Atonement - a book review

Just finished Ian McEwan's Atonment over the Christmas holidays:

This book has 4 parts, and its saving grace is part 1, which is the only reason it gets three stars (as opposed to 1). Parts 2 and 3 are fluff, added for melodramatic effect, and are a painful attempt at making this a war epic.
Part 4 tries to bring it all together, succeeds in some respects and fails in others. I thought the 80th birthday party was completely cheesy.

I enjoyed McEwan's writing style. Although slightly laborious, I liked his detailed descriptions of feelings, feelings about feelings, the countryside, hot summer days, people and events. I empathized with the characters (only in part 1), and even got the part about atonement (in part 4). I thought that the ending, where Arabella could be any of the female characters in the book was very clever.
**** WARNING - giving away some of the plot - do not read further, if you haven't read the book **** I like that there was no reconciliation between the sisters. It makes it more real. However, Robbie's and Cecilia's premature deaths makes their love, and therefore the book, seem pointless - almost like "all that for nothing" or "so many years for two months together". Most of their relationship is imagined or based on wistful memories and letters. It may have been a better book if they had moved away and started a new life, with some sort of character development and some sort of description of their lives together in addition to the brief glimpse through Briony's eyes. All in all, a good read, but not brilliant, which is sad, because it has all the potential to be so. Oh ya, and the great "mystery" was as transparent as a window right at the moment it happened.