I recently bought two books : Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald. I read The Way the Crow Flies awhile back and at the end of it, there was a "if you liked this, you'd love..." I loved The Way the Crow Flies (although really sad) but Atonement was the first book on the list of other books I'd love. Did I love it? Yes (of course), it was a wonderful book.
The book starts off in 1935 where we first come in contact with 13 year old Briony Tallis. The first half of the book is structured with chapters jumping point of views. So we first will read a situation told through the eyes of Briony, then the same scene told through her sister's eyes and so on. Which makes for quick page turning because we realize that Briony is, well 13 so maybe not so in tune with adults' actions, so you are anxious to find out what happened through the adults' eyes. This certainty goes both ways, because it's also interesting to see how a 13 year old would interpret an adult's actions.
Briony witnesses what she thinks is a servant's son harassing her older sister Cecilia. This leads to a series of events that will forever change the lives of the players in the book. The middle part of the book follows one of the characters through some experiences in World War II and the last part follows Briony's life 5 years later when she is 18 and realizes just how bad what she did in 1935 was. (suspenseful no?)
The Book Whore (ala me) highly recommends this book. Enjoy!
***Editors Note***
I forgot to mention that I also read Saturday by Ian McEwan and was entralled with that one as well. I also have noticed that McEwan has written tons of other books. I mention this because I love finding an author that I like and then finding out that they have also written many other books.
3 comments:
My goodness! With all the running, Chicago Cubs games and grand physics experiments, how do you find the time to read so many books?
we squeeze them in there. lots of reading while commuting via trains (or passengers in the car) and for about 15-30 minutes before crashing into bed :-)
If you had a hard time with Atonement Do Not Read The Way the Crow Flies I had to read very quickly through soomme of the pages of that one because of how sad it was....and nothing ends good for anyone really in that book.
I would say try atonement again...I thought the middle portion detailing the war was a bit tough to get through, but once you get the part 3 it goes pretty quickly.
Post a Comment