On Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan
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Book Reviews of On Chesil Beach
Book Review: Tight With Emotional Suspense
Summary: 5 Stars
As in his previous book SATURDAY, Ian McEwan expands a short amount of time into book length through an intense exploration of the emotions of the characters. This time around, the time frame is even shorter, a mere evening between Edward and Florence, on their honeymoon the night of their wedding. Although we begin in a small room where the newlyweds are dining, it is the next room, with the four poster bed waiting, that brings the tension to the fore. You see, our new husband and wife have, to put it simply, seriously divergent attitudes and expectations about the consummation of their relationship.
Edward can barely hold himself back from pouncing on his beautiful wife, who only hours ago had vowed, in front of numerous witnesses - and in a church, no less - that `with my body, I thee worship.' Florence, however, is a different matter. She is a true character study whose feelings on the matter go way, way beyond wedding night jitters. The thought of the act of penetration is not merely repulsive physically, but repulses and terrifies her at the deepest core of her being. If she did not exactly lie at the altar, she simply lacked the willpower to be more honest with herself long before the two ever got there.
McEwan's writing is captivating, drawing the reader into the intricacies of the relationship between Edward and Florence, as well as their backgrounds and personalities that provide the context of it. The action unfolds at an agonizingly slow pace, with McEwan drawing very narrow margins for emotional error. As in SATURDAY, one cannot help but be struck at how even a small decision has such large emotional consequences.
ON CHESIL BEACH takes place in 1962, prior to the sexual revolution. Yet it is difficult to imagine how that revolution would have produced a different outcome. Yes, Edward and Florence could not communicate, both wound tight within the cultural expectations of the time. Yet the problem obviously goes much deeper, to the issue of exactly what is not being communicated. Perhaps at a later date, the events of the book would never have taken place, as their incompatibility would have come to light long before it reached this point. Setting the book at a later date would have made it more unrealistic. And although painful to read at times, ON CHESIL BEACH's realism is all too stark. I highly recommend it.
Also recommended: Saturday
Book Review: The power of words. The power of misunderstanding.
Summary: 5 Stars
In "On Chesil Beach" Ian McEwan, as usually, delivers what expected of him. Exeptionally good literature, exceptionally good character study and background.
Florence, a violinist, and Edward, a historian, young college graduates and, what is more important, newlyweds, are about to spend their first night together. The honeymoon started well, they are in a hotel suite overlooking the beach, but none of them is happy - they fear what happens when they attempt intercourse., And, although they fear for totally different reasons (or maybe partly because of this?) it leads them to the tragic misunderstanding and puts the end to their marriage.
McEwan, like in his previous novel, "Saturday", connects the central conflict between the pair of protagonists with the place and time of their life, and their social status. Again, he comes back to his point that we are trapped in our era and culture and most of us cannot find the way out. This new novel is very precisely set in 1962, a year before the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP. The young people still live according to old rules, but long for something new, something undefined and tempting, and at the same time are afraid of it. The tale told here belongs to the epoch, but at the same time is as universal and timeless as we can only imagine. It is a simple story about two people, very much in love and seemingly at the beginning of a very happy, successful married life, who shatter everything because of their assumptions, inability to communicate and to open to each other's feelings, and lack of understanding. The spoken and unspoken words change their lives without a chance for a change. The tragedy is not only their view of each other, but - and this is essential - their ignorance of their own feelings and characters, which they do not know themselves (example: Florence's own belief in her frigidity) - and when they learn who they really are, it is too late.
McEwans language is, as usual, crystal clear and precise. The narrative is disciplined and transparent. There are just enough words for this short (but not too short) novel to be perfect. The dialogues flow and there is nothing superfluous, nothing redundant, every word is accounted for. The story is perfectly constructed, flawless - but not without some winks towards the reader, like a temptation after the climax to read on to the end... hoping for a change, although knowing what the end will be. Superb.
