On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

Intense focus on a time, place, event (or non-event) and a single relationship but actually this is subtle and often striking for its detail (faces, hands, gestures, movement). It does move beyond the couple to take in a culture and its attitides towards sex and sexuality but is hard, after Atonement, to engage with a different kind of novel.

More of a novella than a novel and maybe not a life-changing read, it's true, but perhaps enjoyment of a book like this depends on why you read. If you like poetry,for instance, enjoy the quality of the writing as much as the nature of the plot, then this might be a more satisfying read. Try not to compare one book with another so much, even by the same author. I know it's tempting.

I'm glad that someone of McEwan's standing has the conviction, at this stage in his life a writer, to put out work like this, which is certainly not blockbuster material. It seems to me that this is a quiet book, musing on a few melancholy truths about people and their striving for connection even when they are essentially isolated. Chesil Beach is, after all, a fairly bleak strip of restless shingle.

Not my favourite book, but certainly not "worst book of the year", surely?

I was very dissappointed with the book. I had read Atonement ist which was wonderful and was expecting On Chesil Beach to be as good. It dragged on, the plot was very thin and just seemed full of sex. I think maybe I just didn't get it!