On Chesil Beach

Sep 09, 2008 brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i read this book in one sitting, on a plane from l.a. to nyc, and it just knocked my socks off. and i came up with a scenerio: imagine if i was flying cross country for some kind of mcewanesque purpose … suppose last time i had been in new york I had met a girl, had spent only a few hours with her, but came back changed. i walked around los angeles buzzed, different, everything slightly altered, colored with that feeling… alright, yeah, it sounds stupid, but go with me (and mcewan) on this. what...more i read this book in one sitting, on a plane from l.a. to nyc, and it just knocked my socks off. and i came up with a scenerio: imagine if i was flying cross country for some kind of mcewanesque purpose … suppose last time i had been in new york I had met a girl, had spent only a few hours with her, but came back changed. i walked around los angeles buzzed, different, everything slightly altered, colored with that feeling… alright, yeah, it sounds stupid, but go with me (and mcewan) on this. what if i just couldn’t get her outta my head. i mean what if this girl was just perfect, like so ridiculously smart and funny and beautiful and just had that ineffable 'thing' that only very very few people that you ever meet in your life have... i mean, what if, prick atheist that i am, i just knew that this was something important?

does one behave cautiously and cower before the impossibility and impracticality of a geographically-challenged love affair? does one cower before doubt and fear and insecurity and the unknown and the possiblity of failure?

or does one shove all that useless stuff aside and burst forward, chest out and fists clenched, and grab one’s fate by the throat rather than be content as ‘attendant lord’?

well… this is the stuff of mcewan’s fiction. he’s obsessed with that one moment and all the various possibilites which extend outward into time and space --- whether it be a shared glance while hanging from the dangling ropes of a quickly ascending hot air balloon or the reaction to a disastrous night of naïve lovemaking or being attacked by two canine rapists (seriously) or, as in my case, a magical but unrealistic night spent knocking around lower east side bars…

and one can’t help but wonder, in reading his books, if one were put in the place of one of mcewan’s protagonists, how he/she would react…

as per my 'imaginary' scenerio: would one go for it? or would it be smarter to think with the mind over the heart (you want what you can’t have, grass is always greener, love is a biological imperative necessary for survival of the species), to consider the negatives (3000 miles is a lot of space between), to be practical (plenty of girls in los angeles)…

would i go for it? would i jump on a plane for her? would i risk looking like a crazy person? would i risk rejection and heartbreak? would it be the smart (fuck smart) move to get involved with someone i would rarely see in person? would i throw caution (fuck caution) to the wind and make some kind of grand gesture to a girl i’ve only actually seen in the flesh about 4 days in my life? would i blow off the world and take her down to, say, south america for a week?

or perhaps i would -- as so many of mcewan’s tragic protagonists do -- take the reasonable route and allow fate to determine my course?

hmmm….

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Sep 17, 2007 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: students of literature, dirty old men

The first thing you should know about this book is that, like the other Ian McEwan books I’ve read, it is about the most uncomfortable, awkward, and squirmy thing you’ll ever read. Don’t believe me? What if I told you that the book – which is 200 pages long – only covers about two hours of time: the first two hours of a newlywed couple’s honeymoon in which they fumble to consummate their marriage? And that both of them have very embarrassing sexual dysfunctions?

Well, that’s what the book is abo...more The first thing you should know about this book is that, like the other Ian McEwan books I’ve read, it is about the most uncomfortable, awkward, and squirmy thing you’ll ever read. Don’t believe me? What if I told you that the book – which is 200 pages long – only covers about two hours of time: the first two hours of a newlywed couple’s honeymoon in which they fumble to consummate their marriage? And that both of them have very embarrassing sexual dysfunctions?

Well, that’s what the book is about. The reader looks on helplessly and squirmingly as two virgins, Edward and Florence, sit in a hotel room on the beach embarrassed out of their minds. It’s 1962, on the cusp of the sexual revolution, and the pair have neither the presence of mind or even the vocabulary to communicate openly with each other. There is only a handful of words spoken until the very last chapter of the book (it was tough for me not to use the word climax here, but I try to stay classy).

For the first 50 pages or so I was convinced that McEwan was just selling a freak show to us (again) – that he’s a popular author because people like reading about sex and other people’s weirdo sex problems. Who needs a plot or well-executed sentences when we could have incest, brain damage, erectile dysfunction, and a 30,000 word sex scene? Bring on other peoples’ guilt and shame!

But I kept reading and I’m glad I did. Through a number of seamless flashbacks, the history of the couple unfolded before me – so slowly and steadily and adeptly that I am now convinced that Ian McEwan is a genius. A dirty old man genius.

It made me think back to a few years ago when Ben and I were lucky enough to interview Jim Shepard, Ben’s favorite contemporary writer and a visiting author at the University of Montana (visiting because Ben requested him, no less). We sat in the Union Club sipping straight whiskeys and Jim Shepard told us that the truly great books (he was specifically talking about Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping) are books that are constantly revelatory.

