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Apr 10, 2015jenoteacher rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is no beach read. On Chesil Beach is a troubling distillation of how two intelligent, thoughtful, well-people meaning can get it wrong. Despite loving each other, Florence and Edward can’t reconcile themselves to a life together for one reason: sex, and their inability to talk about it. I loved this book because I could relate closely to both characters, with a little enjoyable distance provided by the setting of Britain in the early 60‘s, and ethos and expectations of the era that frayed their connection beyond mending. I was shocked, relieved, and saddened by the unexpected climax and denouement . This is the first McEwan I’ve read, and I don’t feel that I have a real sense for him as a writer, mostly because I forgot all about him. Florence and Edward were real people, living their untidy lives on the page.