Atonement – Ch. 1

-- by Abby

Trying out the new strategy.

Atonement starts out with descriptions of the young Briony and her life as a 13-yr-old writer, longing for the attention of her older brother, Leon, who we've yet to meet. Her quiet world is disrupted upon the arrival of three cousins, all much more accustomed to sibling squabbling and warfare. So Briony is finding out that it really is better to be an only child (despite the fact that she seems to have two older siblings.) The chapter is wrought with disaster as the author is blatantly foretelling the failure of Briony's stage production.

I'm not hating it all so far. I feel like the plot of the play may have some foreshadowing in it, but what story doesn't follow a theme like that. Also, the cousin's mom is named Hermione, which, quite frankly, I thought was a made up Harry Potter name. Must be British.