Book Review of Atonement by Ian McEwan

Bryana, Briana, Andris, Araseli

The novel Atonement by Ian McEwan is built on the meaning of the word itself.
Atonement means to give satisfaction or reparation for a wrong doing or to make
amends for something bad. Briony is the character in this novel that experiences
atonement.

As a young girl Briony has a very unfortunate misunderstanding of a situation
between her older sister, Cecile, and Robbie, their servants son. Cecile and
Robbie have an unofficial relationship with one another. The main things keeping
them apart are the differences in their social classes, as well as Cecile's
outright stubborn demeanor.

Briony finds a note of explicit content that Robbie has written to Cecile. As an
immature and young girl, Briony immediately assumes that Robbie has a sex craze
for her sister. Due to this delusion Briony tells a horrible lie to her family
and the police, causing Robbie to be arrested.

This novel is one that might be confusing at first because it is told from
Briony's point of view, with her looking back on her life and the situation. She
is somewhat of an unreliable narrator; she is 70 years old with a minor case of
Alzheimer's disease. This novel could even be considered a mysterious thriller; it isn't
exactly clear what is going on all the time and there a points where Briony can
be a very scary little girl.