Book Review: Sublime...my choice for the Booker last year
Summary: 5 Stars
Ian McEwan is the only contemporary fiction writer today with the talent and the craft to transform what in lesser hands might pass for a rather slight novella into a tremulous, gorgeously detailed work of art. "On Chesil Beach" may be less ambitious in its scope than McEwan's earlier masterpieces such as "Atonement" but it is no less satisfying for the effect it strives to achieve. McEwan isn't a writer who grows on you. His writing strictly eschews sentiment, so the reader expecting to be moved should look elsewhere. His words - razor sharp, cold and brutal - either hit you like an ice pick on the forehead or leave you with an unpleasant aftertaste.
It is also his favorite thing to use copious amounts of page space to display in slow motion every flicker of thought or emotion running through the minds of his characters. In "Saturday", the opening night scene of the protagonist observing the descent of an airplane from his bedroom takes up more pages than one would imagine. We get plenty of that kind of thing here.
Ironically perhaps, the thwarted lives of Edward and Florence must seem the saddest story ever told. Born into an age when sex expects to follow love in marriage like hand in glove, the quiet desperation consuming the couple as they head for the bridal chambers on their wedding night, each not knowing what to do, yet willing himself/herself to do the right thing by the other, becomes the subject of this deceptively slight novella. McEwan is in his usual commanding form, wielding his arsenal of killer sharp precision words to devastating effect to achieve just the right nuances. He reveals a comic side in an unexpected scene when Edward deliberately conjures up Joseph Stalin's face in his mind's eye to avoid his first calamity. An unbelievable sleight of hand ! As the narrative lurches fatefully towards its inevitable conclusion, McEwan uses flashback to plug the gap in the couple's back story for us to make sense of their present dilemma.
The wasted lives of Edward and Florence seem a needless cruelty today. McEwan, writing at the top of his game, succeeds in evoking pathos and sadness without the usual mawkishness that accompanies such sentiment. A brilliant book. Most definitely, my choice for the Booker last year !
Book Review: Manufactured drama and emotion, little substance
Summary: 2 Stars
If the ebb and flow of emotions and elegant prose are your thing, you may like this book. Unfortunately the characters, and the novel, are shallow. Neither are entirely believable (ok, it is fiction, but the characters need to be gotten hold of). In Edward, we have a self centered boor, who spends his premarital days masturbating, "bending daily to the task at hand", preoccupied with the next warm vagina to wrap around himself. We know why Edward is present at the honeymoon; Florence qualifies as his lifetime semen cup. Edward is not the stuff of great literature. Florence deserves better. The author gives some integrity and substance to Florence by way of musical proficiency and civil activism, however Florence is molested into a lifeless shell by her father. While the author is able to manufacture sympathy for this sad woman, he does not maker her believable. She is presented as a substantial independent woman who professes to love this man sooo much, so elegantly and so deeply, and yet she is incapable of basic human communication on her wedding night?? The premise of the book is flawed from the start. The pleasant courtship is an incongruity with the wedding night. The courtship is evidently full of fun and romance (not sex, romance), yet on the wedding night, they cannot even speak to each other? If you are honest with yourself, you have to admit you know of noone who truly loves while behaving this way. This is the stuff of arranged marriages.
The comdey of errors and misunderstandings that take place on the wedding night are not believable. One inevitable error after the other, and the reader feels like a teenager trying to escape from an axe murderer, stumbling and bumbling, oh I forgot to lock the front door, I shot him but hit him in the wrong place, my car wont start, I try to run away but fall down, on and on. Spare me please, I have some Stephen King on the bookshelf if I want it.
The author also directly contradicts his own character development when describing their marriage as a vault away from a disdained youth into mature adulthood, then later (in the same scene!!!, although some pages later) Flo and Eddie express contempt for the maturity of adults in the hotel lobby. Where are the editors?
Crediblity is secondary to emotion evidently.
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.