On Chesil Beach
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| On Chesil Beach | |
 Cover of UK hardback |
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| Author | Ian McEwan |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Publication date | 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 166 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0224081187 |
On Chesil Beach (ISBN 0385522401) is a 2007 novel by the Booker Prize-winning British writer Ian McEwan. An extract is available from The New Yorker in its January 1, 2007, double issue. The novel was selected for the 2007 Booker Prize shortlist.
The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Jonathan Yardley placed On Chesil Beach on his top ten for 2007 and praises its author: "McEwan's fiction just gets better and better, and even when he's in a minor mode, as he is here, he is nothing short of amazing." [1] Fellow Washington Post book critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda also cites it as a favourite 2007 read: "Excellent novel of lost opportunities and sex (or lack of) in the pre-sex revolution '60s. Think partly of Larkin's famous poem!" [2]
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[edit] Plot summary
In July, 1962, Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting, young people of drastically different backgrounds (he's the son of a schoolmaster and a brain-damaged woman, whereas she is the artistically inclined daughter of a wealthy industrialist and an Oxford lecturer), have just been married and are spending their honeymoon in a small hotel on the Dorset seashore. (See Chesil Beach.)
During the course of an evening, both reflect upon their upbringing and their fears of the future. Edward is prone to fits of violence and Florence is terrified of sexual intimacy: eventually this leads to a confrontation that will change their relationship irrevocably.
The novel focuses upon the couple's woeful lack of sexual knowledge and experience. Britain of the 1950s is evoked wonderfully, from the description of the couple's dinner at the hotel, to the girl's fears of the sex act itself.
[edit] Controversy
In a BBC Radio 4 interview, McEwan admitted to taking a few pebbles from Chesil Beach and keeping them on his desk while he wrote the novel. Protests by conservationists and a threat by Weymouth and Portland borough council to fine him £2,000 led the author to return the pebbles. "I was not aware of having committed a crime," he said. "Chesil Beach is beautiful and I'm delighted to return the shingle to it."[1]
[edit] External links
- An excerpt of the book in The New Yorker
- A review in The Economist
- The On Chesil Beach section of McEwan's website
- A review by Ted Gioia, Blogcritics
- A review by Tim Adams in The Observer of March 25, 2007.
[edit] References
- ^ Maev Kennedy in The Guardian, Friday, 6 April 2007
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