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Ian McEwans 2001 novelAtonementopens with a description of what its like to invent a world.
Its now soldover 2 million copiesworldwide.)
And readers still gush and whine on book forums and reading sites about that witchy ending.
But its also her masterpiece, proof that her regrets wont stop her from plundering one last time.
Its ending reminds readers that fiction without misrepresentation is impossible.
Like any good mother and father in a coming-of-age novel, the Tallis parents are a scant presence.
In an instant, Briony understood completely, McEwan writes.
She was nauseous with disgust and fear.
She isnt sure, but tells Lola, It was Robbie.
Robbie is wrongly branded a child rapist and hauled off.
Voila, its the atonement readers expect.
She explains that Cecelia and Robbie really died in the Blitz and Dunkirk respectively.
But how could that constitute an ending?
What sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader draw from such an account?
Distance, and six full drafts, have allowed her to riff.
This post-postmodern one-two punch knocked readers on their asses.
TheSunday Telegraphdeclared it frustrating, and Anita Brookner questioned its wisdom.
But I cant help feeling very flattered by that.
Those are just the people I wanted to address, because they were heavily invested in the story.
Those last two phrases are diametrical, of course, which encapsulates the experiment ofAtonementitself.
The ending isnt a feather in the novels cap, tacked on unnecessarily as some critics lamented.
Its the novels reason for being.
I gave them happiness, but I was not so self-serving as to let them forgive me.
Perhaps the most subversive thing aboutAtonementis that its narrator isnt hobbled by the weight of her guilt.
I asked McEwan if some bit of Briony is triumphant.
I would take the Jamesian view, he demurred, that shes lived the examined life.
One thats been examined and fiddled with until its no longer a life.
