On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

This book has sat on my "to read" shelf for a few years because of the reviews that had been published and the reputation of Ian McEwan. I was spurred to finally make time to read it after I watched the movie. I then recommended it to the Gables Book Club for the March meeting. 

McEwan has a penchant for hooking his readers from the very first sentence in a book and On Chesil Beach  is no exception.

They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible. But it is never easy. 

The novella takes place in 1962 on the wedding night of Edward Mahew and Florence Pointing at a hotel on Chesil Beach in Dorset in southern England. It is a shingle beach that is characterized by the curve of the land and the arrangement of the pebbles by wind and rain.  It is there they will enjoy the wedding night and a stroll on the beach drinking wine and examining the pebbles. 

Providing some comic relief to the tension that the reader fills building is the description of the waiters and the dinner ordered. There was no real room so the waiters stayed and observed as the two tried to eat the melon, plates of beef, cheese board and trifle. But it was not to be finished as the couple midway through made their way to the four-poster bed. 

In a scene that was a bit reminiscent of Ravel's Bolero, sensual and innocent the reader stands witness to what surely will be a night of bliss. Edward fumbles with Florence's dress and, ultimately, decides to proceed without removing it. But the thought of intimacy so frightens Florence that she bolts from the hotel room in a desperate move to avoid being suffocated by the act and heads to the beach. After a time, he follows and the two engage in a conversation that evolves into argument as they both admit that they are so in love with each other. 

Intermixed between the action of the wedding night, McEwan writes beautifully crafted chapters of the details of Florence and Edward's meeting and courtship. The reader is mesmerized by his words and sentence structure. It is with these chapters that we understand more about the two young people and the worlds from which they came - she from a privilege family but with an abusive father, he from a middle class and hardworking one in which his father has had to assume roles as mother and father since a traumatic accident to his mother. 

At the book's conclusion one is left with a feeling of poignancy and regret for Edward and Florence and the thought of what could have been. Again, the book with all of McEwan's artistry surpasses the movie. Read and enjoy.