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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Ian McEwan's new book 'On Chesil Beach'

astrojax69

06:42 / 07.04.07

just saw in a saturday paper here a short piece on ian macewan's new book, 'on chesil beach' - apparently the wanker took some stones from the heritage listed site and doesn't seem 'bovvered'... what a prat.

is the book any good, anyone? i must say, i loved 'black dogs' but have rather gone off him somewhat. 'amsterdam' was banal, 'atonement' was ok-ish, and 'saturday' was compost.

is this worth rushing out to get?

Milky Joe

16:33 / 08.04.07

I thought Saturday was an obvious and average reaction to 9/11 but I loved Amsterdam and atonement. However, I admit Ian McEwan can be an infuriating writer. Sometimes his words are breathtaking but too often he drones on for the sake of it with over-researched and unnecessary page filling.

I will try the new book and keep my fingers crossed that it is as good as Amsterdam and much better than the disappointing Saturday.

Dusto

00:14 / 08.06.07

Jonathan Lethem reviewed On Chesil Beach in last Sunday's New York Times. He gave it a good review, but his own prose was incredibly sloppy. Something like "A novel is a heap of sentences piled like stones on the beach of time. You can parse one stone at a time or..." Whereas I wasn't aware that it was possible to parse a stone. I usually like Lethem, but he didn't seem to be trying very hard.

astrojax69

07:01 / 09.06.07

maybe that's why i liked black dogs, and earlier macewan, more than the last few - sentences are less stoic as stones; he lacks something of the dynamism of his earlier work maybe?