After I read and didn’t like The Innocent by Ian McEwan, a number of people suggested I give Atonement a try. Some of whom hadn’t even heard me wax rhapsodic about the adaptation. Oddly enough, reading The Innocent had made me really want to read Atonement.
Everyone who suggested it, you were right. I really, really liked Atonement.
Atonement is just the best. It’s one of my favourites, ever.
I’m really glad you liked this book, and I suspect my husband would really like it too. Having now read two Ian McEwan books, I admire his skill at writing, and his mastery of language, but I hate this book. I get stabby with rage just thinking of it, because I hated Briony so deeply and the ending made me positively livid. The book certainly got me emotionally invested, I just rarely want fictional characters to be rended limb from limb (which is pretty much what I wanted for Briony in the end). I’m pretty sure I have a vein throbbing just writing it – that’s how angry this book makes me.
I think McEwan does a good job explaining why Briony is the way she is, but you are absolutely right–she is infuriating on an almost cosmic scale. As I said in the review, I do like the movie better because it forces a measure of penance. In the book, she’s allowed to hide within her own cowardice.