On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.69 You Save: $11.31 (81%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of On Chesil Beach
Book Review: Great writing, unsatisfactory format
Summary: 3 Stars
Author Ian McEwan has the skill of a masterful miniaturist. With exquisite delicacy, his unblinking eye and steady hand can reveal a universe illustrated by an instant in time (a single day in "Saturday", a few hours in "On Chesil Beach"). This story is, on the face of it, a simple one of wedding night panic, but behind it lurk numerous knots of emotion and experience which McEwan slowly unravels. Here is writing at its finest.
Having said that, I was disappointed with the conclusion of "On Chesil Beach". Perhaps it can be put down to a basic dissatisfaction with the novella form, but I found it all a bit too abrupt at the end. The narrative proceeds at an almost elegaic pace through a huge build-up to a crisis, and suddenly it's all over. With almost indecent haste, the last few pages "fast forward" to provide a tidy ending.
But this is a minor quibble about a couple of hours of sheer reading pleasure.
Book Review: HOPELESS, BUT INTERESTING
Summary: 4 Stars
Not wishing to be repetitive and parroting other reviewers, McEwan is an excellent writer but why he wasted time on this disasterous relationship and honeymoon is a mystery to me. Both protagonists are good people, probably too nice, plus intelligent and caring; in real life they would have got it together, at least through the honeymoon phase. Maybe they should read more "how-to-do" books or discussed the Kama Sutra in some seedy motel, or taken on lovers before the wedding. The dialogue is medicore but the descriptive characterizations of the proposed lovers is beautiful and well-written. Another part of this, I suppose I read for entertainment and wanted a satisfying ending. Just a good read - not the best for me.Book Review: Heartbreaking & beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
It's 1962. Edward and Florence have just gotten married and now face the colossal expectation looming before their nuptial dinner table: sex. Don't be confused--On Chesil Beach isn't just about sex--there's so much more to it than that. In the spirit of Mrs. Dalloway and McEwan's more recent Saturday, On Chesil Beach culminates in an exhausting and contemplative day that speaks for a waning culture struggling to transition in the face of a worldwide explosion of television, rock and roll, and a war in Vietnam.
The narrative follows dramatic structure. On the surface there is Edward and Florence with all of their apprehensions and anxieties over their wedding night. The thoughts they distract themselves with lead to flashbacks into the past: their first meeting (told from both perspectives); introducing each other to their respective families; their first sexually-charged encounter. These memories are made even more poignant in the narrative when they break the reader away from the present--the moment when Edward and Florence set into motion the unspoken momentum of their conjugal obligations. As the couple navigates the strange and foreign land of their new relationship, so too do they struggle to rise above the norms of society that pull them in two different directions.
Both are, for lack of a better word, very British (in case I didn't mention it, the story takes place in an imagined seaside hotel on the British coast). Florence, and to a lesser extent, Edward, are bound by the protocols and rituals that date themselves within an era of burgeoning freedoms unimaginable and at times, disagreeable. Florence's love of classical music is jarringly sweet and evocative against Edward's newly developed taste for rock and roll. He has no patience for her type of music, the enchanting and layered sounds metaphorical of the complicated and invested plot of transition Ian McEwan has written.
The couple's difficulties are intricately laid out in passionate internal monologues that mirror the frustrations and hopes for the Britain of 1962. On Chesil Beach is a contemplative call to action, a warning: "This is how the entire course of a life can be changed--by doing nothing" (p. 203). It's a novel that can (and will, hopefully) be read again and again for an enduring message of love and patience; I'm still amazed it's only a couple hundred pages long. I love McEwan's ability to inextricably link Edward and Florence's relationship with the fate of British society and culture. At the same time, their efforts are quite personal, however applicable elsewhere. The structure of the narrative is one of my favorite parts of the novel. Especially when Florence's musical abilities (she plays for a string quarter) on the cello are taken into consideration; you can almost hear the musical score behind each act, the strings vibrating with the full range of human emotion as the couple propels themselves into a roller coaster of extremes.
One of Ian McEwan's considerable talents is the ability to write a story as haunting and tragic as it is beautiful. There is always something jarring about his work--the least expected event happens and turns the narrative upside down. His characters are always so vivid and written with an air of contemplation. Edward and Florence are by no means on the same footing when they approach each other across the chasm of their wedding bed--neither are they quite willing to discuss this. Although neither is prepared on the same level as the other (nor expecting the same outcome), they overlook the ordinariness of the situation with a depth I've come to expect of McEwan. But at the heart of this novel, despite the political and social intrusions that define their hesitations and enthusiasms, is the story of two young people arriving at one of the most defining moments of their lives--the one that defines their future for a lifetime. I look forward to reading it again.
Book Review: Horny virgin Edward marries frigid virgin Florence: a recipe for disaster.
Summary: 3 Stars
Two dysfunctional 22 year olds share their honeymoon night in a hotel. Despite his repeated declarations of love, Edward seems to have been led into the marriage more by his gonads than his heart. He desperately wants to bone Florence. She resists up to the wedding night. Then she assists, precipitating a gooey mess. She flees in horror, leaving him feeling cheated and frustrated.
They meet later in the night on the beach. But both Edward and Florence lack communications skills and are unable to resolve the conflict which arises. Edward takes the high and mighty position, feeling that he was cheated out of his marital right to a bonk. (In fact he would have had his prize if he could have controlled himself and in any case, being a 22 year old, he could probably have recharged within the hour - so no big deal really.) He is content to let Florence run away. They never see eachother again despite the fact that they each consider, years later, that they each lost the love of their life.
What is the moral of the tale? Perhaps it is that true love comes but once in a life time and should not be squandered. Or might it be an example of the tragedy of lovers who fail because they cannot communicate effectively. Maybe the story is an example of the destructiveness of pride.
But how credible is the novel? Can we really believe that after Florence runs away she and Edward never contact eachother again? No letter from either party a week or two later, after cooling down? Or was Edward insincere in his protestations of love, deciding that the prospect of a bonk was remote, he lost interest?
Was it such a tragedy that they did break up and never saw eachother again? The author tells us that neither party ever loved another person again as much as they did eachother. Does that mean to say that they would have been happier if they worked out their differences and stayed together? It would be fair to say they were doomed to a bad relationship from the start, so different were they from one another. Cutting loss on the wedding night might have been the optimal solution. Edward felt remorse in his sixties, when his testosterone level was no doubt lower. But how much is that sentimentality? He couldn't have been satisfied with her. Or could he, if he was a bit more patient?
Indeed, the novel claims merit in being provocative. The characters are interesting if not entirely credible. On the other hand, the author's prose style is often prolix. He dwells. He labours, intoxicated with his own philological exhibitionism. Whether you enjoy his style or not is a matter of taste. I'm not sure it's to mine.
Book Review: Humor, suffering, beautiful writing, great characters.
Summary: 5 Stars
At 203 small pages, I devoured this book. It was a great entertaining read; full of beautifully written dark humor and suffering and absolutely real living breathing characters...a winning combo for me. The story of a 1962 English couple's torturous wedding night, both of them virgins, as seen from each perspective, with flashbacks to their families, childhoods, meeting and wedding. It's hard to imagine the times being so different such a short time ago, but it adds a wonderful uniqueness to the story. I loved how the author was able to present the young couple in their stark nakedness, flawed but absolutely irresistable, without laying blame; McEwan is quite capable of making the reader a fully participating character in his story; there is nothing passive about this read, so hang on!