And that’s exactly what I though about On Chesil Beach. Everyone – we’re talking about the characters and me – were learning and understanding more and more deeply with each page. It felt like a blossoming or, to be less lame and corny, like a picture very slowly coming into focus. Many times when authors reveal information it seems cheap or as if they were withholding it from you in order to keep you reading – dime mystery book stuff. But McEwan’s real gift is in the natural and subtle ways that he presents information to the reader. In fact, many of the biggest revelations in the book are never said outright, but only seep into the story until you understand each one as truth. It’s really pretty well done.

So – if you can handle cringing non-stop for three or four hours and have a strong stomach, you should pick up this book. And let me know if you can figure out exactly how McEwan does what he does, because I’d like to know about it.
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Mar 24, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. (The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Regular readers know that this month CCLaP is taking an extended look at the nominees for the 2007 Booker Prize; and regular readers also know that so far I've been mostly disappointed by the nominees I've read, finding most of them to be inconsequential little wisps of stories, many of them well-written but certainly not weighty enough to be called "The Best Novel of 2007." And thus...more (The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Regular readers know that this month CCLaP is taking an extended look at the nominees for the 2007 Booker Prize; and regular readers also know that so far I've been mostly disappointed by the nominees I've read, finding most of them to be inconsequential little wisps of stories, many of them well-written but certainly not weighty enough to be called "The Best Novel of 2007." And thus do we come to the fifth Booker nominee to be reviewed here, as well as the one easily most well-known, Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach; and let me tell you, if a common complaint about this year's Booker nominees is of their slight and inconsequential nature, On Chesil Beach isn't helping matters at all, in that it is such a non-excuse for a novel as to almost not exist. In fact, I can literally give you the entire plot of this 200-page, paperback-sized book in literally 177 words; and this is a major spoiler alert, by the way, because I'm not kidding, I really am about to tell you the entire storyline of On Chesil Beach from beginning to end, without skipping a single detail, in 177 words. Ready?

A young middle-class couple get married in England in 1962, and spend their wedding night on Chesil Beach. He only got married because he's horny as hell and lives in middle-class 1962 England, where getting married is the only chance you're going to have to get laid, and as a result has now become a cuckold employee of his upper-class father-in-law; she despises the very idea of sex altogether, but is too much of a coward to tell her husband, instead spending months psyching herself up into performing her upcoming "wifely duties." The wedding night arrives. He gets so excited that he has a premature ejaculation on his wife's stomach. She becomes so disgusted that she flees the room in a panic. He chases her down the beach, where they have an explosive argument based on mutual misunderstanding of each other's behavior. She leaves him that night and their marriage is annulled (presumably). And he spends the rest of his life thinking about "the relationship that was never meant to be."

No, dude, seriously, that's it; that's the entire freaking plotline of the book. Which, fine, I don't necessarily mind when it's a 10,000-word short story in a literary magazine, that I'm reading on a boring Sunday afternoon down at my neighborhood cafe; but seriously, as a standalone book for 22 damn dollars? And that the Booker committee has the gall to nominate as the best novel of the entire year? Seriously? Are you kidding me? It's hard for me to...(less)

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Mar 30, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mt-tbr-challenge

Back in about 1988 a friend lent me a novel she had just finished reading. "You must read this", she said, "it's amazing". The book was The Child in Time and I had heard of neither the book nor its author before. My friend was right about the book being amazing. I still remember being very impressed by the writing. However, I was devastated by the premise of the novel: the effect on a father of the abduction of his three year old child - so devastated that I decided not to read any more of McEwa...more
Back in about 1988 a friend lent me a novel she had just finished reading. "You must read this", she said, "it's amazing". The book was The Child in Time and I had heard of neither the book nor its author before. My friend was right about the book being amazing. I still remember being very impressed by the writing. However, I was devastated by the premise of the novel: the effect on a father of the abduction of his three year old child - so devastated that I decided not to read any more of McEwan's work for fear of being devastated all over again.

Fast forward twenty years and a different friend gives me a pile of books as a gift. One of them is On Chesil Beach. I dutifully thank him, knowing all the while that I'll never read it, because it's written by Ian McEwan. The book stays on my bookshelf, though, because it's a gift and disposing of books given as gifts just seems wrong, even if I don't want to read them.

So now it's 2012 and the book has been sitting on the shelf for four years, along with a number of other books I've been given or bought and haven't read. I decide to participate in a challenge to read books owned but not read before the beginning of the year. I pick up On Chesil Beach. It's time to get over The Child in Time.

This novel tells a deceptively simple tale. It's 1962. Edward and Florence, an intelligent, well-educated young couple, have just married. They are spending the first night of their honeymoon in a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach. Both virgins, they have quite different feelings as they move towards having sex for the first time. What happens on that night is interwoven with flashbacks of their lives and of what has led them to this point. What happens changes their lives forever.

I did not find either Edward or Florence to be particularly sympathetic characters. While what happens is both horrifying and funny, I didn't feel fully engaged with either of them as people. However, what I found utterly compelling about the novel is its illustration of how the seemingly small decisions people make and the words spoken or left unsaid can irrevocably change lives. I love McEwan's prose: elegant, clear, economical. I love his re-creation of England and Englishness at the beginning of a decade which was to transform the world. I also love that he managed to say and to imply so much in so few words.

