On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - a review

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - a review

Claim to Fame: 

• Ian McEwan has written more than 12 -14 novels which have been nominated for various awards.
• His novel 'Amsterdam' has won the Man Booker prize in the year 1998

         Review
           The sweet fears of a wedding night! That’s the central  plot of the story. Did it bring a smile on your face…hmmm!!

Well, Edward and Florence are just two different  individuals from different walks of life. They meet, they pair off  even though their tastes are different. She is a violin player  and deep into classical music while he’s into rock music. Their  families are equally weird like all families. The hilarious part is  they are madly in love but deep within they don’t like each  other. Can this happen? You bet!

At the wedding night, he, like all normal males, expects  what should be expected. But with her, things are not easy. So  he has to measure his moves and play in a calculative  manner. She, on the other hand, dreads the very act. She  wants to escape it, run away already. She hates SEX itself; he  doesn’t know it yet. All she wants is companionship and support. She wants to live her life playing the violin and be successful. A lot of ‘She’, isn't it?

What he wants is simple and less demanding and just as normal as breathing or eating or drinking or peeing should be. What else would you want on your wedding night, ha? The fact that they have courted each other for quite some time before has not helped. Even his inserting his tongue while kissing had offended her and she had felt dirty.

Things get really worse and go all wrong when he ejaculates all over in excitement at the mere touch of her hand right there. She finds it really disgusting and probably worse than an acid attack. She makes him feel unfit, insults him by cleaning fastidiously and running away from the room without uttering a word. She thinks he has wronged. A small part of her thinks it’s her mistake.

When he comes searching for her, things get awry and all the hatred oozes out from both of them. She says she is even okay for him to be with other females. That’s her cover and alibi for avoiding sex!

They get divorced without consummating the marriage.

The author, in the last pages of the book has expressed extensively how sorry the male character becomes, how he should have shown patience and all that he writes about the female protagonist is her success…hmmm.

Well here’s my take and I take the leap at the risk of being called a chauvinist. Was it Edwards’ problem that Florence was frigid? Was he asking for anything beyond the ordinary? NO! Florence knew her limitations, her shortcomings, then why did she not clear them before marriage? She was the one not normal between the two, then why is he to show that extra bit of patience? And for what, to get insulted, to be called a failure? Sex is a very integral part of any and every marriage and it is only human to mate, and absolutely inhuman to not!

Also, if they would have sweet talked and reconciled on that day in spite of what happened; what then? Would it have never happened again? No my boy, it would happen each single day and when the dirt and hatred creeps deep in the crevices of your emotions, it becomes very difficult to make a fresh start, next to impossible. You live together, but only for the namesake. Mental deficiencies like this should be discussed in advance, not kept for being discovered on the wedding night!

To be very frank, the book caught my attention only after the actual incident of their wedding night. The initial part, I felt was dragging. The characters and their minds, their emotions have been portrayed with a transparency that is the lineament of a writer of Ian McEwan’s stature. The hilarity of the plot is its gloominess. The severance of the protagonists has been dealt tactfully and with much needed subtlety. Though, it’s easier said than done, sometimes it becomes very difficult to hold back, to not take for granted; at other times it becomes difficult to utter a single correct sentence or a word – and the author has handled this very craftily.

It takes a great effort to cross that thin line between ego and self respect. And at the end of each day, you think, was it/is it worth it?
My rating : * * * * * * * * * *  6/10

Ian McEwan

The Book Of Evidence by John Banville (Irish) – A review

The Book Of Evidence by John Banville (Irish) – A review

Claim to fame: 

• Author of around 14 novels including the Booker Prize winner 'The Sea' (2005)
• The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989 and has won the GPA award.

Review 

          This happens to be the first book of John Banville that I have laid my hands on and I read it in 2 days flat, the quickest I have ever read a book before.

