 |
 |
   |
|
|
|
|
AtonementEditions
Review
In the first - and longest – part of the book, McEwan’s language powerfully evokes the oppressive heat and seductive languor of a summer’s day in a beautiful country setting. At the same time, he fills the reader with a mounting sense of dread, which proves to be entirely justified. What an amazing contrast, therefore, to be plummeted into the chaos of the British Expeditionary Force’s retreat from France - the setting of the second part of the book: the descriptions of the horrors of this particular war are especially effective, and, without giving too much away, there is an urgency to the story which is absolutely gripping. A new section takes us back to London, and further perspectives on the events we have witnessed, as wounded soldiers from Dunkirk are brought into the hospitals. If I were to make one small criticism, it would be that the epilogue, set in present-day London, does not sustain the tension of the rest of the novel, even though it has an important plot function – but the epilogue is only a small part of the book, and the preceding parts are truly magnificent. The reader is constantly – but with great subtlety - prompted to reconsider what has gone before, so that each event has a genuinely three-dimensional quality, as though we ourselves had real experience of it. McEwan exercises complete control over all the elements of his novel – the psychology of the characters, the threads of the plot, the language, the settings, the mystery (for there is a mystery) and the structure. Wonderful. - review by Dan Fenton |
|
John Sandoe [Books] Ltd |
It is a blisteringly hot day in 1935. Thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis watches from an upstairs window, as her elder sister strips off her clothes and jumps into the fountain where she and their family friend Robbie Turner have been standing. It would be misleading to say that this was this novel’s plot, but this is the central episode in the book, displayed to the reader from every possible angle, and it has far-reaching and dramatic consequences. I found it absolutely breathtaking – McEwan’s extraordinary ability to reveal the world to us through the eyes of a passionate and introverted young girl, of a grammar-school educated Cambridge graduate, or of a migraine-stricken mother drew me so far into the book that, excepting meals and other diversions, I practically read it at one sitting.
Fax:
020 7581 2084