- By David Baldacci
“I defy you to begin this book and leave it unfinished” – Sunday Express…
Well,
I got to say, that suits the book perfectly. I just could not keep the
book down and believe me when I say that I have read enough action
thrillers to not be surprised by the tone or the story or the action
sequence. But this is my first Baldacci’s novel, an impulse buy and I
was glued from the word GO. Amazingly written, giving enough rope to the
details and practically painting the picture for the reader, both about
the surroundings and from the perspective of the characters in that
environment and to do it with such finesse is brilliant. And Baldacci
has done an outstanding job with this one.
The story is
about the FBI super-elite Hostage Rescue Team member, Web London. When
he lost his entire team on what was supposed to be a bust operation of a
drug dealer’s nest, in an alley, in what turns out to be an ambush, he
just about lost everything he cared for and if there was something that
he needed at that moment, was perhaps the retribution for his team, but
he finds his reputation tainted and suspicions thrown at him from his
own colleagues. And despite the deep loss he felt and apparently no time
to regroup his thoughts, he needed to find answers. Answers to why he
was the “last man standing” among his team and why he was not dead as he
was supposed to be. And so begins his journey, in the due process
sifting through the complex fabric of his life as a child and into a
lethal world of his career and into finding the only other survivor, a
ten year old boy named Kevin, who has gone missing.
The
story inevitably grips the reader all the way to the last word. And
more importantly, it evokes strong emotions towards all the people who
do thankless jobs and never have a prayer said in their name (perhaps!)
or have their memory confined to a wooden frame. And the author’s
writing just about makes you wish that there would probably be a bit
more to the story so that you could flip through the pages and get into
the life of Web London, the protagonist of the novel and perhaps know
him better, though what all was to be known about him was succinctly
pointed out. He is just that sort of a character, with a little mystery
associated with him and slips like a sand through fingers, never letting
you get a grip! I, for one, could have used more about him!! On the
other hand, there are other characters, each as strong as Web London,
but well, the hype had to build around the main protagonist to cultivate
the empathy!!! And I have no complaints!
Not the sort
of a book you might want to pick when you are about to go to a party or
on a date ;), but yeah, certainly something you want to pick, if you
seem to be in a mood for some thrill and have time! Baldacci does not
cut down on details and I got an impression that he likes to paint a
vivid picture to the reader and build up the adrenaline, pretty much how
the characters see it. You are as involved as the character and that is
a significant achievement for any author. So, I got to say, hands down
to David Baldacci, he has my attention and just about spiked my ante for
another one of his writing.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Grotesque
- By Natsuo Kirino
The book has a very curious introduction about a girl who wonders what her child would look like if she made out with the guy in front of her and this is what she wonders with every passing man. When I read this sentence, I had a small smile wondering what I think when I pass a guy and I realized I never gave much thought to it! I think I will make a conscious effort to make note of my first impressions from now on, though I can guarantee now, that my thought would never involve thinking of a guy romantically!!! He he, I am too faint hearted for such an adventure in my life! Surprisingly, this girl does not have a name through out the novel.
The girl speaks to me as she progresses further in rendering her story and gives a brief glimpse of her life, her family – that included her mother, father and a sister. And the bits and pieces jumble in and out of her life and the characters in her life. She gives a brief introduction about the family which would be evaluated further, but she gave me enough coop to interest me. As the love between her father and mother recedes to a darker corner, eventually becoming contempt between the two, she gives me an insight into the childhood she had. She gives a very sarcastic, intriguing prelude about her sister whom she refers as a ‘monster’, in that Yuriko was diabolically beautiful, yet a monster – saying that for people who believe that being beautiful is important over being ugly, she would ask them to have a glimpse at Yuriko. And then she introduces her classmate and friend, Kazue, intelligent, not-so good looking, yet competent personality, who eventually pushes her away and gets much closer to her sister, which kind of gave me a thought if this story was about resentment. Both Yuriko and Kazue, with two completely contrasting personalities come together, end up as prostitutes and are eventually killed and abandoned by the same man, a year apart, and why they were killed and what their lives mean and why the girl bothers sharing the story that is better left unsaid and to the closed wood of the coffin is something that glued me to this book. But the first impressions soon turned into a little horror and true to the name, the story was grotesque, repulsive, incomplete with no apparent reasons to why two seemingly varied personas choose what they chose and why they were murdered. Why did I bother reading it to the end? Because I am a sucker for character study!!!
