goodreads: (Peanut: Book geek)
goodreads ([personal profile] goodreads) wrote2015-12-11 11:04 am

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

Title: The Sense of an Ending
Author: Julian Barnes
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 150
Date read: December, 2015

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.

Now Tony is retired. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. 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.


Interesting style of writing that I definitely don't think is for everybody. I was intrigued by it, but think it would have gotten old if it had been a full length novel, rather than a novella.

The book somehow reminded me of some of the books I read for AP Danish ("Det forsømte forår", "Midt i en jazztid" etc.) which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and made me appreciate the book in a way I might not have done otherwise.

There's not much action or plot, but I really felt like I got to know Tony, and could relate to many of his musings about growing older and looking back at your teenagehood. (That makes me sound really old :-P).

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