I can confidently say that this novel has cured my McEwan phobia. I can finally get around to reading more of his work. (less)

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Sep 13, 2007 Cody rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I hadn't intended on reading any Ian McEwan in the near future, and this wasn't even atop my McEwan "to-read" list. However, as it is short-listed for the Booker, and since I have a tendency to hardly ever keep up with contemporary literature, I was inspired to pick this up at the library yesterday. Then, I proceeded to read it in one sitting.

Of course, this rapid reading was very much aided by the length of the book, but this is ultimately an inconsequential reason for my fixation. As with *Ato...more I hadn't intended on reading any Ian McEwan in the near future, and this wasn't even atop my McEwan "to-read" list. However, as it is short-listed for the Booker, and since I have a tendency to hardly ever keep up with contemporary literature, I was inspired to pick this up at the library yesterday. Then, I proceeded to read it in one sitting.

Of course, this rapid reading was very much aided by the length of the book, but this is ultimately an inconsequential reason for my fixation. As with *Atonement*, the only other of his I've read, McEwan here displays the most amazing ability to create such honest and well-developed characters, that it is, for me, seemingly impossible not to attach yourself at least somewhat to the “their stories”.

While I think that *Atonement* is a more developed work—complex and historical, at once youthfully passionate and bitterly resigned—and, thus literarily, impressed me more, *On Chesil Beach* is, for me, much more affecting. This was due, in part, because I was more willing and able to become wholly enmeshed in the text. It also seemed more relevant to my present life, which, though I often shrink from reviews that make such a point, I must admit allowed me to become more invested, more enveloped in McEwan's tale.

Though I claim that *Atonement* is more developed, we should remind ourselves that *On Chesil Beach* is a notably shorter work. I'm astounded at McEwan's ability, in such few words, to create complex characters and themes that are not in the least bit inchoate. The only author I know of who can take on such a multitude of themes in such a concise text is J.M. Coetzee, though he is an utterly different writer than McEwan. Whereas Coetzee is focused more on what we might call the social and the universal, McEwan explores the psychological and the individual. And, yet, through the seemingly specific individuals that McEwan creates, we wholly relate, thus imbuing his themes, emotions, ideas with a kind of universality.

This work explores, so beautifully, much of what it means to be young, in love, and attempting to assume adulthood and take the first, daunting steps in an attempt to forge a fulfilling life. And, as I read, my heart simply broke.(less)

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May 17, 2010 Jana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: heart-and-mind

It took me three years to finish it. I bought it on Heathrow, eyes full of tears because I was departing from my boyfriend in Dublin via London. It was the n-th time I did this, fiercely sobbing while sitting on my luggage and hating every step of the known airport. It always took me a while to get a hold of myself, because London has always been no-man's land. Up to now, London has taken place as the place where my bipolar relationship reached its highs and lows. My head spinning in all directi...more

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Jun 30, 2007 Chazzbot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a relatively short novel (just over 200 pages), but it carries quite a devastating emotional punch, particularly in its final chapters. McEwan's story concerns a newly married young couple in the early 1960's, neither of whom are sexually experienced. Edward looks forward to the societal license granted to him by his wedding to act on his physical impulses; Florence's love for Edward is honest, but the wedding night looms in her imagination like an unpleasant chore.

McEwan follows this c...more This is a relatively short novel (just over 200 pages), but it carries quite a devastating emotional punch, particularly in its final chapters. McEwan's story concerns a newly married young couple in the early 1960's, neither of whom are sexually experienced. Edward looks forward to the societal license granted to him by his wedding to act on his physical impulses; Florence's love for Edward is honest, but the wedding night looms in her imagination like an unpleasant chore.

McEwan follows this couple as they arrive in their honeymoon suite and pares apart their respective emotional histories with an almost cold precision. Edward and Florence live just on the edge of the massive cultural changes of the mid-1960's; Florence, for example, anticipates a successful career with her string quartet and politely tolerates Edward's fondness for Chuck Berry and early rock & roll: "When the tunes were so elementary, mostly in simple four-four time, why this relentless thumping and crashing and clattering to keep time? What was the point, when there was already a rhythm guitar, and often a piano?"

Different taste in music is probably the least of this couple's trouble, but McEwan uses this polite disagreement ("He kissed her and told her she was the squarest person in all of Western civilization.") as an indicator of future divergencies. The literally climactic scene of the wedding consummation reads at first like slapstick, but McEwan's precise delving into Edward's and Florence's internal dialogue makes it tragic. The novel turns entirely on the reader's acceptance of this scene, and McEwan's blend of emotional and physical detail is flawless. It's a scene that would only be lessened by paraphrase (or a filmed interpretation, for that matter).

McEwan's skill is to use these two characters, neither of which is ultimately very likeable, to offer a subtle indication of what the convulsive societal shifts of the 1960s freed us from and, more important, to demonstrate how "by doing nothing. . . the entire course of a life can be changed." By the end of the novel, it's not just the characters who feel the chill winds off the beach.

The clumsy fumbling of a newly married couple is not unknown to me. Nor is the frustration of a young man whose partner is less experienced than he. This is McEwan's starting point, and perhaps one that elicits easy empathy, but by the time the full consequences of this young couple's inexperience become evident, the reader is almost divided in their loyalties (or pity) for the characters.

