julian barnes the sense of an ending review

Or rather, my memory now of my reading then of what was happening at the time.” Some examples: “…but what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you witnessed.” And “I need to return briefly to a few incidents that have grown into anecdotes, to some approximate memories which time has deformed into certainty.” And “again, I must stress that this is my reading now of what happened then. This is by Julian Barnes so we know it will focus on memory and its tricks. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he'd understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.Ī novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he'd left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. This intense novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about - until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. It’s not my favorite book of all time, but I enjoyed reading it and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who enjoys literary fiction.By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse. There’s a lot in it about beginnings and endings, and about how the passing of time changes people. This is actually a great book to post on New Year’s Day. The new information leads him to open a lot of closed doors and brings about some significant changes in his perspective. The precipitating event is that the narrator suddenly learns there may be more to the suicide of one of his childhood friends than he’d originally thought. This book takes part in two times: when the narrator is 18-25, and when the narrator is middle-aged.

But for the main character, the events are life-changing. If it were a movie, it wouldn’t seem like a whole lot was happening. The action takes place in the form of character development. This book is what I think of textbook literary fiction.

I think maybe Goodreads recommended it? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

Read it: if you are fascinated by excellent characters. Other elements: friendship, philosophy, being middle-aged. This book is: an bright, engaging, character-driven novel.

Julian barnes the sense of an ending review