Atonement – Ian McEwan

Rarely has such a great book had a more misleading title. Despite her attempts, Briony doesn’t atone not so much for her sins, but for her awfulness. I probably wouldn’t be so harsh on her if she wasn’t rich and successful (like essentially all McEwan’s characters) – but she is. McEwan takes the meanness and the fantasy of children to an extreme in this novel. And the fact that elderly Briony in the movie is portrayed by the wonderful Vanessa Redgrave is still not enough for me to find it in my heart to forgive her.

There is really no need to point out that the book is brilliantly written, this is McEwan after all. Clearly, I enjoyed the sections set during the war (together with the huge research work that was surely needed) more than the scenes of aristocratic life in the English countryside. Atonement is a book that has made me suffer like few others (similarly to Child in Time for 95% of its length) – but the end didn’t really make me suffer, it just made me want to karate-chop Briony and her vascular dementia (which she got at 70-something, after a life spent as a hugely successful writer and a little time as a nurse – the poor thing can get lost).

I’m kind of surprised by how, having read the book more than a year ago, I am still so mad at the spoiled little brat.

Rabbit, Run – John Updike

A book that my mother was sure she had bought for my dad. Too bad it read “To Gio from your mom – Christmas 2003” on its inside cover. I’m quite sure she also bought one for my dad back in the day, and probably she gave it to him because Rabbit is a basketball player, the same reason why she gave it to me (that, and because it’s a great read). Still, the copy that was on my bookshelf for the past dozen years was definitely mine.

Like so many of my favourite books, Rabbit, Run is about ... No, it’s not about Italian Fascism – it’s about American suburban life and about the titular Rabbit (who actually has a name – Harry Angstrom – but let’s face it his nickname is a lot cooler). Like Americal Pastoral, this book is about the sad life of a former high-school sports star – except that in this case Rabbit is much more responsible for his own downfall than Seymour is. His decisions are misguided, his life is miserable and it’s his fault, he makes people suffer, only he can believe (and I’m not even sure he does) the absolute innocence that he professes at the funeral, and yet I really really wanted him to sort himself out. I don’t think it was just because he had once been a good basketball player.

And I just love the fact that he doesn’t just metaphorically try to run away from his problems, he literally runs...

Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

Zhivago’s wife, Tonya, might be the most interesting character in this lengthy novel. Too bad she is barely present. What is the difference between this masterwork of 20^th century literature and Rosamund Pilcher’s books? As far as I know, the only ones are that Pasternak’s book is set in Soviet Russia and that it criticizes the Soviet system. This is praiseworthy, surely, but is it enough to justify the book’s popularity? I’m not quite sure, although it definitely should be enough to justify the view of Pasternak as a hero of the fight against totalitarianism.

I simply didn’t need those many pages of Zhivago’s pointless principles. An autobiography of Pasternak would have been a lot more interesting...