On Chesil Beach

This was still the era –it would end later in that famous decade- when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure. Almost strangers, they stood, strangely together, on a new pinnacle of existence, gleeful that their new status promised to promote them out of their endless youth – Edward an Florence, free at last!

Nunca hubiera creído que un libro sobre la noche de bodas de una pareja inglesa de los 60s me iba a gustar tanto. Excelente McEwan retratando una época a través de una narración cuidada que pasaea al lector por la noche de bodas de Florence y Edward y sus pasados familiares, sus fantasmas y la historia de su relación, todo ello tamizado por el clima de época.

El hecho de que el narrador sea contemporáneo y nos cuente lo sucedido bajo una óptica retrospectiva le da un buen toque adicional. Quizás sólo peque el autor en explicar demasiado, pero es sólo una observación quisquillosa.

La historia está atravesada por el silencio y el “de eso no se habla” que reinaba sobre ciertos temas por aquella época, sobre todo lo relacionado con la sexualidad, pero también cuestiones familiares y sociales. Si tan sólo los pobres Edward y Florence se hubieran casado una década después...

And what stood in their way? Their personalities and pasts, their ignorance and fear, timidity, squeamishness, lack of entitlement or experience or easy manners, then the tail end of a religious prohibition, their Englishness and class, and history itself. Nothing much at all.

I really, really tried, but I cannot properly read this book. I thought of all the reasons why I should read this, some of which are: it's short / it's something new to me / I really want to see how Florence will deal with it—all to no avail. The most interesting part for me was the bit about Marjorie, Edward's mother. I was way more interested in what happened to her than the plot of the book.

I was still curious about the outcome so I jumped pages and read small parts, but I struggled with half a book for days. I did reach the last page, more or less, and for that reason I mark it as read and not dropped. It still remains that I really couldn't get into the story, relate to any of the characters, or enjoy the book even a little.