On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Meh. This book was ok, not that good. I enjoyed McEwan's longer, more complex books much more.
This book mostly takes place all in one night - the wedding night of Edward and Florence. They are a refined, repressed young couple who have a proper courtship, a proper wedding, and are facing their wedding night with different sorts of panic. Florence, dreading the act, and Edward, not being able to wait for the act.
This is a short book, maybe 200 small pages, but McEwan fits a lot of character development into those pages. I did enjoy hearing about the characters' backgrounds and their courtship. The tension he builds during their wedding night dinner was very well-crafted. But after that I was kind of bored - their is a haphazard attempt at coupling, followed by a conflict, followed by a long multi-year denouement of the after-effects.
All in all, kind of a sleepy book.
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