More so than other McEwan novels I've read, On Chesil Beach carries a direct moralistic tone, one that would seem chiding in the hands of a lesser stylist. The beauty of McEwan's language, the patience of his narrative voice as he outlines the tangled emotional backgrounds of his characters, and the sense of omniscient pity he uses to instruct us are Hardy-esque. The impact of this small novel is heartbreaking and cold. (less)

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Oct 01, 2008 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Michelle by: After Brian's review, how could I not read this book?

Shelves: novels

If you want to read a really good review of this book, click
here

Seriously. Go read that one. Don’t continue down this page.

My review is brought to you by the makers of Cialis®

You don’t want this to happen to you.

I loved this book. I did. I began reading it on my own cross-country trip while I hoped for an epiphany. What I learned is that I’ll always be the same person I am right now. I’ll always be the responsible girl who analyzes every facet of things before acting. I’ll only ever gain true un...more

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Feb 11, 2008 Alistair rated it 2 of 5 stars

McEwan is such a famous and well reviewed author that he should stand up to scrutiny unlike say a first time author feeling their way .
I found the whole story unrealistic and artificial and some of the writing lazy .
we are asked to believe that 2 people so in love and apparently still so years after their disasterous wedding night should not have found a way to overcome the inauspicious start .

we are also led to believe that somehow this problem was because they were living in an era before sex...more

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Dec 15, 2007 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those of us who enjoy whining about the complexity of heterosexual relationships these days

Shelves: happyendings, love-and-other-indoor-sports, crazy-ladies

Reading Ian McEwan makes me want to give up forever on writing any more sentences of my own. It's just embarrassing. Why bother? Ugh.

_______________

I am really glad I didn't read this book when I was a kid. If it had existed then and I'd come across it, between On Chesil Beach and Bell Jar I would've almost certainly gotten me to a nunnery, and I'd be there right now (though come to think of it, would that be such a bad thing?).

Actually, I think I read this at precisely the right stage of my lif...more

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Mar 21, 2009 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Oh, I dunno. People without baggage.

Recommended to Amanda by: Read some good GR reviews, specifically LA Brian's

Shelves: 2009

I don't know who this story thinks it is is, but it can shove off. It has put me in a bad damn mood and all I wanna do is fight.

People are assholes.

You know... I just...
Ugh...!!!!!

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May 05, 2013 João Carlos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A acção principal decorre em 1962, na noite de núpcias dos protagonistas, Florence e Edward, que é passada num hotel situado na Praia de Chesil, em Dorset, Inglaterra.
“Eles eram jovens, licenciados, ambos virgens naquela sua noite de núpcias, e viviam numa época em que uma conversa sobre dificuldades sexuais, que nunca é fácil, era simplesmente impossível.” – assim começa a narrativa de “Na Praia de Chesil”.
Nessa noite de núpcias, Florence e Edward fazem uma retrospectiva pessoal das suas vivênc...more A acção principal decorre em 1962, na noite de núpcias dos protagonistas, Florence e Edward, que é passada num hotel situado na Praia de Chesil, em Dorset, Inglaterra.
“Eles eram jovens, licenciados, ambos virgens naquela sua noite de núpcias, e viviam numa época em que uma conversa sobre dificuldades sexuais, que nunca é fácil, era simplesmente impossível.” – assim começa a narrativa de “Na Praia de Chesil”.
Nessa noite de núpcias, Florence e Edward fazem uma retrospectiva pessoal das suas vivências passadas, dominadas pelo amor que sentem um pelo outro, mas incapazes de consumarem o “acto sexual” por uma repulsa e aversão “doentia” por parte de Florence ou pela incompreensão emocional de Edward em relação à sua mulher.
Será que estes dois jovens virgens podem manter uma conversa sobre as dificuldades da sua sexualidade, dominados por uma educação e origens sociais antagónicas? No caso de Florence a presença dominante e dominadora da sua mãe, professora universitária em Oxford, tem uma postura rígida e intocável, incapaz “influenciar” positivamente o comportamento da sua filha. A mãe de Edward, com problemas mentais, que afectavam invariavelmente a vivência familiar da família, com destaque para o seu pai, que fruto dessa incapacidade desempenhava de uma forma abnegada as funções que deveriam ser executadas pela sua mulher nas tarefas domésticas. Duas vertentes comportamentais que incidem na forma como cada um interioriza os seus valores e as suas influências, numa diferenciação sociológica retratada em múltiplos factores, acentuando-se especificamente nas diferenças entre as preferências musicais de Florence (interprete de música clássica) e as de Edward (crítico de música rock and roll).
Ian McEwan utiliza os flash-backs de forma a contextualizar a narração da história e do relacionamento dos dois jovens, emocionalmente próximos nos sentimentos, mas distantes nos comportamentos, num livro repleto de emoções e tensões, num texto maravilhosamente dramático e triste, entre o amor e a repulsa ou entre o amor e a humilhação ou…
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Jul 02, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who want a short book for a school report.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Wow. Pretentious much? Actually, McEwan, don't answer that.