As the novel progressed, the narrator seems to bring out a rendition of the facts, yet strangely, I seem to be less than sympathetic to her. She is filled with resentment, contempt with everyone and everything that surrounds her and that includes her family, her friends and the relationships in general. She feels that her mother is a born loser, her father, a miserly person and she resents her sister from a very early age because of her angelic and uncharacteristic beauty and the resentment transforms to hatred with her ethereal experience when she watches her sister bathe naked in a pond near their summer cabin. The facts that were so blatantly written causing me much intrigue and promising so much more, turned out to show a twist in the narrator that I deeply detested with every turning page. The novel introduced me to a world that I can hardly believe exists, but the bold faced narration kept me going. Though the loathing for the narrator increased with the twist of the page, I wonder what sort of a rationale prompted her, to even conceive a thought of hating her sister! Yuriko had nothing but a charm in her face that would satisfy men and she revelled in that control over men, particularly elder men and though I do not have much opinion myself about the path chosen, she did what she did openly and showed some integrity rather than play convoluted and twisted mind games with people round her! The narrator could not stand her and she resented that Kazue ended up being a friend to Yuriko. The narrator goes on to speak about the budding love between Kazue and Takashi Kazima, and how she manipulated that love for her own whim, which only made me more aghast at the person she is! On one hand, she speaks of monsters and on the other, she behaves like one, ripping through people’s emotions as though they mean nothing!
In the world of Japan, prostitution is a means to power and the seemingly successful career women, in the hunger for more power, stoop to the immoral and dangerous profession where the words, professor, uncle, brother, friend have little meaning and where life hangs in thin air, delicately balancing lust and desire! But it also threw me into a pit of distress as the true colors and the helplessness of each person come to the surface. Yuriko, held captive by her own beauty and angelic features, is a dimwit with little intelligence who plays to the infidelity of men and uses seduction as a process to counter her own detest of the world, who looks at her as nothing more than a shiny object to play with, her beauty being a curse in itself where she has to fight to survive using the only defence in her, to overcome her insecurity being born as a child to a Japanese mother and Swiss father. Kazue, born to an aspiring father who determines the pecking order in the family based on the grades earned and marks scored, is hell bent on succeeding in life and earning a name for herself, only to realize that to gain power, the very profession (her day job) she chose has limited opportunity and makes a repulsive choice of selling herself to gain the power she very much craved for. As the narrator speaks impassively of these characters, she also introduces numerous other characters who seem to be involved in this bizarre story, yet the most astounding twist comes in the end, where she meets Yuriko’s son, Yurio, who is born blind and has no passion for anything other than music, for which he needs a computer with a specific software. He willingly accepts to stay with his aunt provided she bought him this computer. At forty, the narrator is so captured by the boy’s innocence and wants to live with this little kid. When he pesters her for the computer, she counters that she has little money and he counters, saying,
“why don’t you go and work in the night, like my mom?”.
She slaps him in the face! Then the twist where she walks on the road, shouting that she is forty and a virgin and is available concludes the narration! Now, there is an original reason for getting into what she called immorality! To find a noble cause in the grotesque thing she pursues and willing on to say that people who hate men and women get into this lifestyle…. “its hatred for others, for the rest of the world.”
Though the novel speaks about the reason why the two have been killed, I read the novel not for the suspense of the narration or for the story, but for the characters that seem to be caught in a web cast around them and their reasons for justifying their actions, whether moral or immoral. This is unlike any of the novels I read and will read (I hope), and though this is far from my liking, I should appreciate the boldness of the fiction which would put the contemporary murder fiction and fantasy romance to shame, with its sheer audacity! But, the story that started with a lot of promise ended up with a lot to desire.
