Beautifully written with, yes, one hell of an ending. ( )

# The Sense of an Ending ~ Julian Barnes

This is a wistful book about the fallibility and mutability of memory. The very first words in the novel are "I remember", and throughout the book we are brought to consider the untrustworthiness of our recollections. "What you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed," says the narrator.

Later, he says:

>We live with such easy assumptions, don’t we? For instance, that memory equals events plus time. But it’s all much odder than this. Who was it said that memory is what we thought we’d forgotten? And it ought to be obvious to us that time doesn’t act as a fixative, rather as a solvent.

Tony Webster is in his mid-60s when he receives an unexpected bequest which causes him to think back on the events of his youth, from his senior years at high school through university and a few years afterwards.

At high school, his group friends is joined by Adrian, a new arrival at the school. While he fits in well with the group, he is somewhat their intellectual and cultural superior. Adrian has a series of intense classroom debates with their history teacher about whether we can ever make a really objective assessment of historical events, even quite recent ones. But, in a wryly ironic note, the narrator comments that his own recollection of these debates is almost certainly flawed.

Tony tells of his early clumsy encounters with young women, and his constant sexual frustrations at the time. "You may say, But wasn't this the Sixties? Yes, but only for some people, only in certain parts of the country."

Eventually, during his university years, he meets Veronica: "About five foot two with rounded, muscular calves, mid-brown hair to her shoulders, blue-grey eyes behind blue-framed spectacles, and a quick yet withholding smile." It's this relationship which is at the core of the novel, because he has a bitter break-up with her after a year of going out together. Veronica then takes up with Adrian, Tony's intellectual school friend. And some time later, unexpectedly, Adrian takes his own life for reasons which are not clear.

All this is many decades in the past as Tony now recounts those events, but they are brought back into his life when he is advised of a bequest from Veronica's mother Sarah, who he had met only once when visiting her parents. The bequest is a modest sum of money and, astonishingly, Adrian's diary. Except that Veronica is in current possession of the diary and refuses to supply it to Tony.

Tony's attempts to get hold of the diary and his renewal of contacts with Veronica play out in the rest of the novel. He finds himself confronted with past events and actions of his own which he had forgotten, or badly mis-remembered. It takes him a long time to discover and understand the conseqences resulting from his youthful behaviour.

This is a beautifully-written novel which really makes you think about life, and how our memories can betray us; about how we can fail to grasp what has been going on, even at critical moments of our lives; and how we can deeply misunderstand other human beings.

*A Sense of an Ending* won the Man Booker Prize in 2011, and deservedly so, I think. ( )

This was...ok for this reader. The main character was unpleasant. I won't say much more other than this wasn't a book I would have chosen as a Booker winner, or for the 1001 books list, or for the Morning News Tournament of Books. shrug
*Book #136 I have read of the '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'
*Book #144/340 I have read of the shortlisted Morning News Tournament of Books ( )

Just ok. I need to think about it a little more before I really write more but I'm not sure that I fully understand what happened.

I've had a day to think this over, and read some of the comments online, and I still am not quite sure what to think. There are just so many things that don't make sense! I still can't figure out why the Mom left him the money and the diary. Why would she even think that he wanted it? And there wasn't really much hinting that she was trying to steal Veronica's men, was there? There were far more hints about something awful going on between Veronica and her brother and/or Dad.

And Adrian -- he didn't seem so wonderful and it seemed stupid that he'd kill himself over the pregnancy, especially since it seemed so foolish for the first classmate to have done so. I guess he couldn't handle the fact that he cheated with V's Mom -- but honestly, who would have ever really known that?

And am I really supposed to believe that V held that nasty letter against Tony thinking that he caused the bother to be mentally challenged? Really? Wouldn't she be far more angry at Adrian?

Somebody posted that they thought that Tony was actually the father of the mentally challenged Adrian. That's far more interesting and explains a lot more of Veronica's bitterness but can't explain the suicide.

I think this book is hammering home for me how much I dislike books that critics find wonderful. ( )

I did not see this ending coming nor did I think it was plausible. However, I loved the rest of the writing. ( )

I wanted to give this 4 stars and would have except I was disappointed by the ending. I loved the writing though. This book is only about 150 pages so easily read in one sitting.

Here's a sampling of some of my favorite quotes from the book. "How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but—mainly—to ourselves.” and “History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.” and "It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others.” and "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." and "Who was it said that memory is what we thougt we'd forgotten? And it ought to be obvious to us that time doesn't act as a fixative, rather as a solvent." ( )

What did I think? I thought it was a bit sad, a bit dull, and shouldn't have been a word longer. However, one particular statement that may stay with me was made by a then-youthful Adrian: "I hate the way the English have of not being serious about being serious." ( )

The Sense of an Ending was a powerful little novel. While I didn’t connect with much about the story, I was fascinated by the overall messages about memories and how they change for us over time. I listened to the audio version but I’m quite certain if I’d read the book I would have highlighted and written notes on several passages. This is a novel I will revisit. ( )

I am working on finishing the combined 1001 Books lists, and this book is on the 2012 List. This story reminds me a lot of Looking for Alaska (John Green) and A Separate Peace (John Knowles), at least in the first half of the book. A man recounts his childhood and youth, his days in a boys' prep school and in college and his friendship with a boy named Adrian, who commits suicide. The main character, Tony, accepts Adrian's explanation in his note for why he chose to die, but still fails to fully understand what happened to his friend.
The second half of the story moves forward in time to Tony's late middle-age, when his childhood is returned to his attention by a strange bequest from the recently deceased mother of one of Tony's ex-girlfriends.
For a book of less than 200 pages, this story was quite complex, and well enough written to keep me interested in what might in other writers' hands have been a monotonous, self-important monologue about an ageing man's reminiscences. That is in fact what this book amounts to, but it was engaging and probably worth listing on a 1001 Books list. I still like A Separate Peace better(which is not on a 1001 Books list yet), but I did like The Sense of an Ending, and do recommend it. ( )

Picked it up, put it down, thought I wouldn’t finish it, but picked it up again and zipped through it. A page turner, but ultimately kind of frustrating. The ‘difficult’ girl friend kept telling the protagonist “you just don’t get it. You never will get it.” But she never explained anything so why should he? In the end she was a victim, but annoying.

A pleasant short novel about a dull man who is suddenly prompted, far too late in life, to work out that there was after all a meaning to an apparently inexplicable set of events that took place many years before. Set in Barnes's usual world of slightly old-fashioned tennis-club suburbia (admittedly there's no actual tennis in this one, but there is a lunch in the John Lewis cafeteria). Some interesting play with the way narrative closure seems crucial but doesn't necessarily actually change anything in the world. ( )

i’m not smart enough to review this book ( )

Audiobook from Audible

Written in the first person by a middle aged Tony Webster who we find out is a rather unreliable narrator. The first part of the book is about his friendship in senior-school with the much more intelligent Adrian, and Tony's relationship with Veronika who ultimately dumps him and hitches up with Adrian. A few years later, with Tony estranged from both Adrian and Veronika and Tony hears that Adrian has committed suicide.

Cut through to middle age, and Tony has married (and divorced) and is on reasonable terms with both his daughter and ex-wife. The other friends from school are not heard of again. A solicitor gets in contact to advise that Tony has been bequeathed £500 and Adrian's diary by Veronika's mother - a women he only met once on a rather disastrous weekend.

This brings Tony back in contact with Veronika who has