{"id":2299,"date":"2024-06-13T14:15:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T21:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2024-06-13T14:15:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T21:15:08","slug":"bookshelf-on-chesil-beach-ian-mcewan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2299","title":{"rendered":"Bookshelf — On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If there is one indelible line among the many memorable words that form this compact novel, it is this: \u201cThe entire course of life can be changed \u2013 by doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Edward and Florence are newlyweds. They are \u201cyoung, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple is as inexperienced at communication as they are in the carnal arts. Their courtship was \u201cbound by protocols never agreed or voiced, but generally observed;\u201d in other words, they had friendship \u2013 but no benefits. Florence abhors the notion of sex. She does not want to be \u201centered or penetrated,\u201d verbs she found in a how-to handbook for brides. Edward, his perception warped by priapic frustration, misinterprets Florence\u2019s reticence as a dormancy awaiting a passionate reawakening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perched uneasily aboard their honeymoon bed in an inn overlooking Chesil Beach in Dorset, England, Edward and Florence attempt to reconcile their fantasies \u2013 he yearning for relief from his passive torment, she determined dutifully to grin and, ahem, bare it. Then, in an instant, these dreams collide, revealing sharp edges that had been hidden behind the dullness of cordiality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn Chesil Beach\u201d is set 1962, \u201cwhen to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure.\u201d McEwan, as artful as ever in nuance, and as theatrical as necessary when the tension tightens, captures the era perfectly: Edward and Florence are innocents, duped by cultural norms and lacking the means \u2013 neither language, patience nor honesty \u2013 to overcome their entrapment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cOn Chesil Beach\u201d is a penetrating story of loss \u2013 of love, of opportunity, and of saying the right words at the right time. I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there is one indelible line among the many memorable words that form this compact novel, it is this: \u201cThe entire course of life can be changed \u2013 by doing nothing.\u201d Edward and Florence are newlyweds. They are \u201cyoung, educated, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[770,861,837],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-book-review","tag-ian-mcewan","tag-novel"],"yoast_head":"\nBookshelf - On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan - Tim Porter's Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a0\u201cOn Chesil Beach\u201d is a penetrating story of loss \u2013 of love, of opportunity, and of saying the right words at the right time. 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