The book has a very curious introduction about a girl who wonders what her child would look like if she made out with the guy in front of her and this is what she wonders with every passing man. When I read this sentence, I had a small smile wondering what I think when I pass a guy and I realized I never gave much thought to it! I think I will make a conscious effort to make note of my first impressions from now on, though I can guarantee now, that my thought would never involve thinking of a guy romantically!!! He he, I am too faint hearted for such an adventure in my life! Surprisingly, this girl does not have a name through out the novel.
The girl speaks to me as she progresses further in rendering her story and gives a brief glimpse of her life, her family – that included her mother, father and a sister. And the bits and pieces jumble in and out of her life and the characters in her life. She gives a brief introduction about the family which would be evaluated further, but she gave me enough coop to interest me. As the love between her father and mother recedes to a darker corner, eventually becoming contempt between the two, she gives me an insight into the childhood she had. She gives a very sarcastic, intriguing prelude about her sister whom she refers as a ‘monster’, in that Yuriko was diabolically beautiful, yet a monster – saying that for people who believe that being beautiful is important over being ugly, she would ask them to have a glimpse at Yuriko. And then she introduces her classmate and friend, Kazue, intelligent, not-so good looking, yet competent personality, who eventually pushes her away and gets much closer to her sister, which kind of gave me a thought if this story was about resentment. Both Yuriko and Kazue, with two completely contrasting personalities come together, end up as prostitutes and are eventually killed and abandoned by the same man, a year apart, and why they were killed and what their lives mean and why the girl bothers sharing the story that is better left unsaid and to the closed wood of the coffin is something that glued me to this book. But the first impressions soon turned into a little horror and true to the name, the story was grotesque, repulsive, incomplete with no apparent reasons to why two seemingly varied personas choose what they chose and why they were murdered. Why did I bother reading it to the end? Because I am a sucker for character study!!!
As the novel progressed, the narrator seems to bring out a rendition of the facts, yet strangely, I seem to be less than sympathetic to her. She is filled with resentment, contempt with everyone and everything that surrounds her and that includes her family, her friends and the relationships in general. She feels that her mother is a born loser, her father, a miserly person and she resents her sister from a very early age because of her angelic and uncharacteristic beauty and the resentment transforms to hatred with her ethereal experience when she watches her sister bathe naked in a pond near their summer cabin. The facts that were so blatantly written causing me much intrigue and promising so much more, turned out to show a twist in the narrator that I deeply detested with every turning page. The novel introduced me to a world that I can hardly believe exists, but the bold faced narration kept me going. Though the loathing for the narrator increased with the twist of the page, I wonder what sort of a rationale prompted her, to even conceive a thought of hating her sister! Yuriko had nothing but a charm in her face that would satisfy men and she revelled in that control over men, particularly elder men and though I do not have much opinion myself about the path chosen, she did what she did openly and showed some integrity rather than play convoluted and twisted mind games with people round her! The narrator could not stand her and she resented that Kazue ended up being a friend to Yuriko. The narrator goes on to speak about the budding love between Kazue and Takashi Kazima, and how she manipulated that love for her own whim, which only made me more aghast at the person she is! On one hand, she speaks of monsters and on the other, she behaves like one, ripping through people’s emotions as though they mean nothing!
