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Loading... Chesil beach (original 2007; edition 2009)by Ian McEwan
Work InformationOn Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (2007)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Ouch! ( ) I’d not read a McEwan for ages and ages, but used to be a big fan. These notes may be a little harsh, and, if so, that’s probably due, as it is so often, to disappointed expectations. On Chesil Beach reads a bit like “Essence of McEwan”. As if he's just dispatched with plot and is just relying on his forensic dissection of human interactions — the disparity between what people say, what they mean to say, and how what they say is heard. The plot, mostly just the mundanities that happened to align to make the moment of crisis quite so critical, is as barebones as is possible to give some foundation for the misunderstandings, the things unsaid, and the things badly said. I preferred it when McEwan's toolbag was utilised in service of a plot, not the other way round. It may be that such a pared down approach could have worked, but the situation seemed pretty contrived (sure, such things must have happened, but vastly more people going through them managed to work it out one way or another). The temporal setting, on the edge of a new age of sexual openness in the early 60s, is certainly fascinating and fertile ground for examining human relationships, but I don’t feel that McEwan has managed to produce anything of any particular relevance here.
On Chesil Beach is brief and carefully plotted, the writing is measured, the tone of voice is forgiving and nostalgic. In other words, it is a fine example of emotion recollected in tranquillity. Even so, I couldn't help regretting the fun McEwan might have had with these sad fumbling innocents when he was younger, less mellow, and a great deal less forbearing. After two big, ambitious novels — “Atonement” and “Saturday” — Ian McEwan has inexplicably produced a small, sullen, unsatisfying story that possesses none of those earlier books’ emotional wisdom, narrative scope or lovely specificity of detail. Sans fard, Ian McEwan décrit cette jeunesse encore prisonnière de ses convenances, méconnaissant tout des relations sexuelles et de la vie de couple, mariés seulement après quelques flirts pudiques. Cette première nuit d'intimité détermine leur vie entière, leur engagement alors définitif. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Literature.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:BONUS FEATURE: Exclusive interview with the author! A novel of remarkable depth and poignancy from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time It is July 1962. Florence is a talented musician who dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with Edward, an earnest young history student at University College of London, who unexpectedly wooed and won her heart. Newly married that morning, both virgins, Edward and Florence arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their worries about the wedding night to come. Edward, eager for rapture, frets over Florenceâ??s response to his advances and nurses a private fear of failure, while Florenceâ??s anxieties run deeper: she is overcome by sheer disgust at the idea of physical contact, but dreads disappointing her husband when they finally lie down together in the honeymoon suite. Ian McEwan has caught with understanding and compassion the innocence of Edward and Florence at a time when marriage was presumed to be the outward sign of maturity and independence. On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from McEwanâ??a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word no No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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