Book Review: Atonement

'Atonement,' it was, well, what else can I say
Mediocre at least, it was only okay

So I had a discussion with Dave Stefou a couple of weeks ago about reading this summer, and like me, he seemed to want to do a lot of it over the break. We promised that we'd swap books and recommend ones that we liked, and since I have not yet made good on my promise, and I've been having trouble finding things to blog about, I thought I'd blog with a short review every time I finish a book this summer. I've included a link to Amazon.com's page for the book so that you can see other people's opinions and not only have my to judge by. Therefore, welcome on my summer reading journey, and I look forward to hearing your comments and discussion on the books that I've read and will be reading...So here's the opening book, which I finished yesterday, and Dave...here's the start of my reading list.

Book: Atonement, by Ian McEwan (2003)

*** (out of five stars)

This book was supposed to be one of those New York Times Bestsellers, and I had heard that it was very popular when it was first released. I generally like books that include some social commentary or insight on "the human condition" intermingled with a good story, and the synopsis on the back of the book promised that the author's exploration of what "atonement" really means, would come through in the novel.

It's about Briony Tallis, a young girl who witnesses what she interprets as her family friend Robbie taking advantage of her sister Cecilia. When Briony's cousin Lola is mysteriously violated, Briony takes action based on emotion, rather than truth, and must live with consequences of her fasification for the rest of her life, spanning the second world war, up to the turn of the century.

Not only was the language overly flowery and difficult to follow, but the pace of the story was terribly slow in the start. In fact, what I thought would be a story of the main character's search for reconciliation and penance became more of a love story. The author frequently loses track of what he seemed to set out to accomplish and was lost in historical war facts and useless narration that doesn't serve to advance the so-called plot. Seriously, if I wanted a love story, I would have read a harlequin, or watched a chick flick (and here's a little digression: I finally saw The Notebook...and I liked it! I didn't even make fun or pick the movie apart.).

What was most disappointing, however, was the end. An epilogue was written, in Martel's Life of Pi style, to explain the writing of the body of the novel. Whereas Life of Pi's epilogue had most of its readers speechless, Atonement's weak and irrelevant plot twist at the end was neither needed nor moving. We don't feel for the characters because they were never properly developed. We're not disapppointed in the course of events because we never felt truly connected to them.

I will go on record as saying that the book was entertaining, though having a short attention span, I often skip paragraphs or pages at a time when I get bored. So I got through the book, which is a good start, but there were passages upon passages of boringocity.

Overall: Read if you've got nothing better to read, or if it's a choice between this and an Oprah's Pick book.