In the world of Japan, prostitution is a means to power and the seemingly successful career women, in the hunger for more power, stoop to the immoral and dangerous profession where the words, professor, uncle, brother, friend have little meaning and where life hangs in thin air, delicately balancing lust and desire! But it also threw me into a pit of distress as the true colors and the helplessness of each person come to the surface. Yuriko, held captive by her own beauty and angelic features, is a dimwit with little intelligence who plays to the infidelity of men and uses seduction as a process to counter her own detest of the world, who looks at her as nothing more than a shiny object to play with, her beauty being a curse in itself where she has to fight to survive using the only defence in her, to overcome her insecurity being born as a child to a Japanese mother and Swiss father. Kazue, born to an aspiring father who determines the pecking order in the family based on the grades earned and marks scored, is hell bent on succeeding in life and earning a name for herself, only to realize that to gain power, the very profession (her day job) she chose has limited opportunity and makes a repulsive choice of selling herself to gain the power she very much craved for. As the narrator speaks impassively of these characters, she also introduces numerous other characters who seem to be involved in this bizarre story, yet the most astounding twist comes in the end, where she meets Yuriko’s son, Yurio, who is born blind and has no passion for anything other than music, for which he needs a computer with a specific software. He willingly accepts to stay with his aunt provided she bought him this computer. At forty, the narrator is so captured by the boy’s innocence and wants to live with this little kid. When he pesters her for the computer, she counters that she has little money and he counters, saying,
“why don’t you go and work in the night, like my mom?”.
She slaps him in the face! Then the twist where she walks on the road, shouting that she is forty and a virgin and is available concludes the narration! Now, there is an original reason for getting into what she called immorality! To find a noble cause in the grotesque thing she pursues and willing on to say that people who hate men and women get into this lifestyle…. “its hatred for others, for the rest of the world.”
Though the novel speaks about the reason why the two have been killed, I read the novel not for the suspense of the narration or for the story, but for the characters that seem to be caught in a web cast around them and their reasons for justifying their actions, whether moral or immoral. This is unlike any of the novels I read and will read (I hope), and though this is far from my liking, I should appreciate the boldness of the fiction which would put the contemporary murder fiction and fantasy romance to shame, with its sheer audacity! But, the story that started with a lot of promise ended up with a lot to desire.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Atonement
- By Ian McEwan
Atonement – true to its meaning, is about the atonement of the protagonist Briony Tallis. It splendidly portrays the perceptions of a thirteen year old child and the subsequent consequences of her preconceived notions and the aftermath that changes her life and the life of her sister Cecilia’s and the life of her sister's beloved, Robbie Turner’s.
The novel starts of with Briony’s attempt to write a play, Trials of Arabella, for her brother Leon, whom she adores. The characters in the play would be played by her cousins – Lola, and her twin brothers - Jackson and Pierrot. So absorbed was she in her play, that she failed the basic courtesy of enquiring if any of her cousins were tired of the long journey they had to make. But as the rehearsals take shape, she has a sinking feeling about the play, as her cousins enact the characters lifelessly. To let lose her frustration, she chooses to stay alone in her room.
Cecilia, just completed her college in Cambridge and is trying to think about her future. She walks out into the garden holding a vase filled with flowers, to fill it with water, where she notices her childhood friend, Robbie Turner, gardening. She loiters a little longer, wondering how to proceed further towards the fountain. For some unfathomable reason, she was often awkward in his presence. Though they studied in the same college, they hardly had any communication and whatever little communication they had, it was filled with discomfited moments. Robbie, too, could not quite understand why he was tongue tied in front of her. In an attempt to make a conversation, Cecilia speaks first. In the follow up that leads to a strange intensity of tension between them, Robbie offers to fill in the vase with water, for which she refuses. When Robbie, true to his male ego, tries to take the vase from her hand, Cecilia, holds to it in an attempt to ward him off and in the pointless struggle that follows, the vase is broken, part of which falls into the fountain. Cecilia, saying that he was an idiot, strips in front of him to retrieve the broken vase. Robbie, stunned by her actions, gapes at her. After she retrieves the vase and puts on her clothes, the ridiculousness of the situation hits her, and she runs back to the house, embarrassed. Robbie looks at the water, touching it, trying to steady his heart beat and looking to check if there are any more pieces of the vase left in the fountain. Unknown to them both, Briony, who watches this incident is stunned to see her sister stand half naked. The situation from her bedroom window, looks like Robbie was threatening Cecilia, and as the scene unfolds, it makes little sense to her.
On his way back to his home, Robbie meets Leon and his friend Paul Marshall. Leon, invites him home for dinner. When Cecilia knows about this, she is irritated, but for reasons she could not quite comprehend. Robbie, on the other hand, though worried about the irritation of Cecilia, could not quite say a “no” to the invitation. In the comfort of his home, as he was thinking about the incident that unfolded near the fountain, he started to compose a letter to her, to apologize for his behavior.
