Atonement and A Happy Story
I really didn't want to see Atonement. I knew the plot, I knew the twist and it seemed both very sad and something that would make me angry-atoning in literature for something you've done in real life isn't the same. You can say you're sorry in print all you want to and you can try to give people the happy ending that they didn't get in real life because of you (like in Atonement) but to me, that's dishonest. Atonement, real atonement, can't really be done that way. Aside from that, I liked it more than I thought I would. Keira Knightly, an actress I've never thought very much of, was really very good (loved the cut-glass accent) and James McAvoy was also very good-as usual. Saorise Ronan was good-I knew that because i wanted to smack her. Atonement was lovely to look at and and very well done-the Dunkirk scenes were amazing, although for verisimiltude, I'd have to go with Saving Private Ryan-but that's a different movie.
So, because Atonement was sad, in botha real life and a literary way, I'm going to tell a real love story from WWII. My father's cousin Nellie, was stationed in England during the war (she's a few years older than he, he was too young for WWII-but he got drafted for Korea. But that's another story). so, Nellie was in England and met and fell in love with an RAF flyer. Good family and he loved her-but he wouldn't marry her during the war because he said it wouldn't be fair to either of them. It was 1942, ater all and he could die flying a mission, which he did often or she could die in a bombing raid-he didn't want to do that to either one of them.
But he asked to wait (A bit unfair, really. They might as well have gotten married)
But he asked her to wait and he promised that he would make it through the war alive and would come and get her.
And he did. And they lived happily ever after in Wimbledon. Nelly died a few years ago-but they had been married for more than 50 years-and her husband comes to the family reunions (which seems to be mainly the older generation-no one in my age group ever seems to get invited). And here's the best part (to me, anyway). My Mom told me this story 20 years ago or so-and ended with "You should have seen him! I would have waited too!" I was trying to get her to tell me what he looked like, but she couldn't really say. But she's repeated this story a few times (honestly, I never get tired of hearing it) and everytime it ends with "You should have seen him!
I love that.
So, because Atonement was sad, in botha real life and a literary way, I'm going to tell a real love story from WWII. My father's cousin Nellie, was stationed in England during the war (she's a few years older than he, he was too young for WWII-but he got drafted for Korea. But that's another story). so, Nellie was in England and met and fell in love with an RAF flyer. Good family and he loved her-but he wouldn't marry her during the war because he said it wouldn't be fair to either of them. It was 1942, ater all and he could die flying a mission, which he did often or she could die in a bombing raid-he didn't want to do that to either one of them.
But he asked to wait (A bit unfair, really. They might as well have gotten married)
But he asked her to wait and he promised that he would make it through the war alive and would come and get her.
And he did. And they lived happily ever after in Wimbledon. Nelly died a few years ago-but they had been married for more than 50 years-and her husband comes to the family reunions (which seems to be mainly the older generation-no one in my age group ever seems to get invited). And here's the best part (to me, anyway). My Mom told me this story 20 years ago or so-and ended with "You should have seen him! I would have waited too!" I was trying to get her to tell me what he looked like, but she couldn't really say. But she's repeated this story a few times (honestly, I never get tired of hearing it) and everytime it ends with "You should have seen him!
I love that.
posted by SHbookworm at 8:02 PM
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