On Chesil Beach was highly praised by critics-- as, indeed, nearly all of Ian McEwan's books are. And I fear that it has gone to his head. Chesil fairly drips with self-satisfaction; it seems to be saying that novels about sex are either trashy or high art, and Chesil knows itself to be the latter.

Despite that fact that at any one moment I knew Edward and Florence's thoughts, feelings, and the state of their reproductive organs, I never...more

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Juliana Your review was very well-written, but I think they did love each other but weren't able to talk...Their inability to open up breeds misunderstanding...more
Sep 14, 2008 04:39am

The Wub, Gillian You exist in a completely different social context. That is one reason why you would have reacted differently in Edward and Florence´s situation. Hone...more
Nov 18, 2008 08:06am

Patrick I do not find it hard to believe that these people had no conception of sexuality. For example, we live in the 21 century and I for one never talk abo...more
Oct 12, 2010 12:06pm

May 08, 2012 Cecily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites, miscellaneous-fiction

This deceptively light novella describes the events of Florence and Edward’s disastrous honeymoon night in 1962, interspersed with details of their childhoods and courtship to suggest how those influenced what happened. It is clinical and understated from the start: “The wedding... had gone well” and the “weather... not perfect but entirely adequate” and continues in the bedroom with detailed descriptions of physical sensations of skin, muscle, and even individual hairs, “stroking... for more th...more This deceptively light novella describes the events of Florence and Edward’s disastrous honeymoon night in 1962, interspersed with details of their childhoods and courtship to suggest how those influenced what happened. It is clinical and understated from the start: “The wedding... had gone well” and the “weather... not perfect but entirely adequate” and continues in the bedroom with detailed descriptions of physical sensations of skin, muscle, and even individual hairs, “stroking... for more than one and a half minutes” (too precise).

Florence is “incapable of rudeness”, Edward “polite to a fault” and both are virgins and unable to discuss intimate things (“There were no words to name what had happened, there existed no shared language.”), leading to misunderstandings, lost opportunities and unexpected consequences. Edward is guided by duty. Florence is guided by guilt (though not being religious, she can’t get absolution) and has a “visceral dread” of sex, realising that “sex with Edward could not be the summation of her joy, but was the price she must pay for it”.

A major theme is destiny, which is perhaps the converse of missed opportunities. “They regarded themselves as too sophisticated to believe in destiny”, yet it was a belief in destiny that prompted Florence to form her quartet and they inferred the hand of destiny in the extreme improbability of their meeting, plus Edward wants to study and write about how powerful individuals can change destiny.

They are very different: Florence is a classical musician from a privileged academic city background, lacking in confidence except where music is concerned. Edward is quiet but (in the past) occasionally explosive, an historian from a rural “squalid family home” with a brain damaged mother. Both are used to leaving things unsaid: Florence is “adept at concealing her feelings from her family” and “lived in isolation within herself”, while Edward grew up in a family that colluded in his mother’s fantasy of a well-run household by not talking about it and secretly chose a London university instead of Oxford as part of “his sense of a concealed life”. Their musical tastes are fundamentally incompatible (though they try), yet for Florence music is her “path to pleasure”, rather than physical intimacy.

Although Edward’s family home was chaotic and somewhat repressed, it was loving. He enjoys the “exotic opulence” of Florence’s home and although not a social climber, “his desire for Florence was inseparable from the setting”. Florence was raised by nannies, and her mother is uninterested in her, tone deaf and “had barely ever touched her daughter”. Her relationship with her father is more subtle, but perhaps more troubling. Sometimes she found him “physically repellent” and sometimes she’d hug and kiss him, and loather herself for it; she even jokes about marrying him. Although “he never touched her... in Edward’s sight”, they were “intensely aware of each other” (he did hug her sister), and took overnight trips alone together, even sharing a room on the boat. At times she feels more like the parent or child of Edward rather than his girlfriend or wife.

There is plenty of see-sawing in the book: the ebb and flow of desire; who to blame for what goes wrong (both in the minds of the characters and the readers); Florence’s feelings about her father and whether or not she thinks there is something wrong with Edward or herself.

The story, and especially the ending, would be implausible nowadays, but fits the characters and the period. The fact that Edward “fell away from history to live snugly in the present” seems entirely appropriate.

It is a raw and painful book in places, all the more ironic given that it is set in the allegedly “swinging 60” (with additional irony from the fact that Florence takes Edward’s cherry – but only at dinner).