While going for the dinner, with his letter in hand, he notices Briony in the field and calls out to her. He asks if she minds delivering a letter to Cecilia personally. Briony takes the letter and runs back home, and locking the door behind her, opens it and is aghast at the words! Robbie on the other hand, realizes that the letter he composed to Cecilia, the formal note of apology, was still on his desk and that the improper words, those that should never have left his fantasy, were in the letter he handed to Briony. He unsuccessfully calls out for her and realizes that it was too late!
Briony, though gives the letter to Cecilia, is shocked and in tears and in desperate need of counsel and she speaks her mind to Lola, who happens to say that Robbie is a maniac. The thirteen year old kid in Briony takes that word too seriously and is determined to save her sister. Cecilia, after reading the letter, though, clearly understands her feelings towards Robbie.
When the door bell rings, she answers and finds Robbie, who is embarrassed and who apologizes for the inappropriateness of the letter.
"The anticipation and dread he felt at seeing her was also a kind of sensual pleasure, and surrounding it, like an embrace, was a general elation - it might hurt, it was horribly inconvenient, no good might come of it, but he had found out for himself what it was to be in love, and it thrilled him."
Cecilia draws him into the library, where she confronts her feelings for him and they make out in the library, against the book racks. The transformation she feels in her and in him, somehow, changes the dynamics between them and she realizes, then, that something beautiful has happened and it changed the way they perceived each other!
"Nothing as singular or as important had happened since the day of his birth. She returned his gaze, struck by the sense of her own transformation, and overwhelmed by the beauty in a face which a lifetime's habit had taught her to ignore. She whispered his name with the deliberation of a child trying out the distinct sounds. When he replied with her name, it sounded like a new word - the syllables remained the same, the meaning was different. Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can ever quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same emphasis on the second word, as if she had been the one to say them first. He had no religious belief, but it was impossible not to think of an invisible presence or witness in the room, and that these words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract."
Briony, walks into the library, hearing the noise and afraid for her sister thinking that Robbie is physically abusing her and is shocked to notice them in that state.
In the dinner that follows, with the obvious tension between him and Cecilia, and Briony’s clear hatred (mutual hatred, I dare say :D) for him, he sits uncomfortably, thinking about eloping with his sweetheart after dinner. During dinner, the twins, unhappy about their stay and confinement, run away from the house. While the entire family starts searching for them, Leon and Cecilia as a pair, Robbie and Briony set out on their paths, alone, to find the twins. Briony, suddenly notices her cousin Lola, strangled by a man and is shocked to notice them. Lola, was in no position to say who it was, Briony on the other hand, convinces herself that the person was Robbie. In the events that lead to the investigation, she gives her witness that she saw Robbie holding Lola down and as a further proof of Robbie’s perverseness, hands the letter he wrote to Cecilia to the investigators.
Not knowing the drama that unfolded, Robbie returns with the twins and is immediately arrested for abusing Lola. Cecilia is the only one, who trusts him and says that she would wait for him and what happened between them was their little secret.
Thus, the perception of Briony changes the life of her sister. And in the events that follow, one is left wondering, if only, Briony could have understood the love or, if only, the events unfolded as they should have, but, alas, they did happen in a certain sequence and the melodrama that follows, touches the reader. And as Briony, completely grasps the meaning of what she had done, on that fateful day, that changed the lives of three people, she asks for atonement from her sister, a good eight years later.
The novel has beautiful passages, splendidly written, which reach out to the reader and perhaps, the following statement from an adult Briony, serves for an apt conclusion to this post:
"Every secret of the body was rendered up -- bone risen through flesh, sacrilegious glimpses of an intestine or an optic nerve. From this new and intimate perspective, she learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew: that a person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended."
