"On Chesil Beach"

Ian McEwan is an amazing writer, but my own taste causes me to very much like some of his novels while feeling less enthusiastic about others. The ones I have most liked and admired have been "Atonement" and "Saturday." I didn't like "Amsterdam" or "Solar" (see my 4/17/10 post) as much. The ones I prefer focus on relationships and psychology. I have now just listened to the audio version of "On Chesil Beach" (Random House, 2007; Books on Tape, 2007) and was completely drawn into the small, tightly focused, precisely told, and emotionally intense world that McEwan has created in this short novel. The book tells the story of the wedding night of a very young (very early 20s), very sexually inexperienced newly-married couple in 1962 in England. Edward is enthusiastically if anxiously looking forward to the first consummation of their relationship, while Florence dreads it, finding the idea completely repulsive. Because sex was so seldom openly and explicitly talked about during these pre-sexual revolution days (as we know, the real "Sixties" of "sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll" started late in the decade and continued into the 70s), she has not been able to tell Edward beforehand of her revulsion. Although they truly love each other and are compatible in many ways (we learn about their backgrounds and the progress of their courtship in flashbacks), sexuality is an area where they completely misunderstand each other and are completely mismatched. The minute by minute recounting of their attempted sexual connection, and of their tense conversation afterward on the beach outside their honeymoon hotel, is excruciatingly painful, embarrassing, and heartbreaking. The novel demonstrates so much about lack of communication even between those who love each other. It also shows how one event, one word or lack of a word, can change a person's whole life. This is an absolutely compelling, beautifully distilled short novel; I highly recommend it. A bonus to the audio version is a thoughtful and informative interview with the author following the reading of the novel.