“Atonement” by Ian McEwan

“A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.”
– Ian McEwan, Atonement.
🌺
It’s the summer of 1935, and a thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis misunderstands her older sister Celia’s relationship with their family gardener Robbie, and in a day a series of events will lead her to commit sin more grave than anything the price of which the two people have to pay for years, and she will be left atoning for it for the rest of her life.
🌺
While the premise of the book is so enticing, the story goes real slow and the element of suspense and wonder what first made me go for this book was lost in the slow pace writing and overly detailed description. Very few books can make the narration from different POVs work, and this just didn’t work for me.
🌺
The wartime chapters were extremely generic and unnecessarily crawling. Also, the idea of the ‘flawed’ judgment of a teenager, bringing in dire consequences felt like a fluke.
Other than that the writer has worked well with words and you can feel yourself looking forward to find out what happens next, in bits and pieces.
.
.
.
.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficult: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, historical-fiction, romance, classics, historical

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon

“Sometimes we get sad about things and we don’t like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes, we are sad but we really don’t know why we are sad, so we say we aren’t sad but we really are.” -Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
🌷
The narrator and the main protagonist of the story, Christopher is an autistic child, trying to solve the mystery of the murder of a dog in the neighbourhood. Christopher has a thing for details, he loves maths but has his own eccentricities like hating certain colours and being abhorred by touching.
🌷
On first glance, it sounds like a mystery like no one else, one that is seen from the perspective of a different child and sure enough, Christopher’s character is one to be loved for his practical and logical approach to everything around him, which also makes for a funny read.
However, the excessive focus on detailing steers it away from the plot and fails to pique interest as a true mystery novel.
🌷
I would recommend this to know better about the lives and perspective of autistic kids and their loved ones who have a hard time taking care of them.
.
.
.
.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, mystery, young-adult, contemporary, psychology
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐/5

“Oxygen Manifesto: A Battle for the Environment” by Atulya Misra

🌱 Oxygen Manifesto is a fictional interpretation of a world where the environmental problems that our Mother Earth is facing as of today, are solved by bringing out positive changes around the community by a jealous and honest IAS officer, Ravi, with the help of Thatha, a man determined to plant trees in any corner he can.
🌱 The book primarily focuses on establishing a new polity based on conservation of habitats, both for humans and animals and to have decentralised governance, one where each community is responsible for its own administration.
🌱 While the manifesto highlights the problems that our environment faces today, I found the solutions advocated lacked depth and it is very hard to see how the points of the manifesto are going to solve the very big problem of ‘environment degradation’. Somewhere the narration also lies flat and only comes off as a series of bullet points that attempt to touch the topic from the surface.
🌱 The idea that communities as a whole can restructure themselves, evolve and work towards making a better future, sounds promising but as is with any society the first point is having awareness and the will to change, and how often do we see that in people? Yes, it is a good attempt at bringing forth awareness for the multitude of issues that mar the land, the air, and the sea, but without the will to change does a manifesto help much?
.
.
.
.
Anyhow, credits to the author for attempting to talk about a topic that demands utmost attention now, more than ever.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, indian-Literature
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐/5