Atonement

ATONEMENT

by Ian McEwan

 

Award: LA Times Winner 2002, National Book Critics Circle Winner 2002

 

Nominations: Booker Finalist 2001, Dublin Longlist 2003, James Tait Black Finalist 2001, NY Times Finalist 2002

 

Dates Read: June 1, 2005 & September 24, 2020

 

McEwan is a brilliant writer and it’s no wonder that Atonement received the recognition it did. Essentially, this novel is about the mistakes of youth and how they follow us into adulthood. In this case, the mistake was egregious with lasting consequences.

 

Briony is a precocious 13 year old who has just begun to hone her craft of writing. She lives in a largely imaginary world, and lives in a very real world of privilege and rules. She has been harboring a crush on the charwoman’s son, Robbie, who she has professed her love to.

 

Perhaps out of jealousy and decidedly out of a desire for drama, Briony accuses Robbie of raping her cousin. The only problem is that none of the other characters in this charade speak up in his defense. Although Briony knows she is lying, she carries her lie through multiple interrogations and even a trial. In her wake, she destroys Cecilia’s life, her sister who is in love with Robbie and, of course, Robbie’s life.

 

The reader is left to wonder what would have become of Cecilia and Robbie had Briony not made up this story. Robbie wouldn’t have gone to prison, although I doubt he would have been able to avoid serving in the war. Cecilia may not have gone into nursing, although that’s debatable as well. At the least, they would have had more years to love each other before the war took over their lives.

 

I have some empathy for Briony, who spends much of her adulthood trying to atone for her sin. Yet, her actions were so extreme that she could never put it to rights regardless of her efforts. She has to live with what she has done and that is the hardest thing of all.