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On Chesil Beach
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| List Price: | £6.99 |
| Price: | £3.79 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery on orders over £15. Details |
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Average customer review:
Product Description
A short novel of quite remarkable depth, power and poignancy by a writer at the height of his powers
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #405 in Books
- Published on: 2008-01-03
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 176 pages
Editorial Reviews
Metro
'this graceful novella offered a series of perfectly realised moments'
Guardian
'In its precision, scope and force, this is an astounding novel, more tender than anything McEwan has hitherto produced'
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
`slow, detailed prose... reads like a pale memory of a forgotten age... a writer in complete control of his craft'
Customer Reviews
Sexual innocence, longing and anxiety in a short, touching novel
In an age of sex being everywhere, media portrayals of everyone being sexual athletes and 'at it' all the time, this was a welcome novel of innocence, longing and anxiety about the 'first time.'
I was touched by this short novel and would read it again. I think McEwan writes about love sensitively and look forward to reading his other works.
Paper thin plot and cardboard characters
Okay, so the 1950s were dull (apart from Rock `n' Roll) and this dreary novella will do nothing to dispel that image.
The plot (inasmuch as there is a plot) centres on the courtship and (very) brief marriage of Florence and Edward.
More odd couple than star-crossed lovers, Florence's background is smart, academic Oxford whilst Edward is a grammar school boy from rural Oxfordshire. One day, their eyes meet across a CND leaflet and ...
... well, that's about as exciting as it gets.
Florence and Edward are cardboard characters who never really take on lives of their own and who you will find it difficult to love, hate or even care about much: after all, they're just characters in a book.
Frustrating...
I've loved all of the other Ian McEwan books I've read, but although I acknoweldge that this is very well written I just didn't enjoy it at all. I found it very hard going and frankly, didn't have much sympathy for either of the characters. Someone called it a "Tragic love story" but love doesn't really come into it in my opinion!
