About Her

Elle E. is 24 and teaches in a state overrun by the spawn of yuppies. Therefore she is a full-time heretic much afflicted by spleen.

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What I'm Reading Now

Dracula's Guest and Other Stories
Bram Stoker

Blurb: In this rich collection of thirteen macabre tales, Bram Stoker, creator of the Gothic masterpiece, Dracula, and one of the greatest exponents of the supernatural narrative, presents us with a weird and chilling variety of unsettling stories.

Reviewed

Book

The Somnambulist
Jonathan Barnes
Rating

Although the plot withered out before the end, I found it very hard to put down this book. I think I have grasped the reason behind the readability of this book. Barnes' strength lies in his quirky characters, not his ambitious but poorly constructed plot. If you're not given to reading books with many loose ends, don't bother with this one.

On Royalty
Jeremy Paxman
Rating

I do enjoy my Paxman every once in a while. The subtitle explains it all: "A very polite inquiry into some strangely related families".

Flashman and the Dragon
George MacDonald Fraser
Rating

Apparently, female readers should be highly offended by The Flashman Papers. I'm still waiting for that moment when my favourite coward offends my sensibilities. Anyways, in the 8th volume of the series, he lands himself in China during the Taiping Rebellion and gets ravished by Yehonala in the process. Now that's what I'm talking about!

The Boleyn Inheritance
Philippa Gregory
Rating

I'm impressed. Philippa Gregory hasn't lost her touch after all. Perhaps I only say that since Elizabeth doesn't figure in this Tudor Court novel. Hmm. Nevertheless, I like the multiple narratives and the overwrought emotions.

Atonement (2007)

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 - 3:14 PM

Title: Atonement
Director: Joe Wright
Rating: 3.5/5

Briony when she's 13... Her earnestness and her desire for the housekeeper's son, Robbie, take her in the most horribly wrong direction. Saoirse Ronan's face! My god! Those icy cold eyes, that neat, short blonde hair and her frequent appearences in white frocks combine to create a striking character.

I really like James McAvoy here. He's Robbie, the housekeeper's son who studies medicine due to the generosity of the Tallis patriarch. His problems begin as soon as Briony catches her sister, Cecelia, stripping to her underthings in front of the young man so that she can retrieve a piece of an ugly vase from the fountain. Briony wrongly believes that something awful is happening - that Robbie is 'assaulting' Cee. To make matters worse, Cee doesn't know how to behave towards him after he starts at Cambridge. It's the age old tension between the classes that makes her stumble in her attitude and behaviour towards Robbie. The poor guy of course is not as confused by her sending out mixed signals. He knows how she must be feeling towards him and his sudden elevation due to her father's willingness to assist him. And yes, he loves her but doesn't get the oppurtunity or the courage to reveal his feelings - until he writes 2 letters and delivers the wrong one into the hands of his messenger, Briony. He has no idea that she sees him as a threat to Cee. And then things really start rolling.

When he is wrongly accused of raping Lola, Briony's precocious cousin, everyone is convinced that Briony's testimony to the police must be the truth. Everyone except Cee and his mother. As he gets dragged away, Cee promuses him that her love will never die. The chocolate magnate, some awful upperclass twit who behaves in a most forward manner towards Lola, is the real culprit but the girl doesn't dare say anything to contradict Briony's insistence that Robbie's the rapist. I can't help but imagine why she let Briony decide the matter for her. And this brings me to the next thing that really stood out: Lola marries the rapist. How can she do that with a clear conscience?

Briony fulfills her childhood ambition and becomes an author, but not before she abandons the Cambridge offer and atones for her sins by becoming a nurse during the second world war. Her last book is Atonement. She suddenly reveals very matter-of-factly that the ending that we've just watched was made up. Robbie and Cee never get the chance to reunite. Robbie dies during the war and Cee dies in an underground bomb shelter during an air raid. The little girl who erred suffers for almost the rest of her life. She becomes a nurse and slips into harsh anonymity.