Review: Atonement

Atonement by Ian McEwan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A bit of a slog to get through initially, and even moreso in hindsight when you realize not every thought/scene needed as much attention as it got. It takes a while for the premise to take off, but once it does, the story does get considerably more interesting to follow, even though it still tends to meander here and there.

The prose itself is pretty nice- almost reminiscent of authors like Woolf in a way but without plagiarizing them outright- and there are some really great, moving sections of the book, like the scenes at the hospital and the meditations on how relationships change over time. But then there are also other less engrossing scenes that still flutter with the same kind of style, to the point where it can feel a little pretentious at times.

It becomes more clear by the ending that a lot of what goes down in this book amounts to the author's ambitious attempt to make a statement about the nature of writing and storytelling. He arguably succeeds at this (especially if you feel like you're being tugged at by the heartstrings), but in such a manner that will also likely make you feel cheated or infuriated, not to mention (or else just) depressed. Of course, if you make it to the end and all of this just flies over your head, then this book is probably only okay at best, because there isn't a whole lot else to it once you take that lofty ambition away. Personally, I feel kinda mixed about it.

Just realize that if the ending makes you upset, then you're playing exactly into McEwan's hands. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. (I hear the movie does a good job of conveying the same emotions.)