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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
medium-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
studied this book in english and i can say with confidence its one of the best books ive ever read
:/
I will start by saying that the main reason this book has gotten the clout it’s the fault of the movie. Not the biggest fan of the movie even though Keira Knightley is one of the protagonists. The characters on the film aren’t written or at least played to be as unlikeable as they actually are in the book.
A rant:
The book is separated in 4 parts.
The first part is the worst one. I wanted to give up, seemed like a never ending story about spoiled brats. We follow the family of Tallis and their workers, well at least one of the people that is being sold as their worker. Not a single likeable character btw. The father is absent, he is working and taking time far away from them. The mother has migraines and her neurological system isn’t at its best, she favourites her younger daughter since she sees herself in her in some way. Even though she is physically in the house with her children, she is just as absent as her husband. The older daughter is a spoiled brat, who got a degree but came back to the house, she herself doesn’t know the reason at first, doing nothing. The son is living his own life but he comes to visit and the youngest daughter is a spoiled brat that no one is saying no. There is also Robbie that we are supposed to accept as a working class but not only the father of the family funded his studies the first time but they are willing to pay for him to study medicine. To give an idea of how the kids of a working class were, the time they reached 8-10 they started working just like their parents. There are actually working class people in here and they are the women who are being mentioned in the kitchen, the ones who try to take care of the children. They are being screamed and blamed and Ian McEwan mentions them 3-4 times??
To sum it up, in the first part we are following the most irritating people, with no real problems so Ian McEwan creates one, since we need a plot! So a crime is committed but they blame an innocent man for it. Based on the testimonial of a 12-13 yo. 🙄 Her father had insane power in the government.
Part 2: We get a snippet of war. Finally something important. At first I didn’t like this part, mainly because Robbie was just your regular Joe, the only reason he went to France to “fight” the Nazis was because he was a convicted criminal and he knew that if he survived they could give him some kind of amnesty(I think that’s the word or show favour). I believe that it’s an important part cause in today’s world that men who sit on a chair all day are saying nonsense like”men are naturally protectors, providers and blah blah” it actually shows the mindset of your average man. I don’t think that a lot of people understand that the heroic men who fought to protect their families, their countries and their ideals were a very, very, very small percentage.
Part 3 The small brat has grown up and we follow her as a young adult in the middle of ww2, working as a nurse. She didn’t change at all. She can’t understand what war is, there’s a part that she imaging that if the Germans reached the uk the people could still play tennis and go with their works normally. There’s another part that she thinks that instead of the hospital she could be in university🙄. I needed to do a research in this part cause I was actually shocked about how unaffected UK seemed to be by ww2 through the eyes of Briony. Well the upper class truly didn’t feel the war, at least compared to other counties. Their economy even though it was affected, it was nowhere near as bad as the majority of countries that took them years to come back and lost millions from starvation. But even though England wasn’t as affected, I would expect for someone who works with war victims to be able to understand the situation better.
Part 4 She is old, she is dying but yet she still doesn’t seem to have changed that much compared to her 12-13yo self and her 18yo self. Pathetic if you ask me
Would I ever recommend this book to anyone? No. Especially if you had close members of your family and you know how they experienced ww2 stay away from it. Not seeing ww2 from the eyes of someone who is British may actually be good for you! If you are here for the romance, I don’t see you enjoying it either. If you are here for the historical part, I also don’t see it. Idk for who is this book for.
I will start by saying that the main reason this book has gotten the clout it’s the fault of the movie. Not the biggest fan of the movie even though Keira Knightley is one of the protagonists. The characters on the film aren’t written or at least played to be as unlikeable as they actually are in the book.
A rant:
The book is separated in 4 parts.
Would I ever recommend this book to anyone? No. Especially if you had close members of your family and you know how they experienced ww2 stay away from it. Not seeing ww2 from the eyes of someone who is British may actually be good for you! If you are here for the romance, I don’t see you enjoying it either. If you are here for the historical part, I also don’t see it. Idk for who is this book for.
I really enjoyed this story, probably because of the characters. It was more heartbreaking than I thought it was going to be but it definitely shows how a story could take a different viewpoint for different people.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought I was going to like this story more but I was really depressed about how sad it made me. I think I was just looking for something different at the time.
Overall, I'm giving it a hearty "meh." I could see how the movie could be wonderful, but the book was definitely a 2 or 2.5 at best for me.
challenging
reflective
sad
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
I have quite simply never read a book like this - it has a perfect balance of rotating perspectives, a wacky structure which somehow works, and the reveal towards the end is surprising but makes perfect sense for the character. It is a little slow at first, but once you get through the first third you’re on track for a very compelling story
* "E' ora di perdonare e dimenticare, o dimenticare e perdonare, quale dei due venga prima o in ogni caso sia più conveniente"
Primo libro che leggo di quest'autore e devo dire che ha superato brillantemente l'esame.
