On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
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Book Reviews of On Chesil Beach
Book Review: Don't Let Your Hubris Be Your Hamartia
Summary: 4 Stars
This book says: Your life can change in one moment. One bad decision, one hour of inflated pride or of deflated self-confidence, and your way may be lost, your course derailed, and you may not be smart enough or brave enough to fix it when you should.
This book is poetic, brief, heart-wrenching. You will read it overnight.
McEwan's seamless movement through time - taking you from Point A (a second-by-millisecond play-by-play of the couples first and foiled attempt at making love) to Point B (a condensed reflection on the monotony of their regular and separate lives, two decades later) - accentuates the way memories of some painful, scary, awkward, unprecedented seconds (spent trying to navigate romance, sex, and love) last a lifetime, while the memories of the years between such episodes (spent naviating the more predictable terrain of career changes, aging, and self-improvement) blur together and dissolve, lose their shape and form, are boiled down into resumes instead of love letters.
This book says: Don't let pride, fear, or practicality ruin your shot at true love. Just. Don't. Do. It.
Book Review: Brilliant writing on the cusp of the 1960's sexual revolution,
Summary: 4 Stars
On the surface this is an account of a couple's first night of their honeymoon. McEwan brilliantly evokes the period, 1962, from the dinner in their honeymoon suite served by two Dorset young boys to the tensions building up to their first sexual emcounter. Edward and Florence both have very differnet reasons for being apprehensive and not surprisingly it is a ...! McEwan, elaborates on the background to their relationship whilst continuing the narrative in the present. Ths short novel was beautifully paced and voiced but I was left feeling that all too often writers choose difficult and negative subject matter, much like in McEwan's Saturday and most notably in Cormac McCarthy's The Road and it would be refreshing if these gifted writers wrote on something with more humour and joie de vivre. Nevertheless, the reader does get a wondreful perspective of the the conservative sexual repression which was still very much the norm on the cusp of the sexually liberating attitudes which had taken over ten years later.Book Review: What love is
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a short, simple story about a couple and their short-lived marriage. Florence Ponting wanted a husband, or rather, she wanted marriage, but she couldn't stand the sex that comes with it. So this simple narrative makes the reader ponder long and deep about what marriage and love are all about. The author hinted that it's about patience. Is it really? Do we understand what we say when we talk about love? And what is its connection with marriage? Can love be physical attraction; or a meeting of minds or the cohesion of values; or companionship? It may, perhaps, merely be an aspect of narcissism. We say we "love" someone when in fact we merely find that there are attributes about that other that pleases us. That's all there is to it. The more that person pleases us, the more we think we are in love with that person. Narcissism.Book Review: Not his best, not his worst.
Summary: 4 Stars
While this novel is far and away better than Amsterdam, it doesn't compare with his best novels, like Atonement and Enduring Love. On Chesil Beach is a minor, well written novel, with the pacing and characterization you'd expect from McEwan. One of the things I liked about Chesil Beach was the fact that for the most part it was a very un-sentimental book, until the last five or so pages, which had enough sentimentality for the entire novel. While it may not leave you feeling blown away like Atonement, Enduring Love, or (at least for me) The Cement Garden, On Chesil Beach is a good read for a fan of McEwan. If your new to him this isn't the book I would pick up, but it's certainly worth your time. It's short, powerful, and to the point. It may fall short of greatness, but it's very good.Book Review: HOPELESS, BUT INTERESTING
Summary: 4 Stars
Not wishing to be repetitive and parroting other reviewers, McEwan is an excellent writer but why he wasted time on this disasterous relationship and honeymoon is a mystery to me. Both protagonists are good people, probably too nice, plus intelligent and caring; in real life they would have got it together, at least through the honeymoon phase. Maybe they should read more "how-to-do" books or discussed the Kama Sutra in some seedy motel, or taken on lovers before the wedding. The dialogue is medicore but the descriptive characterizations of the proposed lovers is beautiful and well-written. Another part of this, I suppose I read for entertainment and wanted a satisfying ending. Just a good read - not the best for me.