On Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan
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Book Reviews of On Chesil Beach
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: 2 Stars
Ian McEwan, born in 1948, is an English novelist and a devout atheist. He has a big reputation, and counts the Booker Prize - won for "Amsterdam" in 1998 - amongst his awards. "On Chesil Beach" was shortlisted for the 2007 Booker but, despite being the raging hot favourite, lost out to "The Gathering" by Anne Enright.The book opens in July 1962, on the evening of Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting's wedding. Having married that afternoon in Oxford - and, obviously, not wanting to hang about - they've travelled down the Dorset coast to begin their honeymoon. Sitting having dinner, they're both very nervous about their first night together. (Being 1962, they're still virgins). Although Edward's largely looking forward to it, he's nervous about being a little premature. Florence, on the other hand, is absolutely dreading it - although she does love Edward, the thought of having sex leaves her panic-stricken and feeling sick. As their wedding night moves forward, and with disaster apparently looming, their separate lives and the history of their relationship is told in flashback.
Short, with some nice passages - but some of the fawning reviews I've read are a bigger work of fiction that the book itself. It's full of wasted opportunities - I couldn't help thinking McEwan had simply focused on the wrong section of his characters' lives. Edward's mother, Florence's relationship with her father, their lives after the wedding day - there was so much that, properly developed, could have improved the book no end. Florence and Edward themselves were very poorly developed, and were little more than cliches at times. In spite of what the blurb claims, it's not wonderful, exquisite or devastating : it's a very ordinary book, and it left me with the impression that McEwan was just going through the motions. It is well short of amazing. 2007 must've been a thin year if this got nominated for the Booker.
Book Review: They Should Have Talked
Summary: 3 Stars
It seems as though each time you check his website, Ian McEwan has collected another award, and with the success of Atonement he has to be considered one of the great living novelists in English. Although On Chesil Beach (Nan A. Talese, 2007) lacks the scope of Atonement, it is clearly a product of the same artistic sensibility.
The recent novel is set in 1962, on the eve (ironically) of the decade that brought fundamental changes in lifestyles, especially in regard to sexual mores. McEwan's young newly weds are both products of older times, virgins who have never spoken to one another about such things. Florence assumes that Edward has the required minimal sexual experience, and he assumes that she is eager for a sex life within the sacrament of marriage. Neither is correct. The central event of the novel is the wedding night in a hotel at Chesil Beach, where things come apart miserably as a result of his extreme performance anxiety and her irrepressible sexual loathing.
Throughout the novel, McEwan shifts from one point of view to the other, allowing the reader to experience first hand each character's flawed perceptions of the other. The technique is especially effective after the failed wedding night, when they fabricate defensive cases against one another. Atonement and On Chesil Beach are both about communication and how its failure can alter a life. In the first novel, the failed communication was the telling of an untrue tale by a child who dreamed of being a storyteller. In the later novel, the sexual failure was the result of things left unsaid. Both novels end with glimpses of the future lives that resulted from the communication failures.
On Chesile Beach is really a novella, stretched to book length with the use of small pages and a lot of white space. Personally, I think short is good, and this one is definitely vintage McEwan.
Book Review: Excellent storytellling
Summary: 5 Stars
Anyone who has read a novel by Ian McEwan will not be surprised to discover that the language the author adopted to craft On Chesil Beach is flawless. Even as the prose urges the story forward, the reader is compelled to linger over the beautiful passages, the taut, lovely sentences and the crisp dialogue that mark McEwan as one of the master writers of our time. And, while each novel develops its own unique and curious plot, (consider the shocking end of Amsterdam or the bittersweet lesson at the heart of Atonement), each also shares a universal theme. McEwan's stories are all driven by the human desire to ponder the imponderable: "If only."
On Chesil Beach is no exception. The two main characters, Edward and Florence, are celebrating the evening of their marriage. The story begins on the night of their honeymoon, two virgins, each insecure in the knowledge of what will soon happen. Much of the novel lingers over their thoughts and anxieties, their memories and anticipation. By alternating their two perspectives, McEwan deftly captures the way our spoken words do not always accurately represent what it is we are struggling to communicate. While much of the book concerns this dance between meaning and misunderstanding, there is also action-action that has serious consequences. We glimpse the couples' past, present, and future, perfectly balanced on one moment of consummation.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of McEwan's writing is his ability to capture the nature of time. Like Proust, McEwan can examine a single moment, filling as many pages as a description of events that have passed over a period of twenty years. It is brilliant prose that conveys a poignant, heart-wrenching love story.
Armchair Interviews says: Read McEwan for both his wonderful stories and superb storytelling.
Book Review: The Awkward Bedroom Scene.
Summary: 4 Stars
Ian McEwan has the ability to create a world where time doesn't move too fast or too slow. ON CHESIL BEACH, takes a route not a lot of authors can manage and covers a few hours (for the most part) in the lives of Florence and Edward, newlyweds fresh from their wedding, enjoying dinner and their first night together. For the short time we actually spend with them, Florence and Edward are exceptionally well-developed characters.
Florence grapples with tricky intimacy and her dilemma between discomfort and what is expected of her, as a wife.
Edward struggles to decipher his new wife's emotions while trying to manage his growing irritation with her discomfort.
ON CHESIL BEACH is a true look at intimacy, and how a few short hours can change lives forever. McEwan navigates through uncomfortable scenes with ease, and creates a book that is a pleasure to read.
It's very odd that an author takes such an interesting approach to the marriage bed, where the consummation of a relationship is not sexy or romantic, but honestly awkward and clumsy. You'll definitely see McEwan's sympathy for Florence rise above any he has for Edward, but I felt mine going the same way as well.
However, he's not for everyone. The pace is relatively slow (the entire book covers only a few hours), and many people prone to reading fast-paced fiction will easily find themselves bored and toss the book aside. I really encourage you not to give up though! This book sat on my shelf for a year until I finally was able to pick it up and give it the time it deserved.
Ultimately, you'll find yourself sympathizing with both characters, investing in their story, and enjoying every moment of this ridiculously wonderful book. Just give it time.