Atonement by Ian McEwan

This book was bought for me, as a present, by a work colleague after I had enjoyed the film 2 years ago. I have had a mixed relationship with Ian McEwan's books. The first one, Enduring Love, I really enjoyed, and I have recommended it to a number of people. I quite liked On Chesil Beach (click for review). I found Saturday interesting but also disappointing, and I didn't get on so well with Amsterdam either.

I waited a while after seeing the film of Atonement, which I loved, so as to get it out of my head, then a few weeks ago a friend told me she was reading it. It was time to pull it from my TBR pile and give it a go.

It tells the story of a family broken apart by the younger sisters accusation, fuelled by an over active imagination, with consequences that last for the rest of their lives, most tragically for her sister Cecilia, a ward of the family called Robbie, and herself, Briony, the accuser. It spans from 1935, a summers day at a country house, and then throughout the second world war, and finally to 1999 where the far reaching consequences are laid to rest.

I was captivated from the first page, and it did not let me go until the last. The words are rich and skillful, and there is a sustained quality all the way through. I wish I'd taken some of the passages down to share with you, but I couldn't put it down long enough. I intend to go back over it and revisit certain passages for my own pleasure. It was memorable throughout.

I don't know if I enjoyed it more because I had seen the film first, and I have tried to imagine how the book would be for those who do not know the story. Every location is vividly recreated in my head. Each character wrenched my heart as I read about their predicament. The ending brought tears, even though I knew what was coming.

I loved it, and it has joined my list of favourites. I recommend it with enthusiasm. Totally heartbreaking. Brilliant and complete.

For reading groups you can click on the link for Atonement discussion questions.

For Ian McEwan's website click the link.

Also, there are plans to turn Atonement into an opera, and you can read the report on The Guardian Book Blog by clicking the link.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

I won this book last year from a giveaway over at A Readers Respite, it is a lovely hardback edition too so feels nice in your hands as you read. There has been a lot of coverage about this book in blogland so I was pleased to be able to read it for myself.

Told entirely in letters, it is the story of Juliet, a journalist in London in 1946, who is looking for some new material to write a book now that the war is over. Her inspiration comes from correspondence with a group of individuals who lived on Guernsey during the Nazi Occupation during the war, and who formed the society of the title, initially as a cover to get together without suspicion, but developing into a true appreciation of books and also of each other. We learn of the different characters who have become friends during the most testing of times, and of their support for each other. We also learn of one who is no longer with them because she was imprisoned by the Germans. Juliet becomes connected to the group, professionally at first, and also personally as she goes to visit them on Guernsey, and ends up extending her visit as her own life becomes entwined with theirs.

As we learn their stories, there are lots of references to their occupation, the conditions that they were forced to live with, and also accounts of the Germans as individuals, some ruthless but others who were kind. This provides an interesting backdrop to the individual stories, giving a slightly different slant to the many Nazi occupation stories that are about.

I found the general feel of the book to be optimistic and upbeat, even during the harrowing and troubled parts. The book does not allow you to dwell on these parts unnecessarily, conveying a post-war atmosphere of hope and regrowth after so much hardship and challenge, for some more horrific than for others. A lot of this good feeling comes directly from Juliet and also from other society members. Juliet is cheery and generous, embracing her new friends with enthusiasm. This generocity of character is reflected back to her from Amelia, Isola and of course Dawsey, and all the others, but it is never overdone to become cheesy. They are a joy to read about.

I found this book very easy to read and became involved with the characters quickly. Being all written in letters it was easily picked up and put down. I found that I read off 50 pages almost immediately, without blinking.

Essentially a selection of character studies, some quirky, others more conventional, all heroic, this book is ideal for readers who want something absorbing but not too challenging, and for those who crave a novel that gives the human race a hopeful glow. They say the worst of times can bring out the best in people and it helps to reinforce your belief in others with lovely novels such as these.

Book Browse have a readers group guide...

http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm/book_number/2155/The-Guernsey-Literary-and-Potato-Peel-Pie-Society

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

I knew this one would be emotional so I've waited a while to make sure I was receptive and in the right frame of mind to read it. It was lent to me with his recommendations by my friends husband some time ago.

This is the story of Stephen Wraysford, starting in 1910 while working in France, he has a passionate affair with a married French woman. They run away together but finding herself pregnant, Isabelle, driven by her conscience returns to her family and then her husband. We are then pitched headlong into 1916 and the trenches of the First World War, where Stephen is living and fighting along with his men. The war forms the bulk of the novel and is interspersed with accounts from his grandaughter in 1978 (and has never met him) who is researching her grandfathers life to gain an insight on where she comes from. We learn, mainly from his perspective as it happens, but also from an retrospective view in the future, about his war experiences, his re encounter with Isabelle and how war affects and changes everyone.

It is written in a very straightforward style, with little poetry or wordplay, just strong characters and plot. I was surprised by the first 100 or so pages describing the love affair. Although a good introduction to the characters it is a little long and some of the plotlines it introduces peter out later in the book. The core of the book is the war itself and this is when the book really gets going.

The characters of the book are built up with details of their lives, making them seem real. They are never representational, nor are they over sentimentalised. You feel you get to know them, you connect to them, you worry about them, their circumstances, of which we can never truly imagine, and you are hurt when they fall. The author describes the horrors without sensationalising them. You are not let off lightly and some parts are difficult to continue. I had to put the book down and come back to it more than once. The main character, Stephen, is the hardest to know, 'a strange one', described as cold and enigmatic. He grew on me and I found I admired and cared for him towards the end. I also found, although a male dominated story and set up, that the womens characters, when present, were also well rounded as recognisable individuals, not just periphery to the real action.

It is the details that allow you to glimpse their crippling and inhuman conditions. I wanted to feel the irritation of lice, or to hear the noise of the shells, only momentarily, just to know. I don't want to go down the tunnels or experience the death. I was moved greatly on many occasions, by the poor boy in the hospital who is burnt and whose treatments add to his agonies before he dies, or Brennan in the nursing home in 1978, muttering about his brother, who, only we know was killed on the frontline during the war and whose torso was found by Brennan 2 weeks later. The incapability of those not in the war to fully understand or deal with the horrors the soldiers have witnessed adds to the situation they are in. They pray for it to be over but how do they go back to any normal kind of life, finding themselves forever alone and damaged because of it. I found I was racing the last part with disbelief, just to know the outcome. I also found the arrangement of the sections between the war and 1978 heightened the experience and gave a linked perspective to modern day.

I didn't think it was going to, but this book grabbed me, almost against my will. I would urge anyone to read it because these stories need to be told. We are very soon to be handed the responsibility of passing them on, so they are not forgotten, and this book is an excellent place to start.

For anyone who enjoyed this book, I would also recommend Germinal by Emile Zola, describing similar depths of the human spirit to survive in abject circumstances, not during a war but working in the mines in 19th century France.

Book Browse have a readers guide for Birdsong...

http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number=1684