… certain things can never be mended and however sincere an apology is, there can never be a complete retribution and above all, time that is lost can never come back, nor can the dreams of the young man, who aspired to do medicine and who is confined to the army, not with dignity and honour attributed to a soldier, but with a choice between jail and army.
Ian McEwan does a fantastic job with his characters and the prose just brings to life, even the dullest of routines. The novel is rich in its prose and the command of the author is not lost on the reader. It paints a world and draws the characters to perfection and the reader, is there, in the novel, witnessing the events as they unfold. The beauty of a novel is in portraying the magnitude of the place and environment to the reader’s eyes and though it is largely left to the reader to imagine the surrounding, Ian McEwan simplifies the process of imagination by bringing in vivid details that cling to the reader and portrays a picture as he perceives it to be! Not an easy task!!!
Lovely book, easy to read and very touchy!! Not easy to put down, once one starts it and absolutely irresistible.
Atonement – true to its meaning, is about the atonement of the protagonist Briony Tallis. It splendidly portrays the perceptions of a thirteen year old child and the subsequent consequences of her preconceived notions and the aftermath that changes her life and the life of her sister Cecilia’s and the life of her sister's beloved, Robbie Turner’s.
The novel starts of with Briony’s attempt to write a play, Trials of Arabella, for her brother Leon, whom she adores. The characters in the play would be played by her cousins – Lola, and her twin brothers - Jackson and Pierrot. So absorbed was she in her play, that she failed the basic courtesy of enquiring if any of her cousins were tired of the long journey they had to make. But as the rehearsals take shape, she has a sinking feeling about the play, as her cousins enact the characters lifelessly. To let lose her frustration, she chooses to stay alone in her room.
Cecilia, just completed her college in Cambridge and is trying to think about her future. She walks out into the garden holding a vase filled with flowers, to fill it with water, where she notices her childhood friend, Robbie Turner, gardening. She loiters a little longer, wondering how to proceed further towards the fountain. For some unfathomable reason, she was often awkward in his presence. Though they studied in the same college, they hardly had any communication and whatever little communication they had, it was filled with discomfited moments. Robbie, too, could not quite understand why he was tongue tied in front of her. In an attempt to make a conversation, Cecilia speaks first. In the follow up that leads to a strange intensity of tension between them, Robbie offers to fill in the vase with water, for which she refuses. When Robbie, true to his male ego, tries to take the vase from her hand, Cecilia, holds to it in an attempt to ward him off and in the pointless struggle that follows, the vase is broken, part of which falls into the fountain. Cecilia, saying that he was an idiot, strips in front of him to retrieve the broken vase. Robbie, stunned by her actions, gapes at her. After she retrieves the vase and puts on her clothes, the ridiculousness of the situation hits her, and she runs back to the house, embarrassed. Robbie looks at the water, touching it, trying to steady his heart beat and looking to check if there are any more pieces of the vase left in the fountain. Unknown to them both, Briony, who watches this incident is stunned to see her sister stand half naked. The situation from her bedroom window, looks like Robbie was threatening Cecilia, and as the scene unfolds, it makes little sense to her.
On his way back to his home, Robbie meets Leon and his friend Paul Marshall. Leon, invites him home for dinner. When Cecilia knows about this, she is irritated, but for reasons she could not quite comprehend. Robbie, on the other hand, though worried about the irritation of Cecilia, could not quite say a “no” to the invitation. In the comfort of his home, as he was thinking about the incident that unfolded near the fountain, he started to compose a letter to her, to apologize for his behavior.
While going for the dinner, with his letter in hand, he notices Briony in the field and calls out to her. He asks if she minds delivering a letter to Cecilia personally. Briony takes the letter and runs back home, and locking the door behind her, opens it and is aghast at the words! Robbie on the other hand, realizes that the letter he composed to Cecilia, the formal note of apology, was still on his desk and that the improper words, those that should never have left his fantasy, were in the letter he handed to Briony. He unsuccessfully calls out for her and realizes that it was too late!
