BOOK CLUB BOOK #9: Atonement, by Ian McEwan

[Juliet]

I agree too. I loved the descriptions of the different points of view because you can really see that this is how people see their reality: Briony doesn't understand what she sees from the window because she's too young and I think also too selfish and of course because she wants to see more, she wants the dramatic story behind it and if it's not there then she's willing to make it up.
She is a young girl who's trying to grow up and she wants an attention that she doesn't really get in her family (the ambigous role of Emily is a proof of this); in this sense I think the relationship between the two sisters is very interesting: when Cecilia is at home she has a maternal role, when Briony is scared she goes to her sister. Briony loves her sister but she's also very different from her (the description of their bedrooms was quite interesting!) just like she wants to be different from everyone in her little world

[Dominique]

Like bookaddict I too read the entire book rather than waiting to read it along with book discussion. My impression of Briony was that she is a very precocious and selfish child, but as is the nature of children, no more so than each of us may have been. I remember having the same fascination with adult affairs, thinking them to be serious and scandalous. Once I read a whole bunch of my mother's old letters, I sat in her closet reading them all morning and imagined this whole horrible story around two letters of appology about her birthday (I imagined it was something that happened at her birthday, they were actually appologies for not attending) and my mum couldn't find me that morning because I was hiding in the closet and started panicking and searching the house for me.
So in other words Briony is self absorbed but not far beyond the point of selfishness of any child really, which I think is part of the appeal of the story, I think.

I also felt that Cecilia and everyone else seemed quite indifferent to Briony, which is ironic considering the power she exerts over Cecilia's fate.

I love McEwan's writing style. I found the first section a tad difficult to get into but at the same time I could tell already I would really enjoy the book.

[bookworm]

I agree with everything you guys said. I think it's clear from the beginning that Briony is desperate for some drama, something secret and exciting. She has a box of 'secrets' under her bed that are not really secrets, she really wants her life to stop being boring and ordinary...

I too read the whole book simply because I couldn't stop myself! I really loved it! I didn't find the first part boring, even though it's about the events of a single day. I think the writing gave us a deep, detailed view of the character's feelings, their thoughts and their perception of reality.

[Kristie]

I agree with Briony being a somewhat self-centered child. However self-centered she is though, she does wish to write a story about her observation of Cecilia, but she wants to do it from her, Cecilia's, and Robby's perspectives. By wishing to write a story this way, it's apparent she realizes there are other viewpoints even while selfish, but she isn't grown up enough to know that Cecilia's and Robby's perspectives of the story would be drastically different than what she's probably imagining--Robby's especially because not only is he older, he's a man.

To be honest, it is no wonder Briony looks for the dramatic and has a wild imagination. Leon and Cecilia aren't at home often, and the "part-time" parents as one of you put it pretty much leaves Briony on her own to create entertainment. She's probably used to having to create stories and look for the dramatic so she doesn't simply die from boredom in the summer months.

I don't have my book with me, but I'll edit it in later. Did anyone else like what Briony said about stories being different worlds to go to? I know that's a little vague...

[bookaddict]

Briory seems very isolated. I wonder how often they leave the compounds of their home. That's probably Briony's only way to learn about the outside world. Since it's fiction it's always dramatic, she's probably trying to figure out her character in the world.

[Isa]

McEwan's style in this novel took me by surprise because it is very different from the style of Amsterdam, the only other novel I'd read by him before. Whereas his style in Amsterdam was a bit more stripped to its essentials, Atonement strikes me as having a more lavish style and language, which makes me think that the story might not be as simple as the one depicted in Amsterdam.

I had a harder time getting into the story because of this new style, but I do like some of the techniques he uses. Like all of you, I really enjoyed the shift in points of view, and I found myself falling in love with each and every character as they were being described - not because they seem perfect, but because they seem so real and human, I just wanted to like them despite of whatever flaws they may have. Briony is a good example, and I agree with you Dom, that if she's sometimes depicted as being a little self-absorbed, it's probably because McEwan is so good at capturing the essence of what a young girl's character might be like, and he dresses an honest portrait of it through Briony.

