What a bargain! I bought this after work today in a charity book shop in Bicester for £1. It's a thin book and I have always thought that paying £7.99 for both the kindle and book version was a total rip off so I grabbed this brand-new unread copy off the shelf without a moment's hesitation.
I then started reading it in the garden after work and I have just finished it in one sitting. I have always thought that Julian Barnes is a bit of a posho, intellectual, poncy kind of writer and in a way he is but this book gripped me from start to finish and I totally enjoyed it.
He starts with a boring man reflecting on his dull life. The first half is about him looking back at his life at school and his Uni days. Because the only important person is himself you can slowly begin to see why life has been such a safe,grey, bubble for him.
When he receives a solicitor's letter with money left in a will from his dead girlfriend's mother things begin to unravel for him.
The second half makes us aware that this guy is an unreliable witness. His memories are shady...nothing is what it seems. Was his girlfriend such a bitch and if so why? What went on with the Mother? Is he responsible for the actions of his friend or is he being too self-important? What things is he leaving out or repressing? How can memory distort the reality?
He desperately wants to find out what the hell is going on but his ex-girl friend from over 40 years ago is keeping important information from him. The guy remains dull and self-centred, (all the imagery of masturbation make it clear that he really is a wanker!) He never asks questions or enquires about other people's feelings. He just reaches conclusion from what he imagines and makes conjecture without any solid facts. ( I supposed everybody does this...this is what makes this book so real, the guy is just Mr/Mrs Normal.)
In the end, the main protagonist being pretty unlikeable and boring is not really a problem. It's all about how Julian Barnes has manipulated you, the reader, to come to your own conclusions.
Yes, the ending is totally left dangling and you are left with just a Sense of an Ending.
Julian Barnes is having the last laugh...he's left a lot of readers totally confused, me included!
But I think that's the point...it doesn't matter that no ending or final conclusion is drawn up. That's the whole purpose of the book.
I think this book is an allegory for 'history', the only class in school which all the friends attend together. The teacher says 'without all the facts history cannot be recorded properly and that sure happens in this book!
This book ends up being just the self interested opinion of one side and even when the guy thinks he has become 'enlightened' he hasn't.
For me nothing has shown me how clearly and cleverly you can be deceived than this annoying, yet deceptively clever little book! Julian Barnes is a total show-off and I thought there would be a high probability of me disliking this book but I didn't...I loved it.
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