Book Review: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - Page 2

Artfully juxtaposing his narrative of the honeymoon night with flashbacks and recollections, McEwan brings his two characters to life. Florence, the child of an affluent Oxford family, is a violinist with great aspirations for her ensemble, a string quartet, which she cajoles and prods with an intensity and self-confidence that is noticeably lacking in other spheres of her life. Edward is the child of a primary school headmaster and a brain-damaged woman whose mood swings and memory lapses perhaps contribute to his own unstable temperament. During his teenage years, he gets into street brawls on the slightest pretext, but eventually discovers a passion for medieval history that may point the way to a future career, or perhaps only to a temporary escape from the gritty realities of his day-to-day life.

McEwan ranks among our greatest living novelists, but though I count myself among his admirers, I sometimes find fault in his plots, which tend to rely heavily on unlikely coincidences and all-too-clever twists and turns. He is the master of the surprise ending, but sometimes the astonishment – as in works such as Amsterdam or Saturday – is achieved in a manner that is forced and unconvincing. But in On Chesil Beach, McEwan dispenses with the flashy and dazzling effects, and succeeds through sheer poise, intelligence and solid writing. His tale of Edward and Florence will surely rank among his finest works.

The reader can see -- perhaps even better than these two naïve souls -- how this couple might overcome their differences and the challenges of their conjugal union. But they are bedeviled by their emotions, their innocence and, above all, their inability to talk frankly about their situation and expectations. In truth, McEwan has done something quite difficult here. With his mastery of words, he has depicted how our lives can unravel through the words we are afraid to say, the crises we refuse to acknowledge.

Article Author: Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia is a writer and musician. He is the author of Delta Blues, The History of Jazz and, most recently, The Birth (and Death) of the Cool. You can follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tedgioia.

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