Atonement | Ian McEwan | Reminiscent of Henry James, but with metafiction

book: Atonement | Ian McEwan

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Atonement

	Atonement Ian McEwan Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, 2002 - 351 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Amazon.com Ian McEwan's Booker Prize-nominated Atonement is his first novel since Amsterdam took home the prize in 1998. But while Amsterdam was a slim, sleek piece, Atonement is a more sturdy, more ambitious work, allowing McEwan more room to play, think, and experiment. We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama "The Trials of Arabella" to welcome home her older, idolized brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting prospects of preoccupation come onto the scene. The charlady's son, Robbie Turner, appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Ammo" chocolate bar; and upstairs, Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present.... The interwar, upper-middle-class setting of the book's long, masterfully sustained opening section might recall Virginia Woolf or Henry Green, but as we move forward--eventually to the turn of the 21st century--the novel's central concerns emerge, and McEwan's voice becomes clear, even personal. For at heart, Atonement is about the pleasures, pains, and dangers of writing, and perhaps even more, about the challenge of controlling what readers make of your writing. McEwan shouldn't have any doubts about readers of Atonement: this is a thoughtful, provocative, and at times moving book that will have readers applauding. --Alan Stewart, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Reminiscent of Henry James, but with metafiction

Ian McEwan's Atonement has the feel of classical literature: an elegant and slightly formal style, generous details, and a straightforward plot. Briony Tallis, a spoiled British 13 year old, spies her older sister Cecilia and the caretaker's son Robbie as they wrestle with an antique vase next to a fountain. Although Briony imagines herself as mature, she does not yet have an adult understanding of the world. When the events that follow do not fit her scope of comprehension, she forces them into place with a lie that forever changes the people she involves. The novel follows the principals through the war and ends as Briony faces her own mortality in 1999.

Especially during the first part (there are four) which takes place just before World War II, I could not help thinking of Henry James and his intricate exploration of character and relationships. I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a contemporary novel. The only aspect that jarred me into the 21st century was McEwan's use of metafiction (fiction about writing fiction.) Briony is an aspiring writer when the story begins, but we are told almost from the start that she will become an accomplished novelist. Throughout, Briony is keenly aware of the demands of her craft and how they distort the truth. As the novel progresses, the reader is made more and more aware of this self-conscious side until the end, when the final section deals with this issue alone.

Personally, I'm tired of metafiction and find it contrived; however, McEwan's polished writing atones for this literary sin. The details of life both before and during the war are extraordinary, as are the intricate characterizations. Although parts of this novel are overdone, it is McEwan's expertness that triumphs.

Atonement is a fine book that deserves widespread attention despite its dryness. I recommend this book for serious readers and those who yearn for more classicism in contemporary literature. You'll want to skip this novel, however, if you don't have the patience for detail or are looking for a suspenseful or complicated plot.

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