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I had a bad experience with Ian McEwan, as a trainee English teacher, back in the 90s, and hadn't revisited his work since. But I obtained a copy of Atonement recently in a friend's box of unwanted books, so I thought I'd give it try.
I went in with considerable apprehension and was initially very pleasantly surprised by the exquisite prose and the incredibly well-observed inner lives of the characters. I found the first half thoroughly engrossing and really excellent, though the build-up to the 'crime' was perhaps a bit too drawn out. Towards the end of the first half, there were a bit too many 'little did they know' and 'in the days/weeks/years to come' moments, which lent the book a cheap thriller aspect, but at the halfway point, I was thoroughly enjoying it and wondering if I was destined to be a McEwan convert.
But I found the second half very difficult to get through. All the horrors of the Second World War were certainly very effectively conveyed, but they seemed irrelevant to the story and thus gratuitously grim. It just got steadily drearier and drearier - and the somewhat nebulous ending left me completely cold.
Ah well.
I went in with considerable apprehension and was initially very pleasantly surprised by the exquisite prose and the incredibly well-observed inner lives of the characters. I found the first half thoroughly engrossing and really excellent, though the build-up to the 'crime' was perhaps a bit too drawn out. Towards the end of the first half, there were a bit too many 'little did they know' and 'in the days/weeks/years to come' moments, which lent the book a cheap thriller aspect, but at the halfway point, I was thoroughly enjoying it and wondering if I was destined to be a McEwan convert.
But I found the second half very difficult to get through. All the horrors of the Second World War were certainly very effectively conveyed, but they seemed irrelevant to the story and thus gratuitously grim. It just got steadily drearier and drearier - and the somewhat nebulous ending left me completely cold.
Ah well.
