On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

...inevitable task that lies ahead on their wedding night in July 1962. They know what is expected, but not how it will happen. Florence has bought a manual to explain everything, but it's only served to further repulse her. Being the early sixties, no one talks about sex and the couple is unable to be open with each other. Florence is deeply in love with Edward and wants to please him, but the idea of consummating their marriage sickens her. Florence ...
...days absorbed in fantasy, working on numerous projects that never get completed. His father struggles to run the house whilst working as a headmaster at the local school, so the house is inevitably neglected. In contrast, Florence's mother is an Oxford don married to a businessman and she's grown up with money and luxury. Both Edward and Florence feel dislocated from their families and flourish upon finding each other. However, there are underlying ...

DoubleFantasy11 13.02.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

...been waiting for long, treading on the eggshells of sexual hypocrisy and individual sensitivity, led by her coy pretence of sensuality, with his perceptions coloured by his own desire. It's Florence's hangups that lie at the root of the ensuing disaster: she's not just scared of sex, she finds it physically repulsive, invasive, unbearable: her whole body (as well as mind and spirit) recoil at the notion of 'being penetrated' and the stilted and somehow ...
...might be tempted to speculate on how their personal histories and social backgrounds led each of them to this point on the Dorset beach, and whether there was a largely pre-determined inevitability to what happened and ensued, or whether is was a result of a momentary decision made by one or both of them, understandable in the context of their personalities and the mores of the time, but ultimately not inevitable until it actually happened. What ...

magdadh 03.05.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

...there is a credibility gap between their love and the fact that their inexperience could have such a devastating effect on their marriage. It left me wondering about this for a long time and that I feel this is the best possible accolade for a fine book. ...

wellness5 07.04.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

...wrong. And so it goes on and on and on...until the marriage which was never consumed is instantly over. Of course, even in the most sexually permissive era, there will be shy people, who have somehow never had the means or opportunity to become deflowered, but if this was such a massive stumbling block to sexual success, many of us would never now have been born. Our parents managed somehow and I know nobody who would consider a marriage over, simply ...

maklhouf 25.10.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

McEwan is a master storyteller and he doesn't often disappoint but I did feel this this was less ambitious than his other works. Subtle it may be, but its brevity and the limiting ending makes it less enduring than his other novels. Part of the issue is its small scope - whilst this is a hugely interesting character study, it felt claustrophobic. I did like the way it dealt with the interesting issue of sexual desire, and there is something quite brave about a novel which explores sex from two sides - as something negative and depraved, as well as something natural and exciting. I did feel for the characters, both of them, but I can't help wishing the ending had been a little darker. ...

janeite 07.07.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

i was expecting something with as much vigor and captivating as atonement but, this novel was left me hanging on a wim. maybe i just had higher expectations for it. it was written well, and had a nice plot that gradually built up....but then it dissolved, and it felt like everything went down hill from there. that could have been the point, i guess this just wasn't my style, as in mcewan's previous novel. ...

jenerationx 18.07.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

...novel progresses. The story focuses on one night, the night of a young couple's wedding and we learn of their worries and apprehension before the consumation of their marriage. I ended up wishing that they would just get on with it and finally grew bored of the characters. In my opinion this book was attempting to be intellectual and in doing so it lost it's purpose. ...

LauraMurphy 16.06.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan