My dear readers,
I do apologize for being so irregular but trust me its because of my failing health.But I hereby promise that from now on I will be more frequent. I had earlier promised that I will talk about Ian McEwan's Atonement. This wonderful work was shortlisted for Booker Prize, 2001 for fiction. It is set mainly in four time periods, with World War II playing an important role.
Thirteen years old upper class English girl Briony Tallis has a flair for writing. Being the youngest in the Tallis household with older siblings Leon and Cecilia, she is much adored and her writing skills much appreciated. But the adolescent young girl often lives in her imaginations and sometimes goes beyond the thin line separating reality and fantasy. The young girl develops a crush on Robbie Turner, a brilliant, handsome, Cambridge educated young man and son of the family housekeeper. But the sweet buds of romance blossoms between Cecilia and Robbie who were once childhood friends. Unfortunately Briony makes wrong meaning out of a misplaced love letter from Robbie to Cee and also witnesses some moments of profound sexual tension between them. Also in that time Briony's cousin sister Lola is raped and the unknown assailant escapes after performing the heinous crime. Briony in her own imaginative way, sees Robbie aggressive, villainous and fears for her older sister's safety. It is in this way that she conjures up a story which she sincerely believes to be true. In front of her mother, sister, brother, Leon's friend Paul Marshall and the police she convincingly points her finger at Robbie as Lola's assailant and testifies against him. Robbie is taken away by the police and after two to three years, gets enlisted in the army for freedom from the prison as World War II starts. Cecilia severs all her ties with the Tallis family, moves away and becomes a nurse. Headstrong and adamant yet a loving, mature woman, Cecilia chose never to be with her own family again. Years later, Briony understanding the full magnitude of her mistake, refuses Cambridge and becomes a trainee nurse instead. Later she becomes an established writer and at the age of seventy-seven has vascular dementia. She understands that it was actually Paul Marshall, the chocolate baron, who had actually been the real attacker and had also married Lola. By the end of the novel it is understood that it was Briony who was narrating the events of the story and although Robbie and Cecilia was reunited in her writing, but they, in reality, had died before their union. It was only through letters that they had corresponded and those were their only solace. Robbie had died of septicaemia from his injuries on the beaches of Dunkirk; he died just a day before he could have been evacuated. Shortly afterwords, Cecilia died during the Blitz, when the Balham underground station was bombed. Thus the lovers who had craved each others companionship till death never saw their love fructifying and all because of Briony's half -innocent lie. So Briony atones through her writing, and by uniting them in her novel she tries to give the unfortunate lovers some peace.
McEwan's style of writing is unique, the phrases he uses are simply extraordinary. He as if paints a delicate picture gently, a picture with words as if chosen with care. The readers gets a taste of the World War II, war at Dunkirk, the horrors of war, its mutilated soldiers. Atonement is not only a saga of lost love, of pain and loss, it is also of a grieving immature girl's unintentionally inflicted wounds and her dedication for redressing it.The way Briony continuously fights with her conscience, trying to do what is best, trying to undo the past is notable. The end of the novel gives us the fates of the various characters of it. Atonement is no doubt a difficult read, but its true beauty lies in it. The readers as if can smell the stench of the wartime hospitals, feel the sands of the beach of Dunkirk on their feet, feel the heat of passion on their cheeks; the passion of young Robbie and Cecilia. This is a must read for all lovers of the genre romance as it will surely intoxicate them.
Do tell me friends if you want to hear more about Atonement. I will be back shortly with more as promised earlier. Till then, Good Bye and Happy Reading.
