherwise. Granted, I read the entire novel in two days, but I digress. Let’s talk about what the book is about before I continue with the review.

Synopsis: The novel—written by Ian McEwan and published in 2001—is set during 1934 on a summer’s day, where main protagonist Briony Tallis misinterprets the romantic intentions of her older sister Cecelia and Robbie Turner—son of a servant and childhood friend—as something more malicious. This misinterpretation caused a ripple in all their lives during the carnage and chaos of World War II.

I had a few issues with this novel’s pacing in Part One. The first major plot point—the crime against Lola—didn’t take off until halfway through the novel. Part One of the novel—out of four—was dedicated to setting up the dinner scene and the crime against Lola when her twin brothers went missing, but the set-up took too long in my opinion. About 150 pages into the novel—close to the halfway point—I was getting impatient.

There was an omniscient POV throughout Part One where head hopping kept happening, but the main POVs—in my opinion—were Briony, Cecelia, Robbie, and Lola. Whenever we were in someone else’s head—like Emily Tallis—I kind of checked out.

Part Two was fine, but I had no real investment in Robbie Turner’s POV. This was a personal opinion. Some readers loved the historical aspect of Part Two, which basically functioned as a short story. However, I did enjoy his determination to survive the war for Cecelia and how he was processing his feelings about Briony’s crime against him. The letter Cecelia wrote him—Come back—did tug at my heartstrings. I responded somewhat emotionally whenever Robbie talked about her or his resentment of Briony, and his valid feelings about what Briony did to him was needed to enhance the novel’s message.

Part Three centered around Briony’s adult life as a nurse—following her older sister Cecelia’s footsteps—helping out during World War II. This section of the novel humanized Briony and showed her guilt and desire for atonement for what she did in Part One. She also desired forgiveness, but she knew atonement and forgiveness didn’t go hand-in-hand, which set-up the epilogue—Part Four of the novel even if it wasn’t actually labelled “Part Four”.

Overall, I think I enjoyed the movie better. I have to rewatch in the near future, but I remembered the movie was a better experience. I think the pacing was better in the movie as the assault on Lola happened sooner? I’m not certain, but I’ll let y’all know once I revisit the movie. This novel was kind of a hit or miss for me, but I would definitely recommend this novel for those interested in classical novels.