^^It's as if it's speaking directly about me. But really it's talking about the heroine (do I call her that?) of Ian McEwan's Atonement.
I genuinely liked Briony at the very start of this novel. I related to her, and thought McEwan did a nice job of capturing a young girl's thoughts and actions. The first third of the novel was very picturesque - like an oil painting - immersing me in a privileged girl's life that I always wanted when I was small. But, like many reviews of the movie that was made as an adaptation of it, I felt the story, once straying from the Tallis mansion, was not very strong. It started with the Fifty Shades of Grey-ish scene in the library that seemed so out of place, and stretched through the war bits. This lack of emotional stirring on my part though, may have been on account of the fact that I wasn't very interested in Robbie and Celeste's love. Though I hated her a bit, I preferred scenes involving Briony; because I am morbid, I found the gory hospital scenes where she attended to the dying engaging, and the end to be pitch-perfect with her "voice-over" explaining her decisions in ending her novel.
*Major Spoiler*
It was an absolutely correct decision for McEwan to kill off the lovers and keep them from from each other - though, I don't especially agree that they were kept from each other as Briony describes...they were making out in front of her and all. Get a room, sappy paramours.
Anyway, the fact that they died made their two-dimensional characterization more interesting. Though Briony is the obvious "villain", she is so much more layered and complex, and therefore real. I have a feeling that the movie version obliterates all this and makes the story another stupid romance about Keira Knightly falling in love though, which I abhor.
Props to you, Mr. McEwan, for writing an unconventional book, and redeeming yourself after the "meh" I felt through Saturday.
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