But hidden drawers, lockable diaries and cryptographic
systems could not conceal from Briony the simple truth: she
had no secrets. Her wish for a harmonious, organised world
denied her the reckless possibilities of wrongdoing. Mayhem
and destruction were too chaotic for her tastes, and she did
not have it in her to be cruel. Her effective status as an only
child, as well as the relative isolation of the Tallis house, kept
her, at least during the long summer holidays, from girlish
intrigues with friends. Nothing in her life was sufficiently
interesting or shameful to merit hiding; no one knew about
the squirrel's skull beneath her bed, but no one wanted to
know. None of this was particularly an affliction; or rather, it
appeared so only in retrospect, once a solution had been
found.
Atonement
systems could not conceal from Briony the simple truth: she
had no secrets. Her wish for a harmonious, organised world
denied her the reckless possibilities of wrongdoing. Mayhem
and destruction were too chaotic for her tastes, and she did
not have it in her to be cruel. Her effective status as an only
child, as well as the relative isolation of the Tallis house, kept
her, at least during the long summer holidays, from girlish
intrigues with friends. Nothing in her life was sufficiently
interesting or shameful to merit hiding; no one knew about
the squirrel's skull beneath her bed, but no one wanted to
know. None of this was particularly an affliction; or rather, it
appeared so only in retrospect, once a solution had been
found.
Atonement
| Ian McEwan |