Wednesday 11 April, 2007

Why I'm not going to review On Chesil Beach

Yes, I read Ian McEwan's new novel, On Chesil Beach, over Easter. In the previous week I'd read about 6, long, reviews of it and to be honest reading so much about it before I read it myself totally fucked with (yes, that is the technical term) my ability to relate to the novel on its own terms. I kept second-guessing things, then thinking, 'oh, I bet we're about to get to the bit where . . .' etc. In fact I can truthfully say I really didn't enjoy the first half of it because of all my expectations and the hype. Then I liked it very much. And that's all I'm going to say on the matter.