Special Offers see all
More at Powell'sRecently Viewed clear list
Original Essays | April 18, 2013
0 comments
|
 
$7.50
List price:
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsOther titles in the Vintage International series:
The Sense of an Ending (Vintage International)by Julian Barnes
Awards
Staff Pick
Julian Barnes won the Man Booker Prize for this lyrical little tome, and, in spite of the controversy surrounding the prize and the 2011 shortlist, I believe he deserved the award. It's the kind of book that one races through, stopping every now and then to relish a particularly elegant turn of phrase.
A reflection on time, aging, memory, and remorse, The Sense of an Ending packs a giant sentimental (but not schmaltzy) punch. Beginning in an English boarding school (I am such a sucker for boarding school stories!), the book follows Tony Webster through school, college, relationships, marriage, work, and middle age. Tony is completely unaware of his part in a tangled relationship between himself, his ex-girlfriend, and his best friend. Decades later, Tony receives a letter from a lawyer indicating that he has inherited his best friend's diary, yet his ex-girlfriend won't give it up. Trying to somehow comprehend the relationships, his part, the results, and the nature of this mess, Tony begins to question not only his own past but his memories of that time as well. The 2011 Man Booker prizewinner, The Sense of an Ending is quiet, clever, and lovely. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize
A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about — until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world. Review:"In Barnes's (Flaubert's Parrot) latest, winner of the 2011 Man-Booker Prize, protagonist Tony Webster has lived an average life with an unremarkable career, a quiet divorce, and a calm middle age. Now in his mid-60s, his retirement is thrown into confusion when he's bequeathed a journal that belonged to his brilliant school-friend, Adrian, who committed suicide 40 years earlier at age 22. Though he thought he understood the events of his youth, he's forced to radically revise what he thought he knew about Adrian, his bitter parting with his mysterious first lover Veronica, and reflect on how he let life pass him by safely and predictably. Barnes's spare and luminous prose splendidly evokes the sense of a life whose meaning (or meaninglessness) is inevitably defined by 'the sense of an ending' which only death provides. Despite its focus on the blindness of youth and the passage of time, Barnes's book is entirely unpretentious. From the haunting images of its first pages to the surprising and wrenching finale, the novel carries readers with sensitivity and wisdom through the agony of lost time." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review:"Elegant, playful, and remarkable." The New Yorker
Review:"A page-turner, and when you finish you will return immediately to the beginning." San Francisco Chronicle
Review:"Beautiful....An elegantly composed, quietly devastating tale." Heller McAlpin, NPR
Review:"Dense with philosophical ideas....It manages to create genuine suspense as a sort of psychological detective story." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review:"[A] jewel of conciseness and precision....The Sense of an Ending packs into so few pages so much that the reader finishes it with a sense of satisfaction more often derived from novels several times its length." The Los Angeles Times
Review:"Concisely written and yet rich and full of emotional depth....It's highly original as well. And complicated, just like life." New York Journal of Books
Review:"Ominous and disturbing....This outwardly tidy and conventional story is one of Barnes's most indelible [and] looms oppressively in our minds." The Wall Street Journal
Review:"With his characteristic grace and skill, Barnes manages to turn this cat-and-mouse game into something genuinely suspenseful." The Washington Post
Synopsis:A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.
This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about — until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world. About the AuthorJulian Barnes is the author of ten previous novels, three books of short stories, and three collections of journalism. In addition to the Booker Prize, his other honors include the Somerset Maugham Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in London.
What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 13 comments: 
View all 13 commentsProduct Details
Other books you might likeRelated SubjectsFeatured Titles » General Featured Titles » Literature Featured Titles » Man Booker Prize Winners Featured Titles » Staff Favorites Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z Fiction and Poetry » Literature » Coming of Age
|
|||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Follow us on...
|
||||||||||||
