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One thing that Ian McEwan illustrates vividly in Chesil Beach, is the fragility of life outcomes. The chance meeting of the lovers; the prevailing sexual mores of the early sixties, where sex was not for suppression, not scrutiny; the absence of experience and let’s face it - common sense of either Florence or Edward and the lack of family support in attempting a rapprochement. This concatenation of random conditions led ultimately to unfulfilled lives and deep chasms of regret.
An interesting counterpoint to the autodestruct encounter of the naive young lovers who both espouse the cause of unilateral disarmament, is the pragmatic view of the deterrent value of the Bomb taken by Florences’ philosopher mother. Nuclear deterrence which is based on the deepest misgivings about humanities baseness rather than a naïve concept of its goodness has so far has proved successful in preventing nuclear conflagration – let’s hope there is no ejaculatio-praecox in this confrontation.
