On Chesil Beach: Ian McEwan

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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. The crux lies in what is not done, what is unsaid, and then, painfully, what is unlived. Nothing matters except what could have been. Inconceivably, it is easier to live a whole entire life unfulfilled rather than utter one's truth or javelin over the barrier of pride. A whole life. (And my heart is wrenched without mercy.) Marvellously, it comes even worse than expected, as Edward contributes to the mess with his own sexual difficulties (let's just say that his decision to lay off gratifying himself in the days before the wedding looks like it left him more precariously bottled-up than is healthy). But after On Chesil Beach climaxes, the masterfully modulated denouement fast-forwards through the decades to come to our present day -- and prods us to consider what this book really is." - Ed Park, Salon

ON CHESIL BEACH | Kirkus Reviews ON CHESIL BEACH | Kirkus Reviews

Gleiberman, Owen (8 September 2017). "Toronto Film Review: 'On Chesil Beach' ". Variety. Penske Business Media . Retrieved 10 September 2017. 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.Furthermore, Edward desperately wants to have sex (he’s refrained from masturbating – or “self pleasure,” as the euphemism goes – all week), while Florence, intimidated by having read a dry sex manual, is dreading it. But there’s something deeper at play in their inability to say what’s bothering them – and why. 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). McEwan, a '60s child if ever there was one, comes to remind us that there were losers, all right, and that there still are. It would be less interesting to term this a generational achievement than a national one. Only Philip Larkin has ever decribed sex more bleakly than McEwan does here. No fumble, miscue, or calamity is omitted." - Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic Monthly They are more or less in love and they are getting married because it’s what you do. “This was still the era…when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure.” There is plenty of see-sawing in the book: the ebb and flow of the sea on the stones of Chesil Beach; of desire; of who to blame for what goes wrong (both in the minds of the characters and the readers); and Florence’s feelings about her father, and whether or not she thinks there is something wrong with Edward or herself.

On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan - Complete Review On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan - Complete Review

It's not nostalgic, but he is trying to capture an era and he's very explicit about it, constantly reminding the reader of this different time (down to noting that: "This was not a good moment in the history of English cuisine" when discussing their meal). McEwan has a gift as a writer and he pays amazing attention to detail, his prose is beautiful and not one word is wasted in the perfectly paced novel. I love how vivid he can create characters in such a short novel . Florence and Edward are just wonderfully developed and I found myself sympathising with both of them and the tragic situation they find themselves in. Like them or not you just can't help being drawn into this story.On Chesil Beach is a 2017 British drama film directed by Dominic Cooke (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Ian McEwan, who adapted his own 2007 Booker Prize-nominated novella of the same name. It stars Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle and tells the story of virgins, Florence and Edward, and their first disastrous attempt at having sex on their wedding night. The initial experience and their differing responses to the failure have lifelong consequences for both. There was however a dissonance. It seemed to me almost until the end that McEwan had been leaving a trail of word crumbs that would take us to a revealing monstrosity that would however explain the tragedy. But these were lost or dispersed by the waves or the wind in Chesil beach. I wonder things about him, like. . . does he have a particularly magical keyboard that only types out the right words?

On Chesil Beach’: Did You Catch Florence’s Backstory? ‘On Chesil Beach’: Did You Catch Florence’s Backstory?

I was unsure where this would lead, but was awed by McEwan's tightening and fine-tuning tension in the conflict, like the strings on a violin.On the surface, that doesn’t sound very interesting, but McEwan manages to suggest so much. There’s obviously lots of humour in the young couple’s awkward fumblings: waiters barge in and out of the room serving them their bland, proper meal (although they’re not hungry); neither the man (Edward) nor the woman (Florence) knows who should make the first move; and when they eventually start to get intimate, things like zippers don’t behave... Feeling quite differently about the prospect of sex, Florence has strong feelings of repugnancy towards physicality. She seeks some guidance in the area, but her only source of information is a marriage manual, which only makes matters worse with terms like “glans” and “penetrate,” the latter suggesting she is like a drawing room that Edward will “enter.” Florence finds that she is nauseated even by the concept of Edward’s tongue in her mouth. Florence still feels bound by the social code of another era. Hoover is one of the freshest voices in new-adult fiction, and her latest resonates with true emotion, unforgettable characters and just the right amount of sexual tension.