Review
So many reviews have already been
written by so many about McEwan's
On Chesil Beach
that it wouldn't be surprising to find that the
total word count of reviews surpass those of the
novel itself - an almost pocket-sized 200 pages in
which every word has been honed to perfection.
Indeed, many of the reviews are in such detail that,
if you have read as many as we have, you might feel
that there's little reason to read the book itself -
but to miss this little gem of a novel would be a
pity.
Most reviews focus on the fact that the book
is centered around a newly married couple's first
night, with much discussion of the sexual mores of
the period (early 1960s); and, inevitably, many
reviewers refer to Ian Larkin's iconic poem,...
Beyond the Book
Selected Events from the
early 1960s (from a British
perspective)
1960: Penguin Books put on
trial under the 1959 Obscene
Publications Act for publishing
Lady Chatterley's Lover
(30 years after it had first
been published in Italy). They
are found not guilty and the
prosecution is widely ridiculed
as being out of touch with
changing social norms when the
chief prosecutor asks if it were
the kind of book "you would wish
your wife or servants to read".
"The Pill" becomes the first FDA...