          Freddie Montgomery, the protagonist, is a happy-go-lucky kind of person who cares less about relationships, cares less about anything and everything. It all starts when he borrows a handsome amount of money from an American who on Freddie’s convenient blackmailing had procured it from the mafia. Freddie can’t return the money and the American has to lose his ear – literally! Now it’s Freddie’s turn and at the discomfort of keeping his wife and children under the watchful eyes of the mafia, he embarks on a never returning journey to get money to bail him and them out.

          Returning home 10 years back to his surviving mother, he realizes what a bad son he has been to his parents and was never there when they needed him. His lust for the payback money leads him to the Behrens house where his father’s paintings have been sold. His rage at having lost one of the last hopes of recovering money, he involves himself in an unconvincing plot of stealing a strange painting that he feels he can relate to. It is the painting of a woman whom Freddie gives life and weaves a story around her for himself. Maybe it is the unspoken voice inside himself who he renders to the lady.

          In fact, it is hardly a plot. An unrehearsed disturbance in his mind leads him to execute one fraud after another and then there is no looking back. He feels no more when he fools people and when he gets into the real act of having stolen the painting, the watching of the chamber maid of his doings sets in an ire he cannot control. He conveniently thinks that the world is up against him and won’t leave him alone to do anything. What was supposed to be a simple bargain with the Behrens leads to a heinous crime with the murder of the maid by Freddie.

          What is disturbing is that he doesn’t feel much on smashing her head by the hammer again and again and again while she begs for her life. He says he did it because he could possibly do it. Why he did it, is a confusion he has no straight answer for.

          The book is Freddie’s confession of his life, of his crimes, of his unsuccessful relationships.

          The language is superb and I was hooked to the book from the initial pages itself. It is remarkable writing as should be. The plot is heinous, the characters lucid and the flow is immaculate bending, twisting and turning among the past and present.

Truly recommended reading!

My rating : * * * * * * * * * * (7/10)

Jon Banville

Gran Torino - Movie Review

Gran Torino

Gran Torino - Client Eastwood

          Cast : Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Wang, Ahney Her

                    

          The movie Gran Torino is not about the car. It is more about finding friends in unwanted places, discovering trust, worthiness, motivating others to chance upon their internal strength, to fight back and more importantly to fight and oppose the notion of fighting back.
          

          Walt Kowalski, played by Clint Eastwood is a grumpy old war veteran who doesn't like the neighborhood but won't leave it either. He can't come to terms with his sons and their families. The loss of his wife is like the last nail on his coffin. He detests his Hmong neighbours and the fact that the boy in the Hmong family (Thao) attempts to steal his Gran Torino to prove himself to be a part of the rowdy and nasty Hmong gang doesn't help much. The boy gets caught. As a part of gaining forgiveness, Thao has to work for Walt. Eventually Walt takes it on himself to give some wort to the boys' life and inject a dose of self esteem into him. Both the boy and the old man find a reason to live in themselves.           

          

          However, the local gang doesn't like this association and wants the boy to be a part of their gang and when he refuses, they hurt him badly. Walt hits out on one of the gang members and as a revenge, the gang members rape the boys sister and mutilate her. The boy wants vengeance and wants Walt to help him kill the gang members. The war veteran knows that it is easy to kill, but also has learnt the hard way that after the killings, it is difficult to live each day reliving the cold eyes of the body you pumped bullets into. He knows because he was part of many such killings in Korea as a result of which each day he has to fight against those ghostly thoughts and living this lonely life has become worse than death.

          To save the Hmong boy from making the same mistake, Walt sacrifices himself. His will has nothing for his sons who are anyway doing well. He writes his house to charity while he gives his Gran Torino, the closest to his heart, a symbol of his pride to his newly formed friend, the Hmong boy, Thao.
          

          This movie is about friendship, about sacrificing yourself for the betterment of others. It is also about the false notion of youths who have digressed in their goalless lives who think and feel that power of the gun is the real power.
          

          I simply love Client Eastwoods' direction and his acting too. I find his grumpy sarcasm to be very humorous. Another of his directed movies, The Million Dollar Baby is one of my all time favourite. If you have to live that long, you should hope to age gracefully like Clint Eastwood or Amitabh Bachhan. 

Gran Torino - Ford