Atonement Part 3

So after reading a hundred or so pages from Robbie's perspective, we are back in the mind of Briony. It is now five years after the incident and she is training as a nurse at a hospital in London. She realizes that they are clearing out the hospital for the wounded that will soon start pouring in due to the Germans advancing. She also knows that the bombing of London will soon start. As a trainee her day is a strict schedule and her identity is nothing more than Nurse Tallis. She sent in a story inspired by the scene at the fountain changing some of the details and giving no resolution. her life changes some when the wounded begin to roll in. She sits by the deathbed of a young Frenchman and he confuses her with an English girl he was to marry. Before he dies he asks her if she loves him and she says yes, because at that moment she does. She learns from her father that Paul Marshall and Lola are going to be married. This fact confirms within her that it was Paul and not Robbie that she saw attacking Lola. She attends the wedding which is a private ceremony then proceeds to visit Cecilia. In a tense meeting between Briony and Cecilia and Robbie who is visiting on leave it is established that they won't forgive her, but they will allow her to start the legal process of changing her testimony even though it won't matter due to Paul and Lola's marriage.
The last section is written in 1999 and is written in first person from Birony's view. It reads that the previous sections are the final drafts of her "atonement" she has been working on for 59 years. She has just been diagnosed with vascular dementia and knows she is about to begin to lose her mind. She sees the Marshalls and knows that Lola at least will outlive her and her publishers say that her book can't be published until both the Marshalls are dead. It is also revealed that Briony's visit to Cecilia was completely fiction in Briony's account. Robbie died in June of 1940 due to septicemia and Cecilia died in the bombing the following September. They were never reunited. However, Briony asked what good the pointless truth would have done for her readers. Since the lowers could not be together in real life, at least Briony could allow them to be together in her novel.
This books leaves you with so many feelings. I enjoyed the their part more than I thought I would. No I didn't come to like Briony, but I don't despise her as I once did. I like how the last paragraph or two went back to questions about the "writer" and their power that hadn't been addressed since part one. That seemed to reinforce the news that it all was written by Briony. While part two definitely held the gore of war, part three was far from sunshine. The scene with Briony and her friend coming back from the park was moving. The way that Briony thinks about how Robbie will never know what she had seen was an excellent point. Now, however, after knowing that that never really happened that scene comes under a whole new light. It was strictly created to induce a certain feeling and reaction. By editing and changing it Briony was playing God. How can atonement be reached if one can alter their ending? This is where the separation of fact and fiction comes in. That is what started the entire conflict in itself. It is ironic that Briony "solves" the conflict by creating her own scene, a habit that started the entire mess. I liked the scene between Briony and and the Frenchman Luc, but after the revelation at the end I wonder, was it true, or did she present it falsely. Then I think, wait, the entire book was fiction. McEwan did an amazing job of having the reader experience some of what Briony feels, the confusion of what is true and what is make believe. I liked that it let us know that Briony had gotten married. Having Briony's play put on at the end was sweet. As I said before I have many feelings about this book. I want to say wow I love it, but then I'm like no it was depressing. McEwan is definitely a very talented author and it was amazingly written.