Is Atonement Worth Reading?

[kellicat]

Hi everybody!

I just have a question about Ian McEwan's book Atonement, and whether it's worth reading to the end or not. I'm about a third of the way through (pg.114 out of 372 pages) and I've gotten bogged down by the purple prose and uninteresting characters. Cecilia's the only character who interests me and even she strikes me as rather

Comments

[fabricalchemist]

I would say SKIP IT if you already know how it ends. Maybe the movie is better, but I was really let down by the book.

[violabec]

Well, if you are 1/3 of the way in ..... I would skip the whole war bit. Jump ahead -- I think that it finishes well. It's not my fave book, but recently (except for Chesil Beach) McEwen has not been his earlier self. Haven't read his new one yet.

[matpol]

I preferred the movie. It's faithful to the book but at least I didn't have to endure McEwan's writing. So yeah . . . feel free to move on to another book.

[lalam]

I liked the book and the movie.

[muse_books]

Ditto - though I'd say I loved both book and the film adaptation. Where some members see purple prose I experience rich, lyrical prose.

[tabular_rasa]

Where some members see purple prose I experience rich, lyrical prose.

Me too. While I was reading, I remember feeling overjoyed that "someone still writes like this!" I thought that kind of writing had died with the Romantic era. I know a lot of modern readers hate it but I love it.

[kellicat]

I like poetic prose, but the problem for me is that the prose in this book feels clunky rather than poetic. It just doesn't click with me. Definitely a case of YMMV.

[tabular_rasa]

I would say "You just haven't reached the best part yet!" but if you know how it ends, that sort of ruins it /-: To me, the ending justifies the purple prose, because (and I don't feel this spoils anything, since you know already) it's meta-fiction, and Briony is kind of a self-indulgent purple-prose kinda gal.

I really love the book, actually-- but I'll be honest, my first time through I skipped most of the war bits. But I also don't mind flowery prose. I actually thought the writing in Atonement was quite beautiful-- though, yes, very descriptive, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. Also, Briony as a kid is eerily like me as a kid, so I really got sucked into the first third as well because it was like reading about myself in an alternate 1930s Britain universe.

If you know *what happens* and you don't dig reading the story for its own sake, then, yes, it's probably just not for you.