Saturday, August 1, 2009

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Florence and Edward are newlyweds who are vastly different people who have only known each other for around one year. Each of them has insecurities about consummating the marriage, but neither address the elephant in the room. McEwan switches back and forth between Florence and Edward and what each of them is thinking. The year is 1962, but even that knowledge didn’t stop me from wanting to shout JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER. They both obviously need to know how to communicate and what being a mature adult really consists of. It was a rather fast read and fascinating to see how their lives snowballed from the sheer fact that they did not speak up.

Other interesting things of note are Florence’s total disgust for sex. Which the writer infers has to do with her upbringing with a very rigid mother and a non-affectionate father. It also was very interesting how much Florence and Edward tried to be pleasant and agreeable instead of facing ‘adult’ decisions and conversations.

I actually finished this McEwan novel, so I suppose that’s a plus! Not a lot of dialogue and a whole lot of description. It was all right.

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