Page Twenty-Three

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

After reading Atonement and realizing what a strong writer McEwan was, I decided to pick up this brief novel after hearing a few positive things about it. The premise is interesting: Edward and Florence, both in their early twenties in the early sixties, marry after a brief year together. The novel opens on the eve of their wedding night, and both have their own concerns as to what is to happen. The novel can be summed up in one poignant line: "This is how the entire course of a life can be changed - by doing nothing." McEwan is a master at this; in fact, the book cover notes how he is a master at "lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken." It makes his writing eerily pertinent to lives of readers who have, I am almost certain, made such mistakes themselves and then have come to regret them.