Atonement is a fascinating novel and one which McEwan describes as his "Jane Austen novel", possibly because it narrates the trials and tribulations of the romance between two young lovers. The opening chapters of the novel are divided between the viewpoints of different occupants of the Tallis household, and unlike some of McEwan's other novels, most notably Enduring Love, the action doesn't commence immediately.
When the youngest member of the family, thirteen year old Briony Tallis, witnesses a scene of ambiguity outside her bedroom window, she imagines that the working class Robbie Turner is proposing to her older sister Cecilia. Briony comments that although Robbie is "the son of a humble cleaning lady and of no known father", this match is adequate because "such leaps across boundaries were the stuff of daily romance." Here McEwan is referencing an aspect of Courtly love, which states that lovers must overcome boundaries in order to be together. This strongly links to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, because both Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy must overcome their individual pride and prejudice to accept their mutual love, further evidence of Atonement being McEwan's "Jane Austen novel."
One feature of the novel which stands out for me is the way McEwan ironically references literary tools. For example, Briony Tallis is an aspiring writer and towards the beginning of the novel McEwan writes that "a story is a form of telepathy" in which she was able to "send thoughts and feelings from her mind to the reader's." This is ironic because McEwan describes writing as a "magical process" and he is obviously biased because he is an author himself. Furthermore, later in the novel Briony sends a short story to a magazine in the hope that it will be published and the magazine responds by telling Briony that "such writing can become precious when there is no sense of forward movement", and this is arguably a self-criticism of McEwan's first few chapters.
The narrative of the novel has many shifts, and opens with each chapter having a different narrator. However, following the conviction of Robbie Turner for a crime he didn't commit, the novel shifts to Robbie's experiences during the British evacuation of France in Second World War. This shift is particularly effective because, as the Guardian review says, McEwan "deploys his research" into "vividly realised details and encounters." Another shift ensues following Robbie's evacuation and we are plunged into the world of nurse Briony Tallis during the war, where archival imagination is highly effective once again at making the shift in time and place seem effortless and without fault.
The rape of Lola, a visiting cousin to the Tallis house, is pivotal because if it had not happened Briony wouldn't have lied and accused Robbie, and he therefore would not have been sent to prison. The rape was in fact committed by Paul Marshall, a wealthy visitor to the Tallis house. The rape is foreshadowed by McEwan, because when Marshall is attempting to get Lola to eat a chocolate bar his company has produced, McEwan writes that "he crosses and uncrossed his legs" before taking a deep breath and saying "Bite it. You've got to bite it." Lola then unwilling accepts and it is written that the chocolate "yielded to her unblemished incisors", further evidence of sexual innuendo employed by McEwan.
The novel is exceptional for many reasons, and partly because McEwan explores many different types of love. Love of family is vital because Briony's atonement is arguably never achieved and therefore Cecilia fails to forgive her sister for a mistake she made as a thirteen year old girl. Furthermore the loss of love, and the subsequent yearning for completion, is recurrent in both Robbie and Cecilia and has a profoundly emotional effect on the reader.
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