It is interesting to compare this with Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...) and Lynne Reid Banks' The L Shaped Room (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...), both of which were written in the 60s, about the 60s, and feature a woman struggling with sexual intimacy, against the zeitgeist of the swinging 60s. Also, Julian Barnes' 1986 novel, Staring at the Sun (review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...), has similarly poignant anxiety about sex, though it takes a more humorous angle. (less)

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May 10, 2008 Camille Tassos rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Camille by: Jordan Anderson

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What an amazing conversational piece. What is the biggest mistake made in young relationships? Lack of Communication. The fear of trying to make someone understand what you yourself do not even understand. It is a language that has yet to be invented. Even when you try to explain with premium reason and conviction, your best efforts can be so easily misunderstood. Emotions become taciturn. It's hard to be blunt and to expect another to feel unscathed by the slightest blade that sliced a bit deep...more What an amazing conversational piece. What is the biggest mistake made in young relationships? Lack of Communication. The fear of trying to make someone understand what you yourself do not even understand. It is a language that has yet to be invented. Even when you try to explain with premium reason and conviction, your best efforts can be so easily misunderstood. Emotions become taciturn. It's hard to be blunt and to expect another to feel unscathed by the slightest blade that sliced a bit deeper than your usual, touch. Both men and women have a sensitive nature. Different, but equally as sensitive.
While I am definitely not a frigid wife, I do consider myself as being "guarded". I will do anything to make my husband happy and I love having sex with him, but there are still some things that scare me and make me nervous to even think about. I picture myself in Florence's light blue leather heels at that moment. I remember mulling up the confidence... and poise... to ask my husband about these supposed or assumed fantasies one night. I was of the mind that all men were desperate to conquer new land. Even worse was the thought that my husband had tread on that land before and would become aggravated if I, his wife, did not allow him the pleasure to conquer as he desired. Even as I asked the clumsy question, I had made up my mind that I would oblige his every fantasy and desire. The answer, "NO," was out of the question. The point is that I asked.
At the same time I felt like Edward about to explode inside his grey trousers. Marriage was the answer to his freedom from childhood and virginity. The answer to his feeling of nonexistence. It was the border that he had to cross that led to the promise of his future. While we all may like to think that this happened in another time and another world far from our own, it just isn't true. Florence and Edward were a part of the London Revolution in the late sixties. A revolution which spurred the freedom of sex. In many ways, we are still heaving the load of that revolution on our shoulders and the changes that it caused are a large part of who we are today. It has been an evolution in understanding the differences and similarities between a man and a woman and acknowledging their shared sexual and emotional needs.
I believe that I would have been tolerable of a man who could not fulfill his role on our wedding night, but that calmness and courage would have only arrived through my knowledge of the male anatomy, which I learned in my 6th grade health class and moreover, from the reliance and faith that I held in our relationship. When Florence gained the confidence to "guide" Edward, as she had been instructed in her book, she had absolutely no deliberation as to what would occur by her touch. Since Florence had never felt the slightest sense of sexual excitement within herself before this evening, it is supposed that she would have had no idea as to the manner in which she was provoking Edward and how it caused him such pleasure. Pleasure that she did not understand. Pleasure that she considered, or rather "recalled" as shameful and disgusting.
I believe that Florence was sexually abused by her father during their "father-daughter" excursions and that she forced a subconscious block on those memories from her childhood. This is the reason that she was so repulsed by the thought of any sexual acts and also why she had such mixed feelings toward her father. The author mentioned that while at one moment Florence abhorred her father and despised his being, the next moment she would cuddle to his broad chest and kiss his bald head with reassurance. While lodging with the Ponting family, Edward, himself became conflicted with the relationship between Florence and her father. Although it is never mentioned in the afterthoughts of their marriage, it is suggested that Edward pondered the thought that Mr. Ponting might be losing more than just a daughter by their marriage.
Although it was only mentioned for a second, my favorite part of the book was when Florence clearly acknowledged her sexuality and hope that she could feel more pleasure and excitement as she had so briefly when Edward scanned her stray pubic hair with his thumb. After Edward removed her underwear and decided to undress and prepare himself rather than concentrate on the feminine body that lay before him, Florence became aware of the fact that she too had needs to be met. So unlike her character, Florence even wished at that moment that Edward's hand could linger in her pelvic region and suggest the notion of satisfaction and pleasure in her future.
I thought that the end of the book was miserable, but all in all, it was a lesson well taught. Communication, even as unfiltered, baffling and perplexing as it may sound coming from the mouth of another, is the key to happiness in any relationship. I think that the theme of the book was that "they were almost there." (Ok, Edward got there, "arriving too soon.") With just an ounce more of communication, I felt as if their problems would have been solved and that Edward and Florence would have lived happily ever after. Florence definitely needed a "psychoanalyst" to overcome her father's abuse and subsequent repulsion for sex. Edward needed patience and maturity. Unfortunately the two go hand-in-hand.
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May 14, 2008 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Ian McEwanites, fans of historical fiction

This was great. I'm torn on giving it five stars or no...it was just so short. Five stars to me is like, "masterpiece" material....but I've broken that rule before...anyway,

This is the story of a couple on their wedding night. This tale basically illustrates what brings people to a certain point in their lives. Each moment that we live is a culmination of factors that have influenced us from our family life, our social class, our place in history, our religious upbringing or lack of it. The way...more

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Dec 28, 2007 Kelly rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: self-absorbed waspy bourgeois

Shelves: 2007, drama

OK, seriously, Ian McEwan, you wrote Saturday. Saturday! You wrote f*ing Saturday! With its introspection and good and evil and everyday life and drama and mundane-ness and life and death and brain surgery and racquetball all wrapped up together in one ponderous experience of a book.

So, Ian McEwan, what the hell is this crap???

