A skillful journey to an uncomfortable past

books:

	• On Chesil Beach: A Novel Ian McEwan Nan A. Talese, 2007 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 217 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Worth the Read

The author develops his characters wonderfully. You feel so sad when
all these events takes place, where these two people are so unable to
bring forth emotions and deal with the matter at hand, so crippled.

Very Fine

On Chesil Beach is McEwan's latest venture into fiction, and it is an extremely fine, though thin novel about a disastrous honeymoon between a young couple. McEwan's prose is undeniable elegant and provocative, perhaps even reminiscent of the stark and cold beauty of Andre Gide. However, the book's weakness is really that it is merely a short story in terms of scope. We are offered little in terms of the history of the characters and the world that they have come to occupy together. Most of the work is devoted to the creation of the subtle tensions and misunderstandings between the protagonists, which finally culminate in an excellent scene of abandonment and heartbreak. A fine work, though a bit superficial and obviously stretched thin.

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Meh

'On Chesil Beach' is a short story about one young couple's disastrous wedding night. It is the 1960s in England, and Edward and Florence have just tied the knot. In their honeymoon hotel room they're both nervous, but for very different reasons.

I didn't find the story entirely believable, especially for the time period. I couldn't imagine a young couple not talking about any of these things, or even recognizing that there might be a problem! They also didn't seem to really know each other as intimately as a couple in such a situation should. I had a hard time sympathizing as I was kind of irritated with the absurd level of non-communication.

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What is the Destination?

I just finished this novella and cannot stop thinking about it. Ian McEwan is a master at filling few words with great emotion; I admire that about him. The young couple, Edward and Florence, are full of life, chomping at the bit, ready for their futures to begin. They have each lived their lives as though the journey was not as important as the destination, never realizing that the journey each has been on is what led them to each other, to their marriage, to the hotel on their wedding night. Each character is revealed in flashback, and much is told about their differing backgrounds and likes, dislikes. They truly seem to love one another, yet Florence is hiding a terrible secret; her horror at the thought of sexual contact is making her wedding night a nightmare for her. The disaster that ensues results from these two young people being unable to communicate their deepest emotions to one another. The sorrow and poignancy of the moment on the beach when they make their break will last them the rest of their lives. I really liked this book because McEwan makes these young people believable to the reader, in a short time. The nuances of the language reveal a great deal of depth of meaning and emotion. Every word fits, every gesture, description, thought has meaning to the whole. The pain of remembering what is forever lost is strong, but it seems that neither Florence nor Edward really learned the lesson they should have: that life's journey is indeed that, a journey. And if dreams reside only in the future, they will never come true. The naivete of the young couple is brilliantly revealed and the long look back takes courage to face, for both the couple and the reader.

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A skillful journey to an uncomfortable past

This relatively short novel has essentially two characters, a young man and woman who spend their wedding night at a hotel at Chesil Beach in Britain. Their story probably reflects, in one degree or another, the experiences of thousands of people of their age who came to adulthood in a time when so-called sexual liberation (can we ever be really liberated from our primal selves?) was still over the horizon.

The author does a masterful job of portraying the thoughts and emotions of these two people as they try to navigate what for them becomes an unnavigable passage to married life.

Neither of these characters is particularly lovable. I found the husband less likable than his bride. Both were immature and unprepared for giving and taking virginity. Neither had the emotional or mental tools to take care of the other.

I suspect most readers who came of age in this period can relate uneasily to parts of this tale. While the story is not particularly uplifting, it is thoughtfully and skillfully told by Ian McEwan.

If you're looking for light fluff reading, this isn't it. If you're looking for something that will make you think about relationships, this could be for you.

For me, the book underscores the distinct difference between giving and receiving between lovers. Neither character in this book could get the giving part even remotely right, and as a consequence neither one of them could get the receiving part right either.

This book reinforces my own view that a top-notch relationship is one in which it becomes impossible to tell where the giving stops and the receiving begins; they become one and the same. If you read this book through that prism, you'll see how and when the romance flopped.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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