On Chesil Beach is a novel about many things: the British class system, changing morés, the slumber from which young people would awaken with the Beatles, the nature of love and the sexual expression of it. Yet it’s primarily a novel of masterful sentences that express (sometimes through spaces and silences) what the characters themselves are incapable of expressing. Kühl und mit einer Präzision, die ans Bösartige grenzt, verfolgt McEwan in dieser genialen Tragödie der Verkennungen, wie zwei Liebende einander immer wieder verfehlen, um Millimeter nur und am Ende endgültig." - Hubert Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung His father finally tells him about the accident that left her brain-damaged when he is fourteen, news that's not really news but still changes everything.

On Chesil Beach Summary | GradeSaver On Chesil Beach Summary | GradeSaver

On Chesil Beach is a 2007 novella by British writer Ian McEwan. In 2007, the book was included on the Booker Prize shortlist. The significant difference is that there was more afterstory than I remember. That didn't feel necessary, and in particular, the fact that in the film, Florence went on to have three children, starting very soon after the annulment of her marriage to Edward, totally changes the causes and consequences of what went wrong on their wedding night. What I love about McEwan is not just his penetrating analysis (sorry, couldn’t resist!), but also his ability to insert some humor into his story on occasion. On Chesil Beach is also heartbreaking, honest and perfectly told. Unshared fears, secrets, and wrong impressions can corrupt what on the surface seems simple and true. The old cliché that all you need is love is blown right out of the water. A shared life needs a much sturdier foundation.Early on we’re introduced to the idea of fate; Edward recently graduated university with a degree in history, and he had a theory that great people determined their destinies. This becomes an intriguing theme as we’re shown how the two met, and, if we dig deeper (as we’re meant to, with McEwan), see the links that perhaps drew them together. Edward has a bit of a temper, much like Florence’s wealthy industrialist father; and Edward’s mother, who suffered brain damage from a life-altering accident at a train station, is also something of a musician, like Florence (a violinist who dreams of being in a professional string quartet).

On Chesil Beach - Penguin Books UK

Mr McEwan, after this novel, Sir, I believe you have nothing else left to prove to the literary world. Thirteen years later, in 1975, a young girl enters the record shop that Edward now runs. He realises that she must be Florence's daughter, and he painfully reminisces about his lost love. Much later, in 2007, Edward, still single, overhears on the radio that Florence's quartet – including her husband – will be giving a farewell concert after 45 years of professional success. He attends and sits near the front of the audience. When their eyes meet, Edward and Florence shed silent tears.It is a raw and painful book in places, all the more ironic given that it is set in the allegedly “swinging 60s”. There is additional irony in the fact that Florence takes Edward’s cherry – but only at dinner (an image oddly missing from the film). In this confined living room, Edward and his wife, Florence, dine alone on the first floor of this Georgian-style Dorset inn. After the St Mary's Church ceremony in Oxford and the festive reception, the young couple offers a wedding night. What could be more beautiful and romantic than this suite in this inn, in front of the open French window, overlooking the Chesil beach with its pebbles as far as the eye can see? But, then, the four-poster bed and its pure white quilt are in the next room. This bed on which they would lie and the fruit of their first antics. But, each side dreads this moment and worries about what should happen now that the wedding had celebrated. McEwan wrote the screenplay, so it's not surprising it's faithful. It certainly brought home the message that their wedding night conversations should have happened long before they married.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan | Goodreads On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan | Goodreads

Reading this novel while observing the inexperienced love of two of my companions on this trip made it doubly moving, sweet and relevant. It also made it difficult and disconcerting when the two I furtively observed were my teenage daughter and her boyfriend. I filed away a lot of notes for future talks with my daughter about the importance of open communication in her relationships. It also further emphasized that our own discussions as mother and daughter are just as essential as I have believed them to be. So reich der schmale Roman an Beobachtungen, an Geschichten, an Beschreibungen gerade der immer wieder abstoppenden sexuellen Begegnungen der beiden ist (selten wurde ein Zungenkuss derart zum Abgewöhnen ausgenüchtert geschildert), so eng sind sie geführt. Wenn man diesem Schachtelalbtraum von einer Geschichte etwas vorwerfen kann, dann ist es -- neben der Kleinigkeit, dass McEwan sich im Epilog auf den psychologisch uninteressanteren Edward konzentriert -- ausgerechnet seine Meisterschaft: dass bis ins letzte Bild alles stimmt, dass noch die kleinste Subgeschichte ein Ziel hat, dass kaum Dunkelheiten bleiben. Wie ein wiedergefundenes Meisterwerk des Fin de siècle liest sich Am Strand" - Elmar Krekeler, Die Welt The situation is miniature and enormous, dire and pathetic, tender and irrevocable. McEwan treats it with a boundless sympathy, one that enlists the reader even as it disguises the fact that this seeming novel of manners is as fundamentally a horror novel as any McEwan’s written, one that carries with it a David Cronenberg sensitivity to what McEwan calls "the secret affair between disgust and joy. " (…) If On Chesil Beach is a horror novel, it is also as fundamentally a comedy, one with virtual Monty Python overtones" - Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review a b Jafaar, Ali (17 February 2016). "Saoirse Ronan Boards 'On Chesil Beach' For 'Carol' Producer Number 9 Films". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media . Retrieved 20 October 2016.

Edward has some sense of Florence's qualms, but he's so over-excited about finally getting this far that he doesn't pay enough attention.