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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
one lie, nd she spent her whole life writing letters to a door she could never open.
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It is a beautifully written novel with a gut wrenching ending so subtle one might miss it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, War
I think I originally read this in 2007 and this is probably my third time reading it through since then. Brilliantly written, I can't even describe it.
I previously saw the movie, so I knew what was going on, but I enjoy McEwan's writing so much that it didn't matter.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This novel was hard to enjoy and I struggled to see why there was so much hype around the book. While the book is written well , I found the story to be thoroughly dissatisfying. Not only are you struggling against a predominantly unreliable narrator in Briony Tallis who is profoundly unlikable, you are dealing with characters who are extremely broken (Emily and Jack Tallis, Lola, the twins), very adrift (Leon, Cecilia), or downright pernicious (Paul Mitchell). I found Robbie to be the most likeable/relatable person in the story, with Cecilia a distant second. Unfortunately, for a large part of the novel Cecilia felt exceedingly listless and passive and I found myself mentally screaming at her.
The way I described the plot pace to my husband was that it felt like a fuse working its way toward a powder keg...except the fuse burns excruciatingly slowly until just before it reaches the keg. The real turning point in the action occurs when Briony acts on her prejudice and false sense of being a newly initiated adult at 13 and makes a grotesque and unjust accusation. At that point the plot action takes off like a shot. I found the only part of the story to be engaging/promising while reading was how Cecilia (war nurse) and Robbie (soldier) each navigate life after Britain enters WWII. At the conclusion of the novel, I felt that Ian McEwan took that bit of enjoyment away from me when Briony once again shits on everything.The novel ends with Briony not actually atoning the havoc she has wrought upon her family, nuclear and extended, but rather uncovers her feebly disgusting attempts to soothe her guilt. You find the story of Cecilia and Robbie in the middle 3rd or so of the book was her fictionalized version of how her beloved sister and her lover fared during the war. She laced in one moment of Cecilia and Robbie directly rebuking her for her actions. Briony felt their lack of forgiveness for knowingly falsely accusing Robbie of raping Lola was a just act. I found this soliloquy to be profoundly infuriating: " The problem these fifty-nine years has been this: how can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? there is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all. I like to think that it was not weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair, to let my lovers live and to unite them at the end. I gave them happiness, but I was not so self-serving as to let them forgive me. Not quite, not yet. "
Briony, in all these years, still hasn't learned or engaged in meaningful self-reflection - she is still a spoiled, self-absorbed, stunted woman only looking for a way to cope with her guilt. And she is about to set off another family bomb following her death as she attempts to set the record straight by publishing/publicly revealing Lola's rapist - Lola's husband Paul. I felt Ian McEwan was too kind to Briony by letting her slowly die of dementia, a disease where you slowly lose your memory and sense of self, when Cecilia and Robbie suffered death on the front lines. I wanted to throw the book at the wall when I was done.
The way I described the plot pace to my husband was that it felt like a fuse working its way toward a powder keg...except the fuse burns excruciatingly slowly until just before it reaches the keg. The real turning point in the action occurs when Briony acts on her prejudice and false sense of being a newly initiated adult at 13 and makes a grotesque and unjust accusation. At that point the plot action takes off like a shot. I found the only part of the story to be engaging/promising while reading was how Cecilia (war nurse) and Robbie (soldier) each navigate life after Britain enters WWII. At the conclusion of the novel, I felt that Ian McEwan took that bit of enjoyment away from me when Briony once again shits on everything.
Briony, in all these years, still hasn't learned or engaged in meaningful self-reflection - she is still a spoiled, self-absorbed, stunted woman only looking for a way to cope with her guilt. And she is about to set off another family bomb following her death as she attempts to set the record straight by publishing/publicly revealing Lola's rapist - Lola's husband Paul. I felt Ian McEwan was too kind to Briony by letting her slowly die of dementia, a disease where you slowly lose your memory and sense of self, when Cecilia and Robbie suffered death on the front lines. I wanted to throw the book at the wall when I was done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, War
Moderate: Rape, Toxic relationship
medium-paced