The Sense of an Ending
Book description
Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011
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…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Sense of an Ending as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This is a succinct, gripping novel about memory and its unreliability. It looks at the power of the narratives we construct to explain our lives and ourselves to ourselves.
I was captivated by Julian Barnes’ treatment of memory and time in this novel, which tells the story of Tony Webster and his group of school friends, whose relationships fracture and strain as life and death leave their marks on their lives. In his retirement, Webster's own memories of his youth prove unreliable.
I felt it was a well-paced and exquisitely written short novel, which makes impressive use of subtle imagery (the sight of the Severn bore is a good example–a nod to how the world can sometimes surprise us). He uses these subtly constructed visual reference points to illustrate…
From David's list on memories and poignant reflections on the passing of time.
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