Leaving Chesil Beach

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

Yesterday, I just so happened to finish a book that, I have to admit, really let me down. While combing the shelves for something interesting, I came across known author Ian McEwan. I’ve heard a lot about his works, and have read some of his short stories in various literature classes. Well, let’s give On Chesil Beach a go, then.

My very thought upon finishing the book: glad that’s over! It must be that McEwan tries to think up a new and hip kind of writing. It’s definitely a “different” kind of book. Let me give you the run down…

A couple that has just been married is eating dinner on their wedding night. They are about to consummate their marriage and the point of view skips from one to the other. The woman is insanely nervous because she absolutely abhors any act of intimacy and doesn’t think she’ll be able to have sex with her new husband. The man is excited and ready to finally, after all these years, take his woman into his arms and make love to her.

The time comes…she describes how turned off she is by any thought of sex (again) and he tries to charm her. Really, he ends up “arriving too soon” as they say (and all over her—and before he’s even inside her). She freaks out and runs out of the hotel into the night.

When he approaches her down by the beach afterwards, he is angry that she doesn’t want to make love to  him. She suggests that in order to make their marriage work, that he have relations with other women on the side to fulfill his sexual needs. She says that sex just isn’t something she wants or can handle. He is disgusted. They leave each other. 

Sooooo the baffling part about all this is why Ian McEwan needed 200 pages to tell that story. I mean, I just told it in a few paragraphs. I don’t think I’ve ever read something so long that has said so little before. Sure, some of his writing is a bit lovely, but on the whole, I wasn’t impressed. After reading reviews of this book by other people, I just don’t get it. They love it, they cry, they laugh, it’s incredible!

I will be staying far away from Chesil Beach.