Atonement

by Ian McEwan | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0099429799 Global Overview for this book
Registered by UrbanSpaceman of Strasbourg, Alsace France on 6/18/2005
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4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by UrbanSpaceman from Strasbourg, Alsace France on Saturday, June 18, 2005
Already have a copy of this. Bought this one to release.

Amazon Review by Alan Stewart

Atonement is Ian McEwan's ninth novel and his first since the Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam in 1998. But whereas Amsterdam was a slim, sleek piece, Atonement is a more sturdy, 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 elder, idolised 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 preoccupations 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 Amo" 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.

Journal Entry 2 by kittiwake on Sunday, July 3, 2005
Picked up at the Unconvention, on Katie1980's recommendation. I have heard parts of this novel dramatised on Radio 4, but not enough of it to know how the story pans out.

Journal Entry 3 by kittiwake on Saturday, September 17, 2005
There was a crime. But there were also the lovers. Lovers and their happy ends have been on my mind all night long. As into the sunset we sail.

I picked this book up at the Unconvention on the recommendation of Katie1980 (and it wasn't even one of her own books that she was pushing). I had heard of it since it was well-reviewed when it came out, but I have never read anything by Ian McEwan before. I'll definitely be reading more of his books, starting with "Amsterdam" which I acquired at last weekend's Book Crossing meet.

The first part of the book is set on a single summer day in the mid-1930s when thirteen-year-old Briony, highly imaginative but totally misunderstanding her glimpses of the private encounters between adults, commits a 'crime' that has serious repercussions for everyone around her. The story moves on a few years to the start of the Second World War, and finally to Briony, now a well-known author, celebrating her 77th birthday and we find that she has spent her whole life trying to atone for what she set in motion on that summer day long ago.

Briony's lifelong obsession with her 'crime', leads her to attempt to atone in writing, and she tells a story of sexual tension, guilt and despair. There are various scenes that just don't seem real, and when you realise that one of them was invented by Briony for the book that she hopes will finally bring her redemption, you begin to wonder how much of the story is history, and how much more was either deliberately invented or is just her imagination filling in the gaps with fantasies.

Journal Entry 4 by kittiwake on Sunday, September 25, 2005
I have just lent two Ian McEwan books from my bookshelf to my mother. They are "Atonement" and "Amsterdam".

Journal Entry 5 by kittiwake on Saturday, October 29, 2005
My mother has finished reading this book and given it back to me, so it's now available to be passed on or wild released.

Released 18 yrs ago (11/11/2005 UTC) at Sheffield Meet @ The Showroom in Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom

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Angellica is collecting a few books to send to the New Zealand convention. I think I'll donate this one, as it is very English.

Journal Entry 7 by angellica from Worksop, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom on Saturday, December 10, 2005
Going to the New Zealand Convention - Thanks :)


Journal Entry 8 by boreal from Dunedin, Otago New Zealand on Friday, March 3, 2006
This book arrived in Dunedin yesterday along with five others; too late for the convention unfortunately but I will pass it around other Dunedin/NZ bookcrossers. Thanks so much for sending it Angelica, Kittiwake and Urbanspaceman.

Attached is a photo of Dunedin from the north.

Journal Entry 9 by boreal at St Lees Restaurant in Dunedin, Otago New Zealand on Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Released 18 yrs ago (3/14/2006 UTC) at St Lees Restaurant in Dunedin, Otago New Zealand

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Released at tonights meetup.

Happy reading to whoever picked it up.

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