Ath book club October 2008
Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach (RATING 3.5)
It is June 1962. In a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come. On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from Ian McEwan – a story about how the entire course of a life can be changed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.
Ath Book Club comments:
On Chesil Beach is an excellent book club book. The discussion was fierce – some of the members were very excited about this book whilst some others were bored to tears. The story is quite Shakespearean and very basic. A young couple, just married and about to spend their first night together as a man and wife. – It doesn’t sound very riveting, but McEwan is a master of words and he gets into the female mind as well as the male. McEwan also masters the art of writing of violence and incest without mentioning them at all.
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