I honestly don’t know where to start with this novel. There are two layers, I suppose. First we have the actual story about the characters and their lives. I wasn’t entirely convinced about that part or at least it didn’t live up to my expectations. Secondly, there is the metafictional layer. Atonement is also a comment on literature. That aspect was more interesting, although I always find there is a fine line between being interesting and being overly clever.

1. The Story in Atonement

Atonement starts with an epigraph, quoting from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey [the audiobook doesn’t include this]. It sets the scene for the first part of the book. Like Catherine in Northanger Abbey, Briony Tallis is a young girl with an overactive imagination. The consequences are a lot more serious in Atonement though. Briony’s imagination leads her to create her own narrative, which has life-changing consequences for her sister Cecilia and Robbie, the gardener’s son.

1.1 Part 1
The first part of the novel takes place at the Tallis family’s mansion in Surrey over a few days during the summer of 1935. We are introduced to the family and their guests and Briony commits the action, which will haunt her for the rest of her life.

There is no doubt Ian McEwan is a good writer and his character portrayals are exceedingly well done. Especially 13-year old Briony stands out. Whilst rather annoying, she feels 100% authentic and I had no problems imagining her in real life. At first, I enjoyed getting to know the characters, getting a peek into their thoughts, seeing situations from different points of view, exploring different interpretations. But after a while, I started to – dare I say it – get a bit bored with this privileged family and their squabbles taking place in a typical Jane Austen setting. It wasn’t at all what I expected from this critically acclaimed novel.

1.2 Part 2
In Part 2 the war has started and we follow Robbie during the Dunkirk retreat in 1940. This was possibly my favourite part; utterly gripping with no illusions about what war is really like.

1.3 Part 3
Finally, we move back to Briony’s point of view in Part 3. She is training as a nurse and has to deal with pretty horrific cases of death and injuries as the war progresses. Just reading about it made me squirm. Good thing I never pursued a medical career.

If you haven’t read the novel yet, please stop here. SPOILERS AHEAD.

2. The metafictional aspect of Atonement

Throughout the novel, the aspiring author Briony reflects on literature and on how to develop her writing. The sharp-minded reader may at an early stage begin to suspect he/she is reading a book inside a book, written by Briony. McEwan confirms this towards the end of part 3, where Briony is putting the finishing touches on Atonement, the novel we are currently reading.

An earlier scene already hints at what is going on. Bryony receives feedback from an editor on a novella, she has written. The novella is easily recognisable as being similar to the beginning of Part 1 in Atonement. However, the novella isn’t identical to the words appearing in Atonement. In the latter, we are presented with a more interesting version of events, where Briony has included some of the changes, suggested by the editor.

So we realise, we have been reading Briony’s edited version of the (fictional) truth all the time. Of course, that throws everything into question. What is *fact*, what is fiction?

2.1 The literary commentary
Atonement is a comment on literature from beginning to end. In particular I enjoyed the letter from the editor to Briony. The editor suggests to Briony, how she can progress her novella into something more interesting by using specific literary devices relating to plot and characters. In reality McEwan is explaining his ideas behind the structure of Atonement (beyond the novella), which from Briony’s point of view is what really happened in her life. Very meta.

2.2 The creative freedom and responsibility of an author
By using Briony as the author of the novel, McEwan makes it clear how easy it is for people and in particular for authors to create their own narrative. He shows it inside the story via the events in Briony’s childhood, where her false statement has serious consequences. And he shows it *outside* the story, by letting Briony reveal, what we just read isn’t quite what happened. She meant to write the truth as some sort of atonement. But in the end she couldn’t do it. Briony muses that all of the involved parties will soon be dead. Only her version of the truth will survive through her novel. Briony asks:

“How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God?”

A question from Robbie also contributes to the discussion about writing and preserving the *truth*. What writers put in history books to be communicated to future generations may not necessarily represent the truth as experienced by the people who were actually there. When passing a bombed village with bodies of soldiers and civilians all over the place, Robbie muses:

”Who would care? Who could ever describe this confusion, and come up with the village names and the dates for the history books? And take the reasonable view and begin to assign the blame? No one would ever know what it was like to be here. Without the details there could be no larger picture.”

With freedom comes responsibility, though. Exactly because authors have the power to create their own narrative, they also have an obligation to make an effort. Briony has to write fictional accounts of the chapters seen from other people’s point of view. She uses the letters between Robbie and Cecilia as a starting point for their story and studies the archives at the Imperial War museum to get the details about the Dunkirk retreat as authentic as possible. In the acknowledgements, McEwan notes that he himself used journals and letters from soldiers and nurses to write Atonement.

3. In conversation with The Sense of an Ending

Atonement is part of my project, reading the Best British Books. Another novel from this project is Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending, which is written 10 years after Atonement.

More than once, Atonement reminded me of The Sense of an Ending. Thematically, there are similarities and it seems the two books are almost speaking to each other.

3.1 Examples of the dialogue
To Robbie’s question about who will remember the details of war for the history books (see section 2.2), The Sense of an Ending answers:

“History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”

And to Briony’s comment about how her alternative version of the truth will survive, because the involved parties will soon be dead, The Sense of an Ending says:

“How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but – mainly – to ourselves.” 

Both books deal with the concept of creating our own narrative, so it suits our purpose. In Briony’s case, the storyline she has created in her head blends into reality. Tony from The Sense of an Ending chooses to remember the past, the way he wants to remember it, rather than how it really was. Both protagonists later realise their mistakes and are haunted by regret in different ways.

3.2 A circular reading experience
Another similarity between the two novels is the circular reading experience. A reveal towards the end, makes the reader see the whole story in a completely different light.

In Atonement, realising that we are reading Briony’s version of events, obviously makes us aware of the fictional element of the story.

In The Sense of an Ending, it’s the realisation that events have been interpreted the wrong way, which may intrigue readers to go back to the beginning and reread the story from this new angle.

4. My Final Thoughts

I can easily see, why Atonement is considered an important work and why it has received so much critical acclaim. The layered novel is exceedingly clever and there is much to be discussed with respect to themes, concepts, connections and interpretations. My review is focused on the aspects, I found most interesting, but I have barely scratched the surface.

Strangely, I seem to be one of the few people, who really enjoyed the ending. To a high extent, it was the ending, which really made me think.

Overall, I didn’t love Atonement. Undoubtedly, it appealed to my intellectual curiosity, but these intellectual stimuli (i.e. the metafictional aspects and clever literary devices McEwan applied to demonstrate his points to the reader) are exactly the reason, the novel didn’t appeal strongly to the heart. I simply felt too distanced from the characters. However, I won’t forget this novel in a hurry.

Title: Atonement [2001]
Author: Ian McEwan
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Carole Boyd  
Genre: Historical Fiction, Modern Classics