English A Book Review

(Awkward ending... but heres draft #1)
-ATONEMENT-
A Skeptics Review

On one extraordinarily hot and eventful summers day in the English countryside, we meet Briony Tallis, a thirteen year old who is about to turn the quiet world that she lives in completely upside down. Over the course of the first painfully slow 176 pages, we learn the story through multiple characters viewpoints. Starting off with Briony's perspective, we learn about her habits of organization and her strong desire to have a "secret". She is a writer, who embarks upon writing her very first play, entitled "The Trials of Arabella", it's to be acted out for her brother Leon who is returning home after being away at college. The play is intended to be acted out by her three cousins and herself, only to have her eldest cousin Lola snatch up the biggest role. By the time Leon arrives, the play is in shambles and everyone has moved on to their own contemplations, demonstrating the desperate and frustratingly hopeless feel of this entire book.
Meanwhile, Briony's older sister Cecelia attempts to get water for flowers in an especially valuable vase. The scene of events which follows is told in great detail from both Cecelia and Briony's view, so as not to leave the reader to imagine anything or allow them to form any opinions on their own. The house gardeners son and Cecelia's childhood friend, Robbie is standing out with her by the well. Along with a hazy sense of nostalgia, Cecelia and Robbie exchange several words, and Cecelia strips down to her underwear and gets into the well. To the young girl witnessing such an occurrence, Briony is seemingly ignorant to the worlds sexual drives and is forced into adulthood at that very moment, "Briony had her first, weak intimation that for her now it could no longer be fairy-tale castles and princesses, but the strangeness of the here and the now, of what passed between people, the ordinary people that she knew, and what power one could have over the other and how easy it was to get everything wrong- completely wrong."
As Briony ponders what Robbie possibly would've said to incline Cecelia to undress so quickly, Leon has arrived along with his guest Paul Marshall. Soon after, we see through Robbie's eyes how he has assumed love for Cecelia, after seeing her in her undergarments, and has decided to tell her so by way of an appalling letter which he gives to Briony to deliver. Briony being the curious character that she is, read the note and proceeds to pass judgments on Robbie. The reader senses tension between the characters at this point and has decided that it is probably an okay idea to continue reading, instead of putting down the book as they had previously intended.
The table is set by the kitchen help as Cecelia primps and puts on her nicest attire, Lola comes crying into Briony's bedroom as though something dreadful has happened, and Lola's two younger siblings, the twins, have a troubling sock episode. This entire portion of the story seems to be an excess amount of buildup- the reader begins to become bored with the insignificant details, as they crave new developments between Cecelia and Robbie. The next scene is startling as something appears to happen between Robbie and Cecelia that Briony is unable understand, it is from this misunderstanding that a crime begins to stir. Lola is driven to tell Briony of an attack, from a man whom she could not recognize. Briony convinces Lola, and herself, that the sin was committed by non other than Robbie. As the tale takes a turn for the irreversible, Briony exposes Lola and Robbie is taken away.
Part Two starts out as though we have left the old story behind and have entered a new world with the same characters. The reader is not satisfied, as they want to know what happened after that fateful day yet are told only of the trials and afflictions of war. The entire second half of this book is based on the need for forgiveness, and the improbability of ever achieving it. The author leads us through the later lives of our characters, as Briony has grown up and realized what a terrible crime she has committed, Cecelia awaits Robbie's return from WWII and Robbie's torment over what has changed his life forever: one extraordinarily hot summers day. The style of the author has changed as the pace is quicker, yet the text is still deeply embedded with detail. Although touching, the tales of the returning soldiers are irrelevant to our main plot and the reader is left feeling distracted. For the first time since Part One, Briony, Cecelia, and Robbie are in the same room together left to finally discuss the day that changed their lives forever; Briony apologizes, genuinely to both Robbie and Cecelia who can neither accept nor ignore her reparation. In a few trivial looking words in the middle of page 330, "BT London, 1999" we learn that the entire book thus far was written by Briony. A tall tale of playing with our minds, for the narrator which we never questioned has notably changed into one of the characters whom we have passed so many judgments upon. In a matter of seconds, the entire story is altered, our comfortable walls are torn away as our world comes crashing down around us.
The final portion of Atonement describes Briony as an elderly woman whom has just been diagnosed with vascular dementia; through a series of tiny strokes in her brain, she will eventually loose all of her long term memory. This way she will never be able to forgive herself for the crime she created, for she will loose any recollection of it. The author tells us that Robbie was killed and Cecelia died a terrible death soon after the last time that Briony saw her, making it absolutely impossible to ever be acquitted. It turns out that Lola married Paul Marshall furthering the books feeling of despair, a vague sense of romance in a most tragic scenario.
The realization that this entire story was written by Briony leaves the reader confused, infuriated, and dejected. What actually happened? The thirteen year old Briony committed an unforgivable crime which carried out through her entire life, but in the end would have no closure, repentance or even effect on the elderly Briony in her final years. The book which, despite it's frustrating amount of specifics, had grown towards a definite climax; a place where the reader believed that Briony had worked hard and could be reprieved. However, the author changes your entire perspective on everything within the last 10 pages, forcing the reader to contemplate what constitutes as atonement, and why Briony will never attain it. If you enjoy a romantic tragedy with a terribly maddening ending, then pick up Atonement By Ian McEwan today, but if you value literature at all, you'll put it down tomorrow.