Melanie and Sophia are probably both done with the book now, and I'm only on page 71 of 351 (I have the trade paperback not the mass market paperback, which is thicker.--Note to Danika, the Purist: my borrowed copy has images from the movie on it, can't help but think of you and your dislike of this practice.).
It is fiction-y, and that is what is taking me so long, I think. Although, he's a fine writer. Let me share the following passage with you. The mother of the household is often bedridden with piercing headaches. Look what McEwan does with this description.
"Habitual fretting about her children, her husband, her sister, the help, had rubbed her senses raw; migraine, mother love and, over the years, many hours of lying still on her bed, had distilled from this sensitivity a sixth sense, a tentacular awareness that reached out from the dimness and moved through the house, unseen and all-knowing. Only the truth came back to her, for what she knew, she knew. The indistinct murmur of voices heard through a carpeted floor surpassed in clarity a typed-up transcript; a conversation that penetrated a wall or, better, two walls, came stripped of all but its essential twists and nuances. What to others would have been a muffling was to her alert senses, which were fine-tuned like the cat's whiskers of an old wireless, an almost unbearable amplification. She lay in the dark and knew everything. The less she was able to do, the more she was aware. But though she sometimes longed to rise up and intervene, especially if she thought Briony was in need of her, the fear of pain kept her in place. At worst, unrestrained, a matching set of sharpened kitchen knives would be drawn across her optic nerve, and then again, with a greater downward pressure, and she would be entirely shut in and alone. Even groaning increased the agony."
So, although I'm getting bogged down with keeping track of which female character is which and which young man is from where, there are bits of description like that that keep me moving along. And I know from Sophia that if I get deeper into the action, I will be much more interested in the particulars of these characters' lives.
Writers, at their best, take emotions and sensations that are familiar to all of us and put a name on them or describe them in a way that is exactly right. McEwan is very good at this.
Other takes on Atonement?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
It really has taken me forever to get into this book, but I am now hooked. I'm very surprised, as it is completely not my kind of book. I normally prefer things to move at a quicker pace, and I usually loathe anything in the historical fiction arena. Keep plugging away -- for me, it definitely has become worth it. And no, I'm not done. :) By the way, thank you, bookstep (and Christine/Sophia), for broadening my literary horizons. I owe you one.
I'm so glad that you tried something different and are enjoying it, Melanie--I'm sure that you'll be able to throw out a title for someone else that will take them down a new path here, too.
I read more last night. I am about to begin Part II of the book and am on page 179/351. Things have intensified. Still, more than plot, it is his writing that impresses me.
Sophia, you sounded like you had very little sympathy for Briony when we talked about this book the other day. What she's done is terrible, but I don't think that she is a terrible person. For one thing, she's still a child. And she is in over her head. She does not understand these adult issues or the adult world, just knows that she wants to be thought of as one of them. She is scared and confused and perhaps too quick to be self-righteous.
The title of this work is like a leaden stamp heavily tipping the book in my hand. I can only wonder what long-lasting effects Briony's actions will have on the others involved.
Post a Comment