BOOK: Atonement
AUTHOR: Ian McEwan
REVIEW:
Having not really read any war-time dramas, I have the superficial idea of it all being bang bang you're dead etc - however, obviously, not quite as simple as that. I have a lot of respect for our Veterans; if it wasn't for them you'd be reading this in German right now - and things like that, however, reading Atonement, I was happily surprised to find little first hand confrontation of the war-kind. There was the occasional bomb but it was mostly drunken brawls and insults directed towards the RAF.
The story is based aroound a young girl's confused take on a word that she stumbles across in an act of pure noseyness, and the connotations of finding the word that she then spends the rest of her life "atoning" for, hence the title.
Based in 1935, this pleasant little war-time drama shows the blossoming love of the land-owner's daughter and their maid's son realised through this one word, which, although sewing together the two young adults, causes them to be tragically torn apart at the same time.
Written in 3 parts, part 2 is based in 1940 and sees the retreat at Dunkirk, France; part 3 showing how horrific it was to be present, let alone working in, a hospital in London at that time.
Fantastically, and graphically, written, I really do suggest reading this book. Take the time to read it, it's surely worth it. Ian McEwan has surely captured WWII at it's finest, although mainly along the lines of the parts that most films leave out. So take some time and read the book, it really is fantastic, and is one of Ian McEwan's less twisted romance stories.