[As handed in to
Mr. Brendan Lennon
Reading Instructor
Kingston College
Book Review Assignment]



Probably the most essential skill a talented writer could ever possess is the ability to transform simple situations into extraordinarily pitch-perfect flow of narrative. Ian McEwan is an incontestable possessor of that talent. Already praised as one of the finest and most gifted British novelists alive, he does not rest on his laurels but rather keep on producing first-class novels and persists to be a writer of prolific proportions. One of his works, Atonement, arguably McEwan’s best work as many people reckon, is not only one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read in my life but is also stylised with such sheer storytelling panache that conjures images and details so lifelike. This alone is a reason why I have decided to peruse more of McEwan’s books, more particularly his latest effort, the already bestselling, widely-acclaimed On Chesil Beach, which is recently shortlisted for Man Booker Prize . Here, in his new novel, he again delves into the scope of a doomed, tragic romance just like Atonement, but while Atonement is an epic study on the corrosive power of lies and betrayal and how they affect the lives of the affected individuals, On Chesil Beach is a more subdued yet equally intelligent attempt to define the pure honesty of human conditions in a life-changing situation. However, thematically, the latter is more maturely-themed than the former.



The setting of the story is the year 1962 in the coast of Dorset, where a young newlywed couple, Edward and Florence, spend their honeymoon in a hotel near Chesil Beach. It is on this plot that McEwan draws an accurate portrayal of the awkwardness of a wedding night. These two central characters of the tale comes from different backgrounds, he a working-class university graduate, she a middle-class violinist with strict, principled upbringing, whose histories, fears, ambitions, and philosophy then collide with each other in the bursting matter of sexual intercourse, with differences barely discovered before. He seeks and wishes for consummation while she does not want to be touched and is ‘revolted’ from his merely ‘arriving too soon’. From the anxiety wrought during the dinner in the table, to the embarrassment and tension of the bedroom scene, and to the clash of egos in the titular beach as an aftermath of the wrecked honeymoon – it is all brilliantly invoked by McEwan’s word-perfect precision and clarity. It is, in fact, also embarrassing to read as it tackles certain subject matters which might appeal as taboo to some, but a 166-page novella about the agitation of a wedding night, becomes a deeper and haunting emotional tale. The careful study of characters delves deeper into the human psyche and grasps the cause of their conflicts by putting them against the backdrop of the times to which they live, between the conservative 1950s and the sexually liberal 1960s.



Then McEwan writes in passionate white-heat, compressing the whole stretch of the lives of the two characters after the ruinous wedding night into a tightly-written space of the last two chapters. Nevertheless, his prose remains graceful and in fact it is in the novel’s coda that he delivers the emotional blow of his story, as Edward and Florence lived the rest of their lives separate from each other, him living a hedonistic and sensually-charged life, her finding fulfilment in her violin quartet concerto, without both of them seeing each other, not once. McEwan, as proven, finds sensitivity in his simplest of lines, "That is how the entire course of a life can be changed - by doing nothing."



On Chesil Beach is a short yet a beautifully told tale. McEwan does not only offer a moving story but his trademark flair for writing also triumphs. This novel, told backwards and forwards through time, might be too detailed for his new readers, but it should not be an impediment to the sheer magnificence of his style, where every exquisite detail is squeezed out and every word builds up to a smooth flow of sophistication. It is of no wonder why this man is considered to be one of the finest geniuses working in the field of literature today, a true artiste, an engineer of the soul. And after all I have mentioned here, I could recapitulate everything what I have said to just five simple words: “I love On Chesil Beach”.



Rating: A