C'è da dire che l'ho conosciuto grazie al film (che per una buona volta è uno fra i pochi ad essere fatto in maniera impeccabile su misura del libro, anche nei dettagli), che visto alcuni anni fa non mi piacque, ma che adesso, rivisto qualche settimana fa, ho rivalutato. Avevo comunque già il libro (che inseguivo da un anno o giù di lì) che una volta rivisto il film ho iniziato subito.
L'autore ha fatto uno straordinario lavoro di descrizione, molto dettagliato fino allo sfinire, ma mi è piaciuto.
Leggendo varie recensioni di altri utenti durante la lettura del libro, ho notato che molti lo trovano pesante e soprattutto lento. Per me non è stato così: le pagine scorrono velocemente, non ci si fa caso e anzi, scorrono meglio di alcuni romanzi molto più "leggeri" e banali, perchè diciamolo: l'argomento è pesante, triste e frustrante, ma è fatto talmente bene che non si sente se non lievemente.
Ottima la maniera con cui sono state delineate le figure dei personaggi: Cecilia, ragazza di buona famiglia con un gran carattere, Robbie, ragazzo intelligente e coraggioso, Briony, cieca e testarda, la loro famiglia: la madre Emily, il padre, il fratello Leon, la cugina Lola, Mr. Marshall.
Forse l'unica parte che un pò mi delusa è stata l'ultima parte, la Briony anziana, perchè ero molto curiosa di sapere del resto della sua vita: se si era sposata (è vero, questo lo dice), se aveva avuto figli, se a qualcuno abbia mai raccontato del suo tragico errore, perchè abbia continuato a mantenere i rapporti con Pierrot, o meglio come...insomma un pò di più sul futuro della vera protagonista di questo libro.
E poi il titolo: Espiazione. Non sarà una bellissima parola (nel senso che non indica qualcosa di cui augurarsi o augurare), ma è bella pronunciarla e riempie la bocca.
In definitiva, lo consiglio. Io stessa lo rileggerò più di una volta e proverò anche gli altri libri di Ian McEwan.
* frase detta dal Cappellaio Matto in Alice in Wonderland, mi sembra molto appropriata alla trama del libro in questione! ;)
Primo libro che leggo di quest'autore e devo dire che ha superato brillantemente l'esame.
C'è da dire che l'ho conosciuto grazie al film (che per una buona volta è uno fra i pochi ad essere fatto in maniera impeccabile su misura del libro, anche nei dettagli), che visto alcuni anni fa non mi piacque, ma che adesso, rivisto qualche settimana fa, ho rivalutato. Avevo comunque già il libro (che inseguivo da un anno o giù di lì) che una volta rivisto il film ho iniziato subito.
L'autore ha fatto uno straordinario lavoro di descrizione, molto dettagliato fino allo sfinire, ma mi è piaciuto.
Leggendo varie recensioni di altri utenti durante la lettura del libro, ho notato che molti lo trovano pesante e soprattutto lento. Per me non è stato così: le pagine scorrono velocemente, non ci si fa caso e anzi, scorrono meglio di alcuni romanzi molto più "leggeri" e banali, perchè diciamolo: l'argomento è pesante, triste e frustrante, ma è fatto talmente bene che non si sente se non lievemente.
Ottima la maniera con cui sono state delineate le figure dei personaggi: Cecilia, ragazza di buona famiglia con un gran carattere, Robbie, ragazzo intelligente e coraggioso, Briony, cieca e testarda, la loro famiglia: la madre Emily, il padre, il fratello Leon, la cugina Lola, Mr. Marshall.
Forse l'unica parte che un pò mi delusa è stata l'ultima parte, la Briony anziana, perchè ero molto curiosa di sapere del resto della sua vita: se si era sposata (è vero, questo lo dice), se aveva avuto figli, se a qualcuno abbia mai raccontato del suo tragico errore, perchè abbia continuato a mantenere i rapporti con Pierrot, o meglio come...insomma un pò di più sul futuro della vera protagonista di questo libro.
E poi il titolo: Espiazione. Non sarà una bellissima parola (nel senso che non indica qualcosa di cui augurarsi o augurare), ma è bella pronunciarla e riempie la bocca.
In definitiva, lo consiglio. Io stessa lo rileggerò più di una volta e proverò anche gli altri libri di Ian McEwan.
* frase detta dal Cappellaio Matto in Alice in Wonderland, mi sembra molto appropriata alla trama del libro in questione! ;)