It could have been good -- it was a promising premise. If only your characters hadn't been completely despicable, pathetic, mean creatures. I just want to find these two p...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Sergey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, fiction, read_in_english

I say, to embark on a journey with an author previously unfamiliar to me should be, for the most part, an interesting voyage. How thundering a disappointment when such proves not to be the case. On Chesil Beach, my introduction to Ian McEwan, is beautifully written; the imaginative, florid prose sticks to the brain waves and rides along a melodic note. The writing struck me at first, but that is the best I can say about this novel. It had premise that felt unfulfilled towards the end. So much ro...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Maciek rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, disappointments, own-in-paperback, read-in-2009, booker-long-and-shortlist

The following situation took place somewhere in an English pub.

-Say lad, you know the newest joke?
-No mate, bring it on.
-So there's this guy and this girl and they're having sex. Aftwerwards she turns over to her side and begins to speculate: "he was so silent today, I must have put on some pounds, or maybe it's that witch from the second floor, yes it must be that witch and her long, red hair, that damn hair I knew I should have dyed mine, it turns him on when I wear red, bla bla bli bli bla......more

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Nov 22, 2012 Dougal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

I think this is a stunning book. It is simple and short, and its message is simple too. It beautifully captures the confused feelings between two people as they meet and fall in love and, through them, casts a light on the unique times of sexual liberation (or not) of the third quarter of the 20th century. I am sure that many people who were caught up in love during this period will find much to relate to.

Ian McEwan and I are effectively contemporaries; he was born in 1948, I in 1955. His descri...more

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Dec 18, 2007 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone who's thinking about falling in love

Shelves: novels

Brilliant dissection of inhibition somewhat ruined by a canter through the couple's later years which is squashed into about three pages at the back and then only focuses on him, when surely it was her who was more interesting, from a case study point of view.
Don't know if any other pop music geek already pointed this out - probably did - but it contains a major hostorical gaffe which amused and annoyed me - in 1962 the guy is playing his classical-music-loving fiancee Beatles and Stones recor...more

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Apr 30, 2008 Yulia rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: enjoyably-awful

Again, a book so bad, it's almost enjoyable to read.

To get at the heart of its absurdity, I'd have to do a line-reading, breaking it down word by word. But on a general note, McEwan explores the intricacies of a honeymoon night gone awry because he wants us to see meaning in *every* small detail he provides us. He wants it to be so excruciatingly significant and pungent and accurate and insightful, when he couldn't be more of a foreigner to the human experience. Or if he does know humanity, he...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, europe-and-british-isles, four-star-fiction, domestic-and-relationship-fiction

Well, that was about the biggest helping of blues porridge I've eaten in a long time.

I don't normally like Ian McEwan much, but this one had all the right elements. I especially liked the way he went back into their early lives to show how they were almost doomed to fail at communication and intimacy.
I have to add that I also found a delightful bit of humor early in the book, when Florence was all worked up in her mind about "penetration" and "entering." I was giggling at her silly obsession wi...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Tanuj Solanki rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-book, britain, booker

I approached the novel with tentativeness, enticed by its easy length and haunted by the previous experience with the author. I guarded myself against the smoothness of Ian McEwan's prose (Yes, I know, I've called it 'belaboured' before), letting the tension work on me instead - tension which was, surprisingly, potent and consistent. This tension is the thing, I now understand, that was totally absent from my earlier McEwan: 'Amsterdam'

Perhaps I should rectify myself after having had greater exp...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Jan Rice rated it 3 of 5 stars

A relatively short book, 203 pages, four audio CDs (which I had from the library). I'll say three stars, for the writing, but for McEwan it was back to the something that goes wrong and screws up everything. Such a waste. It was my last McEwan. Cautionary tales, maybe, but since often something that can't be helped, what good does the precaution do? I think we all know quite enough about that, anyway, so I want a modicum of redemption in my books, please. And ~~second~~ third chances!

Hey, it's not...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Margot rated it 1 of 5 stars

If Ian McEwan was not written on the front page, I would hardly believe that it is one of his novels. I didn't read one of his books since almost one year and a half and On Chesil Beach was on the "Recommanded" list of my bookstore so I decided to give it a try. Actually it has been a huge torture to finish that book.

Of course, Ian McEwan's writing is still really beautiful. He knows how to write but the story doesn't go anywhere and the characters are uninteresting, and the opposite of deep. T...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Angie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On reflection, I am giving this book 5 stars. I have thought about it a lot since finishing it and I think its a great piece of writing.

Ah, what a sad but incredibly lovely read this was. Imagine the utmost British reserve, twined with the era in which this is set: very early 1960's, maddeningly close but fractionally before the explosion of free love and flower power.

For Florence and Edward, the young newly weds, this story is beautifully unwrapped in sparse yet rich prose as two individuals,...more On reflection, I am giving this book 5 stars. I have thought about it a lot since finishing it and I think its a great piece of writing.

Ah, what a sad but incredibly lovely read this was. Imagine the utmost British reserve, twined with the era in which this is set: very early 1960's, maddeningly close but fractionally before the explosion of free love and flower power.

For Florence and Edward, the young newly weds, this story is beautifully unwrapped in sparse yet rich prose as two individuals, both of rather eccentric upbringings, who come together in an assumption of love, yet due to their backgrounds and inward reserve, have a tortured passage towards their union as husband and wife.

