Jason's review
On Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan
You should add a spoiler alert to this review.
Thanks for reminding me; the "spoiler" option wasn't available here at Goodreads when I first published this review.
I think you've missed the point. Any book can be summarized in such a matter of fact way. The beauty of this slim volume is in the reading of it,the emotional resonance it evokes. Sometimes in sex we meet our greatest disappointments, and these disappointments can reflect the way in which we approach our life, our own hang ups and those of the culture in which we live. Kudos to the author for packing so much in so little. If ever there was an example of the cliched: less is more, this novel is it.
I agree with James, Jason completely missed this one. McEwan's startling skill is how he gets the reader completely into the heads of his characters in a way that builds incredible empathy.
If you need plot, read Ludlum. Read McEwan for compelling characters and insight.
Jason's review
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Jason's review
rating:
** spoiler alert **
(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 literall...more
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 literall...more
You should add a spoiler alert to this review.
Thanks for reminding me; the "spoiler" option wasn't available here at Goodreads when I first published this review.
I think you've missed the point. Any book can be summarized in such a matter of fact way. The beauty of this slim volume is in the reading of it,the emotional resonance it evokes. Sometimes in sex we meet our greatest disappointments, and these disappointments can reflect the way in which we approach our life, our own hang ups and those of the culture in which we live. Kudos to the author for packing so much in so little. If ever there was an example of the cliched: less is more, this novel is it.
I agree with James, Jason completely missed this one. McEwan's startling skill is how he gets the reader completely into the heads of his characters in a way that builds incredible empathy.
If you need plot, read Ludlum. Read McEwan for compelling characters and insight.