On Chesil Beach

On Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan

On Chesil Beach
List Price: $13.95
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Buy On Chesil Beach at Amazon.com
(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Ian McEwan
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-10
ISBN: 0307386171
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Anchor
Product features:

Book Reviews of On Chesil Beach

Book Review: It made me think for days...
Summary: 5 Stars

On Chesil Beach made me think for days of the poor souls who just couldn't quite complete their connection with each. About half way through the story, I was a little unsure of the path the book would take but at that defining moment my heart burned for them to figure each other out. The resulting frustration and inability to communicate ruined a future for these tragic souls. Her walk down the beach, alone, made me yearn for someone's action. For both of them 9C will always be empty, just like their hearts.

Summary of On Chesil Beach

In 1962, Florence and Edward celebrate their wedding in a hotel on the Dorset coast. Yet as they dine, the expectation of their marital duties weighs over them. And unbeknownst to both, the decisions they make this night will resonate throughout their lives. With exquisite prose, Ian McEwan creates in On Chesil Beach a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.
Such is Ian McEwan's genius that, despite rambling nature walks and the naming of birds, his subject matter remains hermetically sealed in the hearts of two people.

It is 1962 when Edward and Florence, 23 and 22 respectively, marry and repair to a hotel on the Dorset coast for their honeymoon. They are both virgins, both apprehensive about what's next and in Florence's case, utterly and blindly terrified and repelled by the little she knows. Through a tense dinner in their room, because Florence has decided that the weather is not fine enough to dine on the terrace, they are attended by two local boys acting as waiters. The cameo appearances of the boys and Edward and Florence's parents and siblings serve only to underline the emotional isolation of the two principals. Florence says of herself: "...she lacked some simple mental trick that everyone else had, a mechanism so ordinary that no one ever mentioned it, an immediate sensual connection to people and events, and to her own needs and desires...."

They are on the cusp of a rather ordinary marital undertaking in differing states of readiness, willingness and ardor. McEwan says: "Where he merely suffered conventional first-night nerves, she experienced a visceral dread, a helpless disgust as palpable as seasickness." Edward, having denied himself even the release of self-pleasuring for a week, in order to be tip-top for Florence, is mentally pawing the ground. His sensitivity keeps him from being obvious, but he is getting anxious. Florence, on the other hand, knows that she is not capable of the kind of arousal that will make any of this easy. She has held Edward off for a year, and now the reckoning is upon her.

McEwan is the master of the defining moment, that place and time when, once it has taken place, nothing will ever be the same after it. It does not go well and Florence flees the room. "As she understood it, there were no words to name what had happened, there existed no shared language in which two sane adults could describe such events to each other." Edward eventually follows her and they have a poignant and painful conversation where accusations are made, ugly things are said and roads are taken from which, in the case of these two, the way back cannot be found. Late in Edward's life he realizes: "Love and patience--if only he had them both at once--would surely have seen them both through." This beautifully told sad story could have been conceived and written only by Ian McEwan. --Valerie Ryan

McEwan, Ian Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in For JJ
The Aleph and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Aleph and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)
by Jorge Luis Borges
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-07-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Stranger (Everyman's Library) ImageThe Stranger (Everyman's Library)
by Albert Camus
Everyman's Library; Published: 1993-02-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops: $18.00
Memoirs of Hadrian ImageMemoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1963-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.74
On Chesil Beach ImageOn Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 2008-06-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.41
Price in other shops: $13.95
Atonement ImageAtonement
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 2007-11-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops: $14.95
Ham on Rye: A Novel ImageHam on Rye: A Novel
by Charles Bukowski
Ecco; Published: 2007-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.03
Price in other shops: $13.99
The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) ImageThe Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Jack Kerouac
Penguin Classics; Published: 2006-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.67
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel ImageThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage; Published: 1998-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.39
Price in other shops: $16.00
A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel ImageA Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage; Published: 2002-04-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel ImageThe Enchantress of Florence: A Novel
by Salman Rushdie
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2009-01-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops: $14.00
Similar Books and other products
The Cement Garden ImageThe Cement Garden
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 1994-01-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Comfort of Strangers ImageThe Comfort of Strangers
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 1994-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $12.95
Enduring Love: A Novel ImageEnduring Love: A Novel
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 1998-12-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Child in Time ImageThe Child in Time
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 1999-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.52
Price in other shops: $14.95
Amsterdam: A Novel ImageAmsterdam: A Novel
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 1999-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops: $13.95
Black Dogs ImageBlack Dogs
by Ian McEwan
Faber & Faber; Published: 1999-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.64
Price in other shops: $13.09
The Innocent: A Novel ImageThe Innocent: A Novel
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 1998-12-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $14.95
Divisadero ImageDivisadero
by Michael Ondaatje
Vintage International; Published: 2008-04-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $13.95
Saturday ImageSaturday
by Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 2006-04-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) ImageThe Gathering (Man Booker Prize)
by Anne Enright
Grove Press, Black Cat; Published: 2007-09-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops: $14.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories