Issue 155

Book of the Month: On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan)

14th May 2007

McEwan's latest offering should probably be classified as a novella, being 176 brief pages long. Like many of McEwan's previous novels, it focuses on one single moment in a day which then affects the entire story.

It is the year 1962 and the protagonists are Florence, a talented young violinist from a rich family and Edward, a first-class honours history graduate from University College London whose mother suffered brain damage in a tragic accident when he was a boy.

The couple have been married that day and are now embarking on their honeymoon at a hotel on Chesil Beach in Dorset. They have had a romantic but innocent courtship and are anxiously anticipating the expectations of the other on their wedding night but whilst Edward merely feels first-time nerves, Florence considers the imminent events with repulsion. A brief moment of misunderstanding and embarrassment, described in excruciating detail, changes everything.

McEwan is back on form here, although his tone is notably different from that of his previous novel, the dark and disturbing Saturday.

This is a focused and moving love story, wrought with emotion and sensuously crafted language, by a writer at the very top of his game.

Kate Fletcher