On Chesil Beach: A Novel
by Ian McEwan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ian McEwanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2007-06-05
ISBN: 1407002317
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Book Reviews of On Chesil Beach: A Novel
Book Review: "A secret affair between disgust and joy."
Summary: 5 Stars
In his latest novel, McEwan once again demonstrates a unique talent for precise examination of the pivotal moments of people's lives, the mostly unmarked, yet critical events that alter the direction of the future. In prose that perfectly captures the details of a momentous occasion, highlighted by Edward and Florence Mayhew's wedding eve jitters, the couple is unprepared for the consummate choices they face, trapped by their own expectations. The time is 1962, the place a honeymoon suite on the Dorset coast. In their early twenties, neither has life experience with which to gauge their perceptions, the stultifying social constrictions of the 1950s still hovering, years from the upheavals that will rock the late sixties.
Certainly, Edward and Florence are conservative, goal-oriented products of their society, decidedly conventional. An intensely insular young violinist, Florence enjoys the security of her musical world, comforted by its definitions. Whatever rebellions she experiences, Florence keeps to herself, unable to bear the discomfort of conflict, although increasingly irritated with her family, her mother's distance, her father's cloying presence in her life. For his part, Edward sees his new bride as the Holy Grail, both deliverance and escape from a family of origin that has taxed his youth with unexpected pretensions. Florence is the first to step into another identity, that of a married man creating his own interpretation of family. Both nurture expectations that are unrealistic, a precarious balance of sexual anticipation and sexual revulsion.
In the first blush of innocence, the pair seems well matched, their ineptitude nearly charming and certainly representative of the era. But a mutual penchant of obfuscation they have so far managed to ignore becomes a living presence in the wedding suite as the couple confronts an appalling lack of communication. Neither has seen fit to share their concerns and fears beforehand; hence, they are locked in an impasse, one that is only temporarily resolved by Florence's escape to the dark sliver of beach outside. While the reader understands Florence's flawed response to Edward's clumsy advances, the new husband is not privy to his wife's complications, left to puzzle out his dilemma with little information. The result is a perfectly-pitched contretemps that beautifully defines the age of innocence as it grapples with reality. Once more McEwan proves himself an unparalleled provocateur. Luan Gaines/2007.
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