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Title: frustration thy name is atonement
Review: If this book's a masterpiece, I gotta start writing more.Words, words, words. Then more words. (Did McEwan never read Elements of Style? Omit Needless Words?) There are so many paragraphs here -- so many pages -- that writers like Graham Swift and William Boyd could have dashed off with a single line, losing nothing. For example, THREE PAGES to dissect Cecilia's choice of a dress for the evening??? And in those pages, false lines abound, like -- "...and though one bore wine stains and another a burn hole from her first cigarette..." Ugh! (How about "...and though one bore wine stains and another a burn hole from a cigarette (her first!) ..."?)I liked both Amsterdam and The Innocent very much. Wonderful, clean, direct writing, with interesting engaging characters. Before McEwan starts his next book, I suggest he reads less Jane Austen, and more Elmore Leonard.
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