Briony, though gives the letter to Cecilia, is shocked and in tears and in desperate need of counsel and she speaks her mind to Lola, who happens to say that Robbie is a maniac. The thirteen year old kid in Briony takes that word too seriously and is determined to save her sister. Cecilia, after reading the letter, though, clearly understands her feelings towards Robbie.
When the door bell rings, she answers and finds Robbie, who is embarrassed and who apologizes for the inappropriateness of the letter.
"The anticipation and dread he felt at seeing her was also a kind of sensual pleasure, and surrounding it, like an embrace, was a general elation - it might hurt, it was horribly inconvenient, no good might come of it, but he had found out for himself what it was to be in love, and it thrilled him."
Cecilia draws him into the library, where she confronts her feelings for him and they make out in the library, against the book racks. The transformation she feels in her and in him, somehow, changes the dynamics between them and she realizes, then, that something beautiful has happened and it changed the way they perceived each other!
"Nothing as singular or as important had happened since the day of his birth. She returned his gaze, struck by the sense of her own transformation, and overwhelmed by the beauty in a face which a lifetime's habit had taught her to ignore. She whispered his name with the deliberation of a child trying out the distinct sounds. When he replied with her name, it sounded like a new word - the syllables remained the same, the meaning was different. Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can ever quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same emphasis on the second word, as if she had been the one to say them first. He had no religious belief, but it was impossible not to think of an invisible presence or witness in the room, and that these words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract."
Briony, walks into the library, hearing the noise and afraid for her sister thinking that Robbie is physically abusing her and is shocked to notice them in that state.
In the dinner that follows, with the obvious tension between him and Cecilia, and Briony’s clear hatred (mutual hatred, I dare say :D) for him, he sits uncomfortably, thinking about eloping with his sweetheart after dinner. During dinner, the twins, unhappy about their stay and confinement, run away from the house. While the entire family starts searching for them, Leon and Cecilia as a pair, Robbie and Briony set out on their paths, alone, to find the twins. Briony, suddenly notices her cousin Lola, strangled by a man and is shocked to notice them. Lola, was in no position to say who it was, Briony on the other hand, convinces herself that the person was Robbie. In the events that lead to the investigation, she gives her witness that she saw Robbie holding Lola down and as a further proof of Robbie’s perverseness, hands the letter he wrote to Cecilia to the investigators.
Not knowing the drama that unfolded, Robbie returns with the twins and is immediately arrested for abusing Lola. Cecilia is the only one, who trusts him and says that she would wait for him and what happened between them was their little secret.
Thus, the perception of Briony changes the life of her sister. And in the events that follow, one is left wondering, if only, Briony could have understood the love or, if only, the events unfolded as they should have, but, alas, they did happen in a certain sequence and the melodrama that follows, touches the reader. And as Briony, completely grasps the meaning of what she had done, on that fateful day, that changed the lives of three people, she asks for atonement from her sister, a good eight years later.
The novel has beautiful passages, splendidly written, which reach out to the reader and perhaps, the following statement from an adult Briony, serves for an apt conclusion to this post:
"Every secret of the body was rendered up -- bone risen through flesh, sacrilegious glimpses of an intestine or an optic nerve. From this new and intimate perspective, she learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew: that a person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended."
… certain things can never be mended and however sincere an apology is, there can never be a complete retribution and above all, time that is lost can never come back, nor can the dreams of the young man, who aspired to do medicine and who is confined to the army, not with dignity and honour attributed to a soldier, but with a choice between jail and army.
Ian McEwan does a fantastic job with his characters and the prose just brings to life, even the dullest of routines. The novel is rich in its prose and the command of the author is not lost on the reader. It paints a world and draws the characters to perfection and the reader, is there, in the novel, witnessing the events as they unfold. The beauty of a novel is in portraying the magnitude of the place and environment to the reader’s eyes and though it is largely left to the reader to imagine the surrounding, Ian McEwan simplifies the process of imagination by bringing in vivid details that cling to the reader and portrays a picture as he perceives it to be! Not an easy task!!!
Lovely book, easy to read and very touchy!! Not easy to put down, once one starts it and absolutely irresistible.
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