A quick read by one of Great Britain's most respected contemporary novelists. I have read five or six of Mc Ewan's novels, and ATONEMENT, my favorite, I taught numerous times because I liked it so much. I also admire Mc Ewan for his experiments in various genres of fiction. And he always has an unexpected twist in his novels, a surprise, as in his lat novel, SWEET TOOTH, but this one I pretty much expected the ending.
This story, told in the first person by Fiona Maye, a British High Court Judge, invites us, the reader, into her court room, her mind, her home and her agonizing over various cases, as well as her home and bedroom, strange bed mates for sure. Fiona is a self made woman, working in a very male world of British judiciary. Her husband, Jack, as the novel opens has just announced he is going to take a mistress because they have not been intimate for mine months, reminding me somewhat of the last book I read, US, where the wife announces to her husband on the first page that she thinks their marriage has run its course. Anyways, Jack does leave Fiona, stomps out of the house, leaving her bereft, embarrassed, wondering what she well tell colleagues, friends and family. Most annoying for me is her refusal to explain her reasons for her lack of intimacy, a result of a case in which she had to decide that conjoined twins could be separated so that one might live. The case left scars, most telling, her disgust with the body, hers as well as anyone else's and a lack of desire for intimacy.
We then follow her thinking as she decides other cases, most having to do with families, especially with the children of parents in the process of divorce. In her decision making, her personal life intrudes, making it difficult for her to concentrate on the cases, forcing her to blot out all of the personal so she can arrive at a fair decision. One case, however, is at the center of the book, the need to transfuse a sixteen year old cancer victim. If denied, he will die. His parents, however, are Jehovah's Witnesses, and they view transfusing as a sin, that someone else's blood is impure, tainted, against the wishes of their God. The young boy, Adam Henry, has been filled with the beliefs of his parents since birth and agrees with them, that he would rather die than be transfused. The dilemma, then, for Fiona, is to balance the wishes of the parents, the boy, his religions, and those of the hospital and case worker, which differ, obviously, from those of the parents and boy. After hearing all the arguments, she decides to talk with Adam in the hospital. They have a lively conversation about religion, and she is charmed by Adam's looks, intellect, and innocence. He's a bit of a prodigy and has been learning to play the violin in the hospital. He plays a song she knows well, and she sings the words along with him, about the joys of life and love. They seem to connect and she then leaves, somewhat shaken by him, makes her decision, and sides with the hospital as we would have come to expect. She always takes the side of what's best for the child, not the parents, or in this case, their religion.
Life goes on; Jack returns, and they live together, lifelessly, neither ready to discuss his departure and reasons for return. She then continues with her cases until her life is interrupted by letters from Adam, now in remission, happy to be alive, and he thinks he owes it to Fiona, to their brief meeting in the hospital. Fiona, unsure of how to react, decides not to write despite receiving a couple more of his letters, filled with his life, his joy of living, and what he owes to her. Like most judges, she often leaves London and for a couple of weeks, takes cases in the country. At one of the villages, in the house where she is staying, Adam is announced, and has come to ask if he could come and live with her and her husband. He hopes Fiona could guide and mentor him now that he has left his religion and his parents. Fiona is unsure of what to say or do, decides it's best to send him on his way, calls a taxi, and when bidding him adieu, decides to kiss his cheek but he turns and their lips meet and she holds the kiss for a moment. And he departs.
The last part of the book involves her self recriminations for the errant kiss, for how unprofessional it was, and the fear that someone may have witnessed it. Life goes on, and she and a fellow judge practice for a recital, Fiona on the piano, he as a tenor. This seems like a holding action. At this point as a reader, I am ready to find out what has happened to Adam, but Mc Ewan plays with us, and we watch the two practice, then have their recital spoiled only by a conversation which Fiona has with a fellow judge before going on stage. We know it has to do with Adam but we must wait once again for the recital to end, for her to leave the recital and rush home, for her to pull out a letter Adam wrote her, and for her husband to return home. Only then do we find out what happened, as she confesses to her husband, that Adam's cancer returned and he refused a transfusion, and died three months ago. She blames herself for his death and wonders if Jack will ever love her as a result. "He put his hand on her shoulder and drew her to him. Of course I will.'' And the book ends with this lovely but sad paragraph:
"They lay face-to-face in the semidarkness, and while the great rain-cleansed city beyond the room settled to its softer nocturnal rhythms and their marriage uneasily returned, she told him in a steady quiet voice of her shame, of the sweet boy's passion for life and her part in his death."
Wow. I enjoyed this book, its attempt to understand a very complicated subject, the intersection of religion and man made law, and the humanness of those who have to make choices and decisions that effect all of us, and live with those choices.
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