Atonement

Atonement

So far, this has been my favorite book on the Time list. It was amazing! I loved the different story lines, the characters were relateable, and the twist and the end really sealed the deal. I would recommend this book to anyone. It's a movie too, which I vaguely remember seeing part of on TV a couple years ago.

The main character is a younger sister who observes her older sister in a spat with the servant's son, which resulted in a broken vase and both parties hopping into a fountain to retrieve the pieces. Later that day, the younger sister connects the dots in a way which implicates the servant's son in a rape. The servant's son gets carted off the jail and then we flash forward several years into the midst of WWII. Both sisters are nurses and the author describes the scenes of wounded soldiers at the hospital with such colorful terms, I could really see everything happening in my mind's eye. The story ends with a twist that makes the whole novel all the more bittersweet.

I found myself feeling for all the characters the book spotlighted, as the narrator's voice shifted from younger sister, to the servant's son, and the old sister through letters and scene location. I felt that the intensity with which the younger sister focused on implicating the servant's son was reminiscent of what I would have done in a similar situation... But I would probably have driven myself mad fixating on it. I don't think I would have made the accusation at this time in my life, but I can certainly imagine that occurring if I was a child as she was at the start of the novel, and then letting it take over my life.

I still find it interesting that so many of the books on this list are focused in the 30s-70s eras. Atonement was written in 2001, but yet it was still set in the 40s. I just got the next book, An American Tragedy today. Looking forward to starting that one. It's quite a long book with small font, so it will be a while before I post again.

Thanks and keep reading,
Mary