There are a handful of books that really stand out in my mind as being some of the most beautiful works of fiction that I have had the pleasure of reading. The Kite Runner was an emotionally wrought book that kept up a swift pace and was just a perfect read. The Red Tent, which I read twice and reviewed back in July here had all the elements I love in a good piece of fiction - passion, love, suffering and family dynamics. A Prayer for Owen Meany, Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha, Beach Music - each one has a special place in my memory as unforgettable stories.
Then there is Atonement by Ian McEwan, a book I literally just finished a few hours ago. I wish I could do this book justice by my review, but I know already that whatever I write cannot describe the absolute enormity of feelings that I had while reading this book. The characters were so well fleshed out, the plot moves at a perfect pace, the story so multi-layered that I was just blown away.
From the back of the book:
On a summer day in 1935, thirteen year old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.
From the very first chapter I began to feel for these characters. Dramatic Briony, who in the absence of her depressed, migraine laden mother, spends countless hours alone working on her literary pursuits, fine tuning her active imagination. Her older sister, Cecelia, who has to take up the slack for her mother in running the Tallis household and is a little unsure of herself and her place in society. Then there’s Robbie, who is looking forward to his upcoming medical schooling and has been silently brooding over Cecilia for years.
The book itself is full of situations misinterpreted and words gone unsaid. The author writes with such fluidity and has a wonderful talent for being so descriptive. I love how he describes a simple object like a dirty dish towel:
The labor in the kitchen had been long and hard all day in the heat, and the residue was everywhere: the flagstone floor was slick with the spilt grease of roasted meat and trodden in peel; sodden tea towels, tributes to heroic forgotten labors, drooped above the range like decaying regimental banners in church.
See what I mean? And this simple sentence about guilt just says so much:
How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime.
If you have a book club and are looking for a great book for discussion, read Atonement. If you are looking for something to read the next time your on vacation, read Atonement. If you commute on the train to work, read Atonement. Whatever you are doing or wherever you are, make sure to read this book. You won’t be disappointed.
The movie version of Atonement (staring Keira Knightley) will be released tomorrow. You can see a trailer and learn more about the story at Amazon’s special movie page.
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