Tuesday, June 12, 2012

On My Nightstand - Atonement



Atonement - by Ian McEwan
Source: borrowed book (372 pages)

On the back cover:
On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house.  Watching her is Robbie Turner, their childhood friend.

By the end of the day Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined as its start, and Briony will have witnessed mysteries and committed a crime that resonates through the war and through the characters' entire lives.

My thoughts:
I had heard rave reviews of this book and so when it was chosen for book club, I was really looking forward to reading it.  And then I started reading it and honestly, if it wasn't a book club pick, I probably would have stopped reading.
The first half of this book is so long and drawn out, I kept thinking, 'seriously, when is Briony going to commit this crime?'  The first half of the book reminded me a lot of Cutting For Stone - just in that the story took so long to develop and bored me to death.
As boring as the first half of the book was, the second half more than made up for it and made me put this book down and declare it a fantastic book.
If you are reading this book and like me feeling like it will never end, push through, trust me it gets so much better.

My rating: 4 out of 5.

1 comment:

  1. This is now on my to read list and I appreciate the insight!

    ReplyDelete