04: Atonement by Ian McEwan
This was an absolutely beautiful story. I loved it. I felt a great affection for the characters all the way through the book, so the ending was as shocking as expected. (I had ruined it for myself prior to reading, of course. I do that a lot. Thanks, Wikipedia.) I loved how vivid the landscapes were, I definitely lost myself in the story while reading it. Surprisingly though, the film actually surpassed the book for me. I rushed out to buy the DVD as soon as I’d finished reading, and the film was an absolute masterpiece. I will be re-reading the book sometime in the future, I get the feeling that this is one of those books you get something new from every time you read it.
05: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
It was slightly jarring moving from the poetic imagery in Atonement to the stark writing of Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five, but a couple of chapters in & I was lost in the story. I have been quite obsessed with wartime books/movies/tv series lately, so I was instantly drawn into the war element of Slaughterhouse Five. I do admit, I was slightly lost in the time travel aspect of the story, but it all came together to make a lot of sense in the end. Billy’s fatalism became quite humourous to me after a while. “So it goes…” If you’re not a fan of black humour or satire I would give this one a miss.
06: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
This book made me want to read more by Margaret Atwood. It was beautifully written, captivating and I fell absolutely in love with the characters Iris & Laura. The fact that the revealing of the characters in “The Blind Assassin” (the story within the story) didn’t come until later in the book was quite hard to follow at first. After a few chapters it’s easier to understand the flow of the book, and you can easily get lost in the story. The ending didn’t come as much of a shock to me, as I had sort of figured out what was happening around halfway through the book (not thanks to Wikipedia this time…) but I was still in tears while reading the last chapter. A beautiful, moving book that I will definitely re-read in the future.
07: White Noise by Don DeLillo
I was quite disappointed with this book because it wasn’t what I had expected it to be. It was well written, as expected, but was far too heavy on dialogue for my taste. Also, the main theme of death is not something that I was really in the mindframe to be exploring, so that was quite off putting for me. I didn’t really relate to any of the characters and the only character that really struck me as fascinating (Wilder) was quite underused in the story. I won’t be re-reading this anytime soon, and I’m not sure I would suggest anyone else read it. At least not before Atonement or The Blind Assassin.
I’ve also managed to squeeze in Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck which was absolutely incredible. I managed to read it in 2 days (it’s a short story), so if you can get your hands on a copy – please be sure to read this! I am now moving on to On The Beach by Nevil Shute, which isn’t on the reading list but deals with one of my favourite subjects – the apocalypse. Yes, I am strange.
