Atonement...a review

Hi

I've finished off reading Ian McEwan's Atonement. I'm so glad that I picked up this book, something about it has stayed with me, I keep thinking about the characters, which for me usually means that a book is a great one!

I won't do a plot review as you can find plenty of those on the web, and I don't wish to give away the twist at the end!

I just offer my thoughts about the book:

I loved the way that it was written from the various characters points of view and that the two scenes that are at the crux of the novel were done in a very subtle way....nothing graphic, which for a popular novel is almost 'a given' these days. Atonement was short-listed for the 2001 Booker Prize.

Some history was woven into the story; Dunkirk and life in hospital in the 40's....somethings were that same when I was nursing 40 years later...even scrubbing bedpans!

Also the social divisions in the pre-war England are explored in this book, divisions that the war probably broke down to some degree!

There is a movie based on this book, starring Keira Knightly as Cecilia Tallis and Vanessa Redgrave as the elderly Briony Tallis. I've watched parts of this movie, but have waited until I've finished the novel to watch it from begining to end!

I gave the novel an 8 out of 10