Atonement

•  I related to Briony Tallis a lot. She was self-centered and insecure. I felt that it was easy for me to understand her sentiments and the questions that she was seeking answers for, because I've been having realizations lately of how self-absorbed I've been my whole life.But the funny thing is that I hated Briony so much after what she did to Robbie. I like the way Ian McEwan could make me relate to Briony at first and then make me hate her so much later in the book. I don't think there ever was a fictional character that I hated more than Briony. Not even Dolores Umbridge!

•  Robbie Turner! Robbie Turner had every characteristic needed to make any reader fall for him. I just can't hep but feel for him after all of the circumstances that he had been under.

• And then of course, there's Robbie and Cecilia's tragic love story. They were the only two characters who didn't have a nice ending! Even Paul Marshall and Lola appeared happy, though they probably weren't really.

•  Sometimes all that we can do to atone our mistakes and to change things is to turn them into literature. Even I sometimes have strong urges to just make everything that I want to happen, happen even in my own created world of words. I  still find it hard to forgive Briony after finishing the book. Everyone had their own happy endings, except Robbie and Cecilia. But I guess I just had to be reminded that tragic things happen and sometimes the merest thing that we can do to save ourselves is to create our own fantasies.