It's been two months since I arrived in Palmerston North, New Zealand for my tertiary study (finally, at the age of 21). My major is English so there's no doubt I have to read a lot and so after my arrival my bookshelf just extended and extended. My first paper in English requires me to read two books, and Atonement is one of them.

It's real when a book become compulsory you lose some impetus to read it. But somehow I finished it.

The protagonists of this book are Briony, Cecelia and Robbie. Almost all parts of the book are wriiten in their perspective, with one chapter or two from that of Emily, mother of Briony and Cecelia.

Ian McEwan wrote it in a very special way:

In the first Part which consists of 14 chapters, described a few events happened within a day (virtually it's only a hot afternoon and night) in the view of different characters to tell how they interpret, or misinterpret, an event with their development background. The pace of this part is very slow that only a few hours occupied almost one-third of the whole story. Due to Briony's naive misinterpretation of adults events, with her obstinate belief in her own point of view, that hers represents everyone's, Robbie's natural, amourous behaviour towards Cecelia has been misunderstood with sexual maniac actions and so was accused and then incarcerated. 

The second part entirely relies on Robbie's experience of his participation as a member of the English army during WW I. This part was written in a style for War novels with decription of injuries, infantry, innocent victims and the hope for an end and salvation, which are all very provocative against warfare. Within the whole part Ian has also included some incidents that introduced some cultural facts like when he was spending days walking to Dunkirk, his destination where the English ships to bring them back home would reach, and en route he needed a place to spend the night over and came across a small village. He found a house and met an old French lady who threatened them that if they ere to spend the night in her house she was afraid that her two sons, who were peasants, would shoot them to death. It turned out that the two sons shared their dinner with Robbie and his two companions. Also in Part two he wrote that France was too coward that she surrendered to German and not even trying to resist. At the end of this part Robbie was in a sleep the night before the arrival of the English ships.

Part three shifted to decribe Briony in a time simultaneous to Robbie's return to Dunkirk. She has become a war nurse, in a hospital where her sister Cecelia worked for, and abandonned all her middle-class education and welfares. It decribes her insistence in writing and wish to atone for what she did to lead Robbie into jail and sadly separated two truthful lovers, Cee and Rob. When the casualties were sent to her hospital she finally understood, at least a bit, that it is no joke, no fantasy in adult's world. The cruelty, the pain and the unfairness are real and heart-breaking. After a few days she decided to visit her sister, who had given up her family for unfaithfully charging Robbie, those incredible accomplices to his mis-judgment. It turned out that Cee and Rob were living together and Rob, who wished to become a doctor before he was arrested, could no longer chase time back. Briony was not forgiven but still wished to atone by amending her evidence of witness and exonerate Robbie.

At the end of the book there's a short part 4 which was written in first person who appeared to be Briony herself. She is now 77 and has become a successful author that her works are studied in colleges. She admitted in this part that the whole book was written by her, with the first draft produced when she was a nurse back then, and after a lot of edittings she finally finished it. It was the first book she ever started writing, and will be the last one as she was diagnosed with vascular dementia, which would damage her memory and soon her memories will fade and she will also lose her ability to write. She also admitted that the part in Part 3 of Cee and Rob living together was actually made up, that they both died during the war, that Robbie never made it to get aboard his salvation ship, and Cee's wish to stay with Rob after he returned had never been granted.

It is a really sad ending, it is even sadder when Ian had given me false hope that the truthful lovers finally got what they had been praying for and had been their only reason to survive. The first part, with its slow pace, did bore me a little with it's Victorian-style description of nature. However it did ask me a question that when can you take responsibility, when there is really a stage that you are too old for fantasy and imagination and innocence, but still too young to understand the adult's world? It also tells me that a mistake, or a innocent misinterpretation which is very normal for a child to make, would interfere with others' lives and yours as well, and leave you a whole life to compensate. Of course a novel has to exaggerate the devastating result to keep you reading, but how about the little, trivial things that might annoy you constantly when you thought about the stupid things you wish you had never done? It certainly bothers you now and definitely would continue to when you age. Can we atone? I think not, as we are the judge to our own sin, that we are God to ourelves, and there's "no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her" (371). 

The historical story part (Part II) also inspired me that the history we learnt, studied, and maybe despised, is really a big, broad thing. We knew what happened during WW I, we knew France surrendered, but how about the millions of people that were involved? They all had a life, and therefore had a story to tell, sad one most probably. It turns out to me that, with every stuff tha we see, hear or perceive, despite the result or outcome, there're always stories. A serve of pasta has a story, each cell phone has a story, even a story has a story to tell. I think we focus on the reults too much, and are only aware of big, superficial surfaces of events. As Briony had said, no matter you witness it or not, there're things happening. You witnessed it, it happens to you; if you didn't, that's just because it was not your business. We may enjor our peace, but we cannot deny that unfairness is happening somewhere.

After reading so many books with a good ending, this book really did make my heart very heavy. It was so sad to know the demises, of the people, of their wishes, and of their stories.

Rating: 8/10

It is really a good book to read!