"Leisure reading" -- it's the kind of reading you do when you want to relax, the books you read simply because you enjoy reading. I read "Lullabies for Little Criminals" (Heather O'Neill) and "Atonement" (Ian McEwan)for leisure, but neither of these novels would classify as bedtime stories. "Lullabies" tells the story of 13 year-old Baby, living in the red-light district of Montreal. Still a child playing with dolls, her young life is enmeshed in the harsh realities of the drug culture. The story is the more poignant because at the end of the novel we find a profile of the author - and we suspect that this is ultimately not a novel, but the story of hundreds of young children who are born into a world we cannot imagine. Baby's salvation, her rescue, comes only when she is extracted from the world she knows. She receives grace - total, unexpected, undeserved, unimagined.The back cover of "Atonement" says this: "the book has at its centre a profound exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and the difficulty of absolution." I found myself incensed at the injustice of Robbie's conviction -- and I wondered: are we enraged in the same way when we reflect on another trial, another conviction, another injustice- that of Jesus Christ? Atonement, in the novel, is sought after, pursued for a lifetime, yet is unattainable. If you read the book, or see the movie, allow yourself to explore the concept of atonement and the difficulty of absolution.
