Well, Michiko Kakutani apparently vehemently disliked On Chesil Beach, calling it “a smarmy portrait of two incomprehensible and unlikable people” (link via Baby Got Books). I certainly don’t think the book was an abysmal failure nor do I think McEwan has created “a small, sullen, unsatisfying story” with the little book—the opposite in fact. But perhaps that’s why Kakutani reviews for the NY Times and me for my own pleasure here at TRH.
Interesting. I can’t wait until it arrives and then I’ll put my two cents in.
I read the review while I was fixing a pot of spaghetti and reading the paper. Her tight little remarks cause me to momentarily forget about the boiling brew on the stove.
Anyway, to contrast this is a huge article on the book in the Sunday Times book review section
by the way, GREAT BLOG!
I liked On Chesil Beach. It wasn’t me fave of his works, but it was a tightly-written, evocative little book. He got those characters *down*, I thought.