THE SENSE OF AN ENDING
by Julian Barnes | Publication: August 4, 2011Vintage | Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating:★★★★✬
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Winner of the 2011 Booker Prize and a #1 international bestseller, The Sense of an Ending is a masterpiece.
The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's award-winning 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?
The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's award-winning 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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THE SENSE OF AN ENDING is a novella written by Julian Barnes that explores the inconsistencies of memory, and how these inconsistencies define us. The book was published in 2011 and won the Man Booker Prize that same year. From the very first page, the reader will realize that the book is riddled with philosophical verses. And despite its thinness, it will not be a quick read; neither mere pondering will suffice to understand those verses. Yet, Julian Barnes possesses the ability to wield words that will keep the reader’s curiosity.
I did not hate Tony Webster instantly, but I did eventually. I hate his pretentious intellect to please Adrian; his passivity with his relationship with Veronica; his inadequacies as husband and father; and his perpetual claim of innocence. But I guess that was how the book worked for me. I believe that it was Barnes’ intention for us to perceive Tony this way. I believe that understanding the Sense of an Ending lies in Barnes’ choosing of an unreliable narrator.
“That’s one of the central problems of history, isn't it, sir?
The question of subjective versus objective interpretation,
the fact that we need to know the history of the historian
in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us.”
If I understand it correctly, Barnes wanted the readers to realize that our memories define us. In a sense, we shape our own history by intentionally forgetting the bad memories, then altering it with false but good ones. Who else will contest such altercation, if our perception of the truth is what we lived by, our very being? Over time, the truth becomes but a shadow. And so eventually, doubting our memories of the past is valid.
“But we also learn something else: that the brain doesn’t like being typecast.
Just when you think everything is a matter of decrease,
of subtraction and division, your brain,
your memory, may surprise you.
As if it’s saying: Don’t imagine you can rely on some comforting process of gradual decline
– life’s much more complicated than that.
And so the brain will throw you scraps from time to time,
even disengage those familiar memory-loops.”
THE SENSE OF AN ENDING is not a book of answers, but of questions. The moment I hit the last page, I went back to the first page, then scanned my way through again, desperately looking for the answers to my unanswered questions. I must admit that I was highly intrigued by the twist at the ending, something that created “a sense of an ending” for the story, but it did not satisfy my curiosity. No doubt, that the perplexity of this book is its charm.
I did not hate Tony Webster instantly, but I did eventually. I hate his pretentious intellect to please Adrian; his passivity with his relationship with Veronica; his inadequacies as husband and father; and his perpetual claim of innocence. But I guess that was how the book worked for me. I believe that it was Barnes’ intention for us to perceive Tony this way. I believe that understanding the Sense of an Ending lies in Barnes’ choosing of an unreliable narrator.
The question of subjective versus objective interpretation,
the fact that we need to know the history of the historian
in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us.”
If I understand it correctly, Barnes wanted the readers to realize that our memories define us. In a sense, we shape our own history by intentionally forgetting the bad memories, then altering it with false but good ones. Who else will contest such altercation, if our perception of the truth is what we lived by, our very being? Over time, the truth becomes but a shadow. And so eventually, doubting our memories of the past is valid.
Just when you think everything is a matter of decrease,
of subtraction and division, your brain,
your memory, may surprise you.
As if it’s saying: Don’t imagine you can rely on some comforting process of gradual decline
– life’s much more complicated than that.
And so the brain will throw you scraps from time to time,
even disengage those familiar memory-loops.”
THE SENSE OF AN ENDING is not a book of answers, but of questions. The moment I hit the last page, I went back to the first page, then scanned my way through again, desperately looking for the answers to my unanswered questions. I must admit that I was highly intrigued by the twist at the ending, something that created “a sense of an ending” for the story, but it did not satisfy my curiosity. No doubt, that the perplexity of this book is its charm.
About the Author:
Julian Patrick Barnes is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending, having been shortlisted three times previously with Flaubert's Parrot, England, England, and Arthur & George. Barnes has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh (having married Pat Kavanagh). In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories. In 2004 he became a Commandeur of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His honours also include the Somerset Maugham Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was awarded the 2021 Jerusalem Prize.
Julian Patrick Barnes is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending, having been shortlisted three times previously with Flaubert's Parrot, England, England, and Arthur & George. Barnes has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh (having married Pat Kavanagh). In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories. In 2004 he became a Commandeur of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His honours also include the Somerset Maugham Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was awarded the 2021 Jerusalem Prize.
April 12, 2013, Alabang Town Center
Posts
"...Barnes wanted the readers to realize that our memories define us."
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite lines from Mitchell's number9dream is, "All we are is our dreams." There's truth in that, yes? :)
Yes, there is!
DeleteOooh number9dream, I have a date with that book that I have yet to claim. :)