On Chesil Beach- Ian McEwan

On Chesil Beach is a short novel, telling the story of two young lovers whose lives are transformed on their wedding night by words not said and gestures not made. McEwan wrote the novel with the intention that it could be read over three hours and therefore be recollected in "real time", as the events take place in a brief yet significant evening. The novel is set in pre-libertarian 1962, occcasionally described as the year before sex was invented, which would explain the statement in the opening sentence that "they lived in a time when conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible."

Edward and Florence retire to their honeymoon suite overlooking Chesil beach, part of the Dorset coastline, and immediately both become victim to convention by believing that sex on their wedding night is obligatory, despite their strong inclination against doing so. By continuously switching between the two characters McEwan effectively creates a sense of dramatic irony as the two halves of the newly wed couple believe they are alone and powerless, when in fact the feeling of unease is mutual.

In an article written in the New York Times by Jonathon Lethem, McEwan's writing style is described as "microscopic" and his vocabulary as "forensic". By using scientific language to describe McEwan's style Lethem is portraying On Chesil Beach as carefully studied, each word with it's own place and each sentence with an important meaning. This is an accurate portrayal of On Chesil Beach because it's pithy nature is what sets it apart from other loves stories I have read.

The Observer review interestingly writes that McEwan details "the chance of Florence and Edward's meeting, and the little mythologies they had established with each other to make love seem like fate." In writing this, the reviewer is suggesting that although McEwan has led the reader to believe that the love they share is a consequence of fate, love at first sight and generally meant to be, it is in fact all a creation by the characters themselves. Therefore perhaps the novel is expressing the innefficiency of believing in such ideals as fate in terms of love.

Ian McEwan is often described as a modern literary legend and this was his first book I have read. Next I am going to read perhaps his most infamous and classical love story, once described by McEwan himself as his "Jane Austen novel"; Atonement. It will be interesting comparing the writing style in both and generally looking for similarlities and differences between the texts.