On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of On Chesil Beach
Book Review: A Road Not Taken
Summary: 3 Stars
This book explores a relationship between newlyweds where communication problems lead to a sad result (I don't want to spoil it for you). The woman seems to be abnormally fearful of sex and in fact, revolted by the idea of it. There are hints that perhaps she was abused. The book details a painfully awkward wedding night and the fallout its unhappy outcome. The book is beautifully written, moving seamlessly between the present and past. The book shows how a moment in life can lead one down a path from which there is no turning back. A few pages near the end quickly recount what becomes of these young people and though their lives are not tragic, the reader does wonder what might have been. It's a good read though soon after I closed the book, it slipped from mind.Book Review: A beautifully written sad little story
Summary: 4 Stars
Once again McEwan demonstrates his considerable literary talent in this short novel. McEwan is a master at developing an armature or structure in his novels on which he fully explores the emotions and aspirations of his characters but also allows for a building of suspense. In this novel he does this by starting at the honeymoon of a young couple but then constructing their pasts and motivations step by step to take us back to the scene of their first night together on their honeymoon. The two primary characters are described so well as to making the reader feel they know them both, but the reader is also given knowledge of their pasts and their state of mind that the couple has not share with each other. Edward is from modest means who is very bright and has earned an academic degree whereas Florence is from a more prominent family with social and economic connections. This is especially the case for Florence for she holds back a secret from Edward throughout their courtship that could have disastrous results. The marital partnership requires more candor and knowing of the other party than Florence is able to muster. The twist to this novel is that McEwan is able to keep the reader on the knife edge between break-through reconciliation and frustrated exasperation in the case of this young couple.
This young couple professes to love one another but McEwan explores how that love may in fact be projections of the self, of imagination, of loving an image or dream of another person but not the full person. Sexual intercourse is a prerequisite for full knowledge and McEwan explores how sexual knowledge can break through the dreamy projections one may have built in their mind of their loved one. By saving sexual intercourse until after a long courtship, this couple has put too many chips onto one roll of the dice.
As is the case with all McEwan's novels, it is beautifully written. When I read his work it is almost feels effortless to me, as if I am reading my own thoughts. He does this by careful words crafting where in the final piece, not a single word is out of place or ill chosen. That he combines this skill with masterful character development and sequencing of plot makes him one of the most outstanding living writers.
Book Review: A brilliant little book!
Summary: 4 Stars
Such a brilliant little book. On Chesil Beach captures the heart-felt feelings of Edward and Florence, newlyweds, as they honeymoon on the coast. I would not say this is a happy book, on the contrary. McEwan never misses an opportunity to point out to us how close this couple came to happiness. Instead, we are taken along on their sad path watching as happiness spirals out of their reach forever. How true to life this is for so many of us.Book Review: A dreary and tedious little experimental novel.
Summary: 3 Stars
Two redundantly boring but fearful newlyweds test out sexual intercourse. It does not go well. Lovemaking is awkward and ends with a disgusting premature ejaculation. Separately they run out into the night, onto the pebbly beach by their seaside hotel. Florence, a talented concert musician, suggests they try just living together, in what a few years later would be called an open marriage. Edward, a recent history graduate, is appalled and angered at the suggestion. They dissolve their marriage and never see each other again, though they do think of each other in after years with wistful regret. End of story.
The author's slow work-up to the bad climax--recounting in painstaking detail how they met, how they were raised, and how each one feared the challenges of life without ever learning to articulate that fear--parallels the young couple's frustration as they approach the wedding bed. It is a clever literary trick, but not one I would like to see repeated. Tease us for ten pages if you wish, but not for a hundred-plus. Usually McEwan's lush prose quickly engages me with the lives of his stiff, self-absorbed characters, but here all his rolling exposition just made my eyes glaze over.
McEwan's main goal, I think, was to give us a slice of cultural history. He wanted to tell us about a state of mind that prevailed among middle-class newlyweds up to the mid-1960s. For McEwen, young men and women saw marriage as an opportunity to take on a new but recognizable role, a role that could be learned out of a book, like those cloying advice booklets on sex that Florence reads. Supple, creative, articulate thinking is beyond Florence and Edward's ability. I feel McEwen overstates his case. He makes Florence and Edward duller, in every way, than they really had to be. Maybe even more than they could have been, given that they've just come out of several years of conservatory and university in central London.
Finally, the end of the story is unnecessarily disappointing. It's another tricky downer, like the ending of Atonement, where you find out that the brief but happy wartime romance never actually took place.
Book Review: A little hard to believe...
Summary: 2 Stars
Atonement is one of my favorite books, and I worship Ian McEwan. But Chesil Beach was a big letdown. McEwan's writing is of course gorgeous, he shows that decisions have consequences, and the characters are believable, but..eh.
Because I think so highly of McEwan, I was disappointed by the scaled down ambitions of this book. A couple in the sixties get married, have bad sex and go their separate ways. Snoozefest.
I find it hard to believe that nobody knew anything about sex at that point in the 60s in England - I was not convinced that the female character could really be that pure as the driven snow. If the people in Atonement were having perfectly good, not-so-shameful sex in pre-WWII English high society, are we really to believe that sex would be quite so mysterious and revolting in the liberal sixties? Give me a break. Do you know how many divorces there would be if a woman left her husband every time he left her unsatisfied in bed? No one would be married.
Wake me up when McEwan regains his ambition and starts writing books worthy of his name.