I don't know about you guys, but I found it a bit hard at the beginning to figure out when the story was actually taking place, mostly because of how independent and open-minded Briony and Cecilia seem to be. They struck me as modern characters stuck in a classic story, if that makes any sense. I like your idea, bookaddict, that it might be because they haven't had much of a parental figure around. lol, leave it up to a man to create amazing feminist characters!

I think my favorite part of the book so far was when Briony observes the fountain scene between Robbie and Cecilia, and then finds what we are told will become her trademark writing style (at the end of Chapter 3). She realizes that she doesn’t have to force a moral on her audience, the way she did when she wrote her play. She discovers that by simply relating a story from different points of view, truth would come out, and this is what makes a good story. And of course, this is exactly the technique McEwan is using so far in this book!

[bookaddict]

I watched Pearl Harbor last night, and it reminded me of Cecelia and Robert. The love story between the two characters (RAF, and Evelyn).

[oureternity]

I agree with you Isa, a hundred percent! When I began to read the book I had no clue in what year it took place, I kept looking on the backcover and saw it took place in 1935, but I still found it hard to believe! Only when the story really began to take shape (I will not ruin for the others who haven't finished, I just found it hard to resist!) it made more sense.

And yes bookaddict, you do have a point

[Carma]

oureternity said:

I agree with you Isa, a hundred percent! When I began to read the book I had no clue in what year it took place, I kept looking on the backcover and saw it took place in 1935, but I still found it hard to believe! Only when the story really began to take shape (I will not ruin for the others who haven't finished, I just found it hard to resist!) it made more sense.

haha, I did the same, I'm still not that far, so it doesn't make sense to me yet, but I kept looking in what time it was set. It is mentioned on one page.. but before that I was feeling a bit confused..

[sagedautumn]

I finished the whole book today and it was AMAZING!! Like most of you I thought the fountain scene was the thing that drew me into the story not just as a reader but as someone who is actually there watching it happen. I thought that the fountain scene was cataclasmic...when Cee jumped into the fountain and Robbie stood awestruck I could hear the wheels of time turning. It felt so raw kind of like the love that Cee and Robbie have for each other and that Briony is unable to understand in her pampered and sheltered world. I love the symbolism behind Uncle Clem's vase because not only does it stand as a testament of Cee's and Robbie's love but also as a testament to the hostile world that the two lovers are living in. The vase has undergone so much, a whole war, and as such has become a symbol of pride in the household. Much like England at that time. People seemed to think it undestructable when in reality it was as fragile as Uncle Clem's vase. The cracks of that vase from Cee and Robbie's rendezvous are very similar to the cracks in England. Throughout the book McEwan reveals these cracks time and time again...relative to this part of the bookclub would only be Emily Tallis Emily Tallis is shown as the weak link in the Tallis household. She is unable to carry through her role as the mother/mistress of the household and thus she has very little respect. What I found the most interesting, was how her children called her Emily rather than mother.

[Hazy]

Just out of curiosity, how is Briony pronounced? Bree-oh-nee? Bree-aw-nee?

[sagedautumn]

I thought it said Bree-oh-nee

[Kristie]

Okay, that one part I said I'd add to my last post, about the quote from Briony I liked. Here it finally is, a week later. (I have been sooo busy!)

"A world could be made in five pages, and one that was more pleasing than a model farm. The childhood of a spoiled prince could be framed within half a page, a moonlit dash through sleepy villages was on rhythmically emphatic sentence, falling in love could be achieved in a single word--a glance."

[Michelle]

hazy said:

Just out of curiosity, how is Briony pronounced? Bree-oh-nee? Bree-aw-nee?

I said Bree-ah-nee when I was reading it but in the movie they said Bri-ah-nee (long i, like "try").

[Kristie]

I thought Bree-oh-nee, but it sounds better Bree-ah-nee to me. Bry-ah-nee doesn't sound girly enough.