On Chesil Beach

A note:  I finished reading this book a month or two ago.  As you'll see, I didn't much care for it and didn't feel like writing about it and let this post sit as a draft till now.  Oh well, time to get it out!

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What a squirm-inducing little book.  There's hardly anything to it, lengthwise, but there's so much uncomfortableness.  This is one of my Man Booker Challenge books.  It was short-listed in 2007 but did not win.  

I have to say, I'm not surprised.  First and foremost because the publishers took a short story and finagled it into a very small hard-bound book.  Second, because I have read Ian McEwan before - Atonement is one of my more favorite books.  This just isn't the same level or quality.

I mean, I see what he was trying to do, but it didn't totally work.  The whole arc is messed up, neither of the main characters grow.  Except for maybe a hint given by one sentence in the last few paragraphs.  Not enough.

Final call:

Eh.