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anaïs is Currently Reading

anaïs is currently reading

Atonement

by Ian McEwan (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: current-favs, roxane-reading-list, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in August 2023

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anaïs said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" “The problem these 59 years has been this: how can a novelist achieve atonement when with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form, that she can appeal to or be reconciled with or that can fo “The problem these 59 years has been this: how can a novelist achieve atonement when with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form, that she can appeal to or be reconciled with or that can forgive her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms: no atonement for God or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all… I like to think that it isn’t weakness or evasion but a final act of kindness. A stand against oblivion and despair to let my lovers live and unite them at the end. I gave them happiness but I was not so self-serving as to let them forgive me.”

I was about to give this 4 stars because I always tend to be a bit eager just coming off the finishing-a-book-high and so I always try to keep my ratings lower so I don’t have to go back and change it later. But I think, in writing this review, I talked myself into giving it 5 stars, and making it one of my favorite books. 🤷‍♀️ Oh well, that’s the way it goes sometimes. McEwan’s writing reminds me a lot of people like Herman Melville or Hemingway where it’s good and the story’s okay, but in talking about it and thinking about it after the fact, that’s when it becomes The Greatest.

This book is really something. The way that McEwan blurs the lines between fantasy and reality in this book is so intricate and smart. It feels like there are so many layers to this from the classic star crossed lovers storyline that forms the basis of literature, to the commentary of real life vs. a fantastical reconstruction of it in art form, to reflection about the role and responsibility that artists and authors play/have in telling stories and their impact, all tied together with the clear self-insertion and meta-ness of it all.

There’s a lot about this book that I loved but there’s also a lot that I’ll have to continue to unpack. It’s one of those books where it’s so interconnected, there’s so many things that connect back and follow throughout the whole book that are so interesting, that is gonna take some time for me to fully comprehend everything.

I really identified with Briony, even though she was kind of annoying and cringy, I feel like that sort of only adds to how deeply personal and identifiable she is. Because who hasn’t looked back on themselves when they were younger and cringed? Who isn’t a little bit of a hypocrite when they project on kids who act a little bit too much like they did when they were their age? The most identifiable thing about her is her determination to be better, whether that be a better person or a better writer. That’s what I found so impactful, that no matter what, throughout the whole book, she was always trying to do the very best she could.

Another aspect that made Briony such a well constructed character is the role that she plays in her own story. Where sometimes she’s an ambivalent narrator, sometimes she’s an extremely vulnerable memoirist. That also reflects the actual role she played where sometimes she was the villain driving Cecelia and Robbie apart and, by the end, she was the one bringing them back together. She was both the villain and God is her own retelling of the world around her and if that’s not the most accurate description of what it’s like to be an artist and create a whole new world full of people made solely of out aspects of yourself, I don’t know what is.

This idea of an artist playing a God-like role in the art they make is a really old one. It’s one that made storytellers and artists into real life gods in Ancient Rome and Greece and one that messed with the drugged minds of the Romantic poets. The ancient act of making art is God-like in the way that you’re trying to capture the beauty, ugliness, sorrow, joy, and magic of the world into a single perspective. You’re essentially creating your own version of the world as you see it through your eyes.

Art is human communication and connection at it’s finest, it’s the most effective, longest-lasting, most natural and subtle way to get people to see your perspective and to get them on the same page (pun not intended). In recreating the world, artist choose everything from hair colors to how the world will end. It’s a big responsibility to be in charge of that, especially as stories and their impact spills in to the real world and effect real people. Briony and her story is a perfect example of this (thank you, Ian for the perfect symbolism!).

Art is a gift and it’s a powerful one that we have to be careful with, because in a world where you are God, no one will hold you accountable except for yourself. That’s an aspect of this God complex in art that I’ve never thought of before and McEwan is absolutely right. Stories and art have power, a lot of power that the artists themselves can’t fully control. You can’t control how others take your work, how long it will last, who will consume it and when, and that’s what makes it so scary. Artists have a responsibility to constantly better themselves, to go back and correct themselves, to elaborate and get their meaning across in the right way. It’s not an expectation to be perfect but an expectation to always be striving to be, an expectation to be the best you can be for your characters and readers, and an expectation to set that standard for your characters and readers. That act in itself, the act of trying and striving to be better, is all. Briony (aka McEwan) as a character and storyteller exhibits this absolutely flawlessly. ...more "

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(page 113 of 351)
— Aug 31, 2026 02:51PM

Jul 05, 2024 12:37PM · see review

anaïs is currently reading

The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas

bookshelves: i-can-read-in-french-i-swear, currently-reading

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(page 1251 of 1276)
"I think modern day mafia boss romance writers should take inspiration from Luigi Vampa and have their mafia bosses just constantly reading the most intellectual books

Also!!! I’m so close to being done!!! I feel like I’ve been reading this book for a million years 😵‍💫" — Sep 09, 2026 09:39AM

May 25, 2026 10:11AM

anaïs’s Notes & Highlights

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

2 highlights

I speak into the silence. I toss the stone of my story into a vast crevice; measure the emptiness by its small sound.

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anaïs’s Quotes

“And I don’t know if I really have something special, or if her telling me I got something special has brain-washed me into believing it, but I do know I’m happier in the kitchen then anywhere else in the world.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, With the Fire on High

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“It had returned to her sanctified in her eyes; made precious as material things sometimes are by being forever identified with a significant moment of one’s existence.”
― Kate Chopin, The Locket

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“You learn and learn and then you die and you haven’t learned half of it.”
― Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector

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“Please... If we’re gonna be friends, I insist you call me ‘Your Majesty.”
― Julie Berry, Lovely War

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“I wondered if this is was what it felt like to love someone. I already knew what it meant to be in love with someone. I’d felt it, and I’d acted it. But to love someone. To care for them. To throw your lot in with theirs and think, ‘Whatever happens, it’s you and me.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

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