The description of both made me almost feel that they had been hugely unlucky to be born in that exact time as they so narrowly missed out on a wave of open love which might have knocked them off their feet and carried them along with a force they both naturally lack due to their reserve, shyness, sense of duty, call it what you will, utterly tragic and with dire consequences.

Both characters' parents are brought into the mix, perhaps to show that their eccentricities were partly responsible for producing children who were painfully aware of their sexuality but unable to realise what they should and could be capable of in a free and loving environment, simply because they had never been shown or told that this sort of love is natural and wonderful. The novel, although short, truly conveys the distinct possibility that one's actions can have a lifelong effect on us.

In terms of writing, I felt that Ian McEwan really was a brilliantly beautiful writer of this tale and really conveyed such a sense of awakening in both characters - see below:

'For the first time, her love for Edward was associated with a definable physical sensation, as irrefutable as vertigo. Before, she had known only a comforting broth of warm emotions,a thick winter blanket of kindness and trust. That had always seemed enough, an achievement in itself. Now here at last were the beginnings of desire, precise and alien, but clearly her own: and beyond, as though suspended above and behind her, just out of sight, was relief that she was just like everyone else.'

Just enough detail in their day to day lives but it really sprang into life in his descriptions of their feelings and natural make-up and how they were discovering more about themselves and each other day by day. Ultimately, what Florence discovers about herself and how this manifests itself in her new marriage has major consequences for both. I was very moved by this short read and the final passages were so well written that I wont forget them for a long time. (less)

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Oct 09, 2008 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Frank by: fnance@comcast.net

Shelves: personal-classics

This is my second of what will be many more Ian McEwan novels. While a bit challenging to read (taking some "love and patience" that the characters lacked), when you learn the style you have the confidence that this is not a mere author at work, but a composer. More than words, the author orchestrates the words into something more than a story. McEwan again constructs characters that are deeply rich.

On Chesil Beach tells the story of what should have been a blessed day in the young lives of newl...more

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Jul 15, 2008 Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008books, favorites

"On Chesil Beach" is a tight, tiny gem of a book. Almost a novella, the writing is so precise and evocative and meaningful that it takes virtually no time to read at all. I read "Atonement," also by Ian McEwan, a few years ago and enjoyed it very much; the same dark perspective on human relations and keen insight into behavior and the inner life is at work here. The book is "just" a study of a young couple’s wedding night in England, 1962. We learn about bride and groom in turn, peering briefly...more "On Chesil Beach" is a tight, tiny gem of a book. Almost a novella, the writing is so precise and evocative and meaningful that it takes virtually no time to read at all. I read "Atonement," also by Ian McEwan, a few years ago and enjoyed it very much; the same dark perspective on human relations and keen insight into behavior and the inner life is at work here. The book is "just" a study of a young couple’s wedding night in England, 1962. We learn about bride and groom in turn, peering briefly but pointedly into each family, assembling just enough pieces to understand and appreciate the inevitability of the book’s tragedy. The plot’s not central here – though the final chapter I found as suspenseful and gripping as anything I’ve read recently – rather, the careful observations of two characters at an intersection in their lives, at a time of intersection and change in the world, create all the drama and tragedy one could ask for.

The power of language, naming, and words takes on huge importance in the book, and interestingly enough, that power is a force for good and ill, but mostly ill. So often the "power of language" takes on a heroic role in contemporary fiction (one would expect contemporary writers to place such an importance on their stock in trade), yet in "On Chesil Beach" most of the labels and names and many singular words have terrible consequences. Fascinating, surely, to see the power of language to destroy and damage instead of elevate and enlighten or redeem. In fairness, it is often the lack of appropriate words that bring about disaster: “...there existed no shared language in which two sane adults could describe such events to each other” (169-170). But at the same time, plenty of words, especially labels, do enormous harm in the course of the text.

Ultimately "On Chesil Beach" is an absolutely beautiful book: emotional, truthful, and as rigorous in its writing as poetry. Truly, no paragraph, sentence, or even word goes to waste. The meticulous descriptions of the main characters' interactions took me aback – I felt huge sympathy and sadness for Edward and Florence, and absolutely understood all their actions and missteps. These felt like utterly real people, in a completely real situation, saying and doing the things I could imagine myself doing and saying in just such a scenario. It was uncanny, flawless, and truly impressive.(less)

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Oct 17, 2007 C(h)ristine rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book I’ve ever read by McEwan. And I am in love–he is a master of his craft! I found myself poring over his command of writing–the way he can tackle things that I am so afraid to tackle in my writing, with such confidence and ease and brilliance. This book, for instance, is full of flashbacks, something I think is incredibly difficult to pull off and something I think most writers should refrain from writing. McEwan flips back and forth through time, providing readers with back...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
What's The Name o...: 1950's, honeymoon, island, wedding night jitters [s]	4	19	Apr 01, 2013 04:57pm
randomness or the way we intend things to go	9	116	Aug 02, 2012 12:43pm
Constant Reader	81	124	Apr 02, 2012 07:38am

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