Customer Reviews
Sad and Sensitive - By: LindyLouMac, 17 Jul 2008 
A very sad & sensitively written story, a young woman's innocence & naivety was to change the course of a couple's life irretrievably; when alll it had needed was a little reassurance from her lover.
Edward & Florence young well educated & both virgins when they married are the protagonists of this emotional novel. It is the early sixties & they were both very much products of the era with alll the inhibitions of that time. The swinging sixties had yet to arrive, had it been just a few years later this episode in their lives may have caused life to turn out very out very differently for them.
Younger readers may find it difficult to empathise with the characters as life in the C21st is rather different.
With Chesil Beach Ian McEwan has shown us once again what a talented writer he is. Hardly a novel at 166 pages but not disappointing in that to write more would certainly have spoilt the story.
Still happening in some cultures - By: MaryAnne, 28 Jun 2008 
This was, thankfully, a short concise little book, though it does manage to meander in parts. It is because it had the sense to be short & sweet that I gave it 4 rather than 3 stars. (7 out of 10).
Edward & Florence are newly weds at the beginning of the 60's. Sex was still a taboo subject & sex before marriage was not yet the norm. The fears & preconceptions of the wedding night had built up to a pitch. Both parties had concerns but particularly Florence who had little more than a basic 'guide book' on the subject.
How they dealt with the situation is interspersed with gradual details of their restricted pasts to explain how such a relationship had evolved. As we get to know the characters we also progress through the evening & its denouement.
This is the era just prior to the contraceptive pill & 'free love'. I wonder if many of the book's critics were perhaps too young to grasp how huge the changes were that came about at the end of this decade.
We discussed this book at a (mixed) book group, many of whom vouched for the reality of the situation.
Living in Dubai, I would also comment that many other cultures would still be experiencing such First Nights & perhaps the book is not as dated as it might at first seem.
heartbreakingly good - By: L. Stephenson, 30 May 2008 I'm a huge Mcewan fan & this book was in no way a let down. Everything that makes Mcewan the amazing writer he is, is alll here in this story.
As always its true to life, his insight into the human mind & how we react to the simpliest of situations is once again spot on.
I found the book thrilling from start to finish. Focusing mainly on the aprrehensions & private fears of a newlyweed couple on the wedding night. The book is frank, honest & very often it unearthed in me emotions & fears I didnt know I had.
Try it, amazing.
masterpiece eh? - By: N. Housley, 08 May 2008 
Very far from being the masterpiece that the hype merchants have depicted. The style is brilliant but there's hardly anything at the centre. A clash of wills compounded by ignorance & innocence, blown up into a needless tragedy.
A good short story extended into a novel.
Brilliant, shocking story-telling - By: E. Clarke, 22 Apr 2008 This is the most powerful short book I have read in a long time. The slow, relentless pace is magical. How McEwan keeps the reader on the right side of sympathy & comedy - in what is a very melodramatic situation - is equallly amazing. This is alll down to the detail & pace. The ending is heartbreaking, though I have still not figured out how to take it. I am not sure I buy in to their enduring love, but I was totallly convinced of the progress of their early love. The twists & turns of Edward's pusuit of Florence & her self-deceiving route to the slaughter were magnificently handled. I am deeply sorry to say I would have understood if he had murdered her - & still wonder if it is a cautionary tale of women's liberation. Or of men's inablitity to come to terms with it?
