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255 of 284 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Trials of a summer night, April 11, 2003
This is an engaging story and so finely written that the reading is both effortless and seductive. After I had finished (that is, after drying my eyes and regaining my breath), I was amazed to realize how complex a plot it is considering how smoothly it is told. By far, it is the best book I have read in years.The story starts on a summer day at a large country estate in pre-WWII England. For anyone who delights in the heady mix of intelligence, innocence and youthful imagination, the beginning is like eating rich chocolate: 13 year old Briony has written a play -- the references to Austen, Burney, and family performances within 18th century lore are abundant and perfect -- to be rehearsed and performed by her unwilling and displaced visiting cousins in order to celebrate her brother's return to home with his sophisticated friend. However, reheasals in the playroom for THE TRIALS OF ARABELLA (of course) do not run smoothly: the twins boys do not understand what is expected of them; there's tension between Briony and 15 year old Lola. During the hot summer afternoon, Briony looks out the window to see her older sister Cecilia and Robbie, the cleaning lady's son, having what looks like some kind of menacing (and intimate) interaction in the fountain. The rest of the day's events and mishaps play out without implication until nightfall when a real crime of a sexual nature occurs and Briony's overactive imagination and lack of sophistication lead her to make a accusation which results in genuine tragedy for everyone. Without revealing the entire plot and overwhelming descriptions of war and survival, Briny spends her life paying for this mistake. Near the end of her long life, and having enjoyed without enjoyment a successful writing career, Briony's birthday is celebrated by her relations. This party is held at the old country house, now a renovated hotel, where her grand nieces and nephews perform THE TRIALS OF ARABELLA, a deeply emotional and incomprehensible experience for all (the surviving twin boy, now an old man, breaks down completely, as will nearly every reader). This book goes into my unofficial rank as one of the best reading experiences I've ever had. It tooks me days to shake the feeling that Briony was a part of my life. I was completely transported and I don't think there can be better praise than that.
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404 of 456 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If God were a novelist, March 13, 2002
I picked up this good-looking book with no advance knowledge of its plot - just a liking for other works of its author - and I'm grateful for that, and won't give away the story here. I was grabbed by its first description, and held closely throughout. McEwan has created characters who are so fully realized that I felt as if I had known them for years. It's an amazing story, though not at all far-fetched. It's slyly easy to read - think "page-turner" - but it is about vitally important things. In addition considerable historic research went into it, and that's a delicious plus.McEwan invites you into an English world that you will smell, hear, feel, and taste - and your mind and emotions will be fully engaged. The family has money and servants but this is nothing you've seen on television or the movies. The story is told with discipline and control, and from several points of view. The people are palpably real. It's a tightly organized and satisfying assemblage of the things that matter, among them family life, childhood, debt and obligation, loyalty, imagination, faith and hope, innocence and guilt, love, desire, varieties of destruction - and the urge to make a difference. Finally: war and peace. (In fact, you might be reminded of Tolstoy in more than a few ways.) In addition it's a fierce and moving meditation on the life of the mind and creativity. At the same time, McEwan's powers of description are such that all of your senses are never anything but fully engaged. English country life in the 1930's - a heat wave, and the fragrance of wildflowers, the feel of a silk dress that is sticking to skin, the thick dark of a moonless summer night - through the horrors of the Second World War (Dunkirk most dramatically and effectively) and beyond. It is either sheer brilliance, or a deeply humane urge, or maybe just a workmanlike sense, but McEwan takes full responsibility for each of his characters- and sees them through to the end. Nearly every page has something unselfconsciously remarkable to think about - or to reconsider. I used my pencil throughout; there is so much that is wise or just plain awe-inspiring in this book. McEwan has accomplished something amazing. I'm telling friends to read the book first, reviews second. The story is so terrific, and so moving and important - and might unfold best for the reader who comes to it blissfully uninformed. It's not very often that I've felt transformed by a novel. Read it as soon as you can.
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50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crime without punishment, November 11, 2002
A number of reviews have summarized the story of the 'crime' of 13 year-old Briony and the resulting dramatic changes that occur in the lives of the key characters: in addition to the young girl, her older sister Cecilia, her cousin as well as the son of the housekeeper, Robbie. The first part of the book covers one hot summer day in rural England in 1935 where the tragedy unfolds. The atmosphere is masterfully evoked and the evolving drama sensitively depicted. To this reader the most successful facet of the chapter and the novel overall is the characterization of Briony. In many ways, this is Her story, seen from different angles and from different time perspectives. She is, as the late arrival to her parents, a typical mix of a spoilt and neglected child. She lives in her own fantasy world where the realities of her surroundings are mixed in with the wild imaginations of a romantic of her age. McEwan captures the capricious teenager very well indeed. He also paints an excellent portrait of the upper-middleclass family and its open and hidden frustrations and tensions. Cecilia is also well drawn as the returning fresh (women's) college graduate. She tends to replace the mother for Briony and a set of cousins, but at the same time she is uncertain of her own identity. This part of the book is the most engaging, it draws the characters well and builds up the tension up to the 'crime'. The rest of the novel does not maintain the momentum created. The story picks up five years later with Robbie at the front in France after having spent the intervening years in prison for THE crime, which he did not commit. Briony, obviously in part as a result of her guilt for blaming Robbie rather than the real aggressor in a false testimony, has decided to train as a nurse in London. We also learn that her actions resulted in her sister refusing to communicate with her and the rest of the family. One wonders why the very detailed description of the retreat from the front to Dunkirk with a wounded Robbie as the main character was necessary. Based on extensive research of historical documents, McEwan offers an excellent account of the dramas of that retreat, however, its significance for this particular story is not evident. The incidental facts one learns about the intervening years, the protagonists and their changed relationships do not justify the importance given to this chapter. The exception is the description of Briony's life as a nurse which is more to the point. An extensive duty period where she is suddenly confronted with the dramatic influx of seriously wounded soldiers leaves a deep impression. The learning curve that changes her from an innocent and irresponsible 18 year old to an adult during those hours is well drawn. Her actions following this experience, although somewhat unconvincing, are intended to demonstrate her resolve to confront her 'atonement'. The novel ends with an epilogue set some 55 years later. It depicts Briony as a successful writer of a certain age. While preparing for a birthday party in her honour, she reflects not only on her life but also on the question of atonement. I agree with those reviewers who commented on the weakness of the ending of the novel. The concept of a story in a story and the author's privilege to change major aspects of the story line to give it more of 'happy ending', does not sound quite convincing. Atonement is not achieved by making the characters survive and live happily ever after. Briony, even at 77, remains the capricious little person that she was at 13. She still invents fantasies and refuses to take responsibility for her actions.
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