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More reviews by Peter Gordon
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On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
ON CHESIL BEACH is a unremittingly depressing novel.
Florence and Edward "were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible." McEwan never leaves any doubt that the outcome of their wedding night will be disastrous. Their future lives stretch out rather like "Chesil Beach with its infinite shingle".
But how McEwan can write! Whether it's ambience ("Two youths in dinner jackets served them from a trolley parked outside in the corridor, and their comings and goings through what was generally known as the honeymoon suite made the waxed oak boards squeak comically against the silence. Proud and protective, Edward watched closely for any gesture or expression that might have seemed satirical") or an editorial aside slipped in between the lines of the narrative ("This was not a good moment in the history of English cuisine, but no one much minded at the time, except visitors from abroad"), one ends up knowing far more about Florence and Edward than is comfortable.
Oh yes, ON CHESIL BEACH is also about class, the sexual revolution of the 1960s, but mostly it is about how a missed opportunity, a missed word or gesture, can blight lives forever.
Peter Gordon
08/04/2007
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Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books. |
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