My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would...
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Ilana, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by Ilana)
Best book I've read in a long time. Extremely tightly written, great language, and a quick read for such a dense novella. The themes of how memory, remorse, accountability affect interpersonal relationships are just so well done.
I found "The Sense of an Ending" to be of particular interest because I think that as we age, we all have some regrets about things we failed to do. This book offers wisdom about how one can avoid those lost opportunities - and how the life lived in a safe little cocoon is not always the most rewarding. Life is to be lived! Fully. At the top of your lungs! Dance til your feet fall off. Ah well ... at least live each day as if it were your last because sometimes it is.
Little Wolf, August 22, 2012 (view all comments by Little Wolf)
I only rated this a "five" because there's no "seven". Through some miracle (good writing?) an enveloping world of people, time, place, love, jealousy, and much (interesting rumination are contained in a book the size of a dvd package. This could be the most "wait to eat" or even "wait to pee" book in a long time. I don't recommend that second option.
You may see yourself in one or more of these all too real characters.
The love, the"lit",and the rich inner worlds you're invited to explore are a treasure.
The Thames is looking grey...take the plunge.
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Odessa, August 7, 2012 (view all comments by Odessa)
The Sense of an Ending says so much in one slim volume - how one man misunderstands an entire life. Masterful.
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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.
by Sheila N.
"Staff Pick"
by Dianah,
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.
by Dianah
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"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"
by Anita Brookner, The Telegraph,
"Compelling....His reputation will surely be enhanced by this book. Do not be misled by its brevity. Its mystery is as deeply embedded as the most archaic of memories."
"Review"
by The Guardian,
"Barnes builds a powerful atmosphere of shame and silence....As ever, Barnes excels at colouring everyday reality with his narrator's unique subjectivity, without sacrificing any of its vivid precision....Novel, fertile and memorable."
"Review"
by The Sunday Times,
"A dexterously crafted narrative of unlooked-for consequences."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers.
Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they navigated the girl drought of gawky adolescence together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they swore to stay friends forever. Until Adrian's life took a turn into tragedy, and all of them, especially Tony, moved on and did their best to forget.
Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a marriage, a calm divorce. He gets along nicely, he thinks, with his one child, a daughter, and even with his ex-wife. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. The unexpected bequest conveyed by that letter leads Tony on a dogged search through a past suddenly turned murky. And how do you carry on, contentedly, when events conspire to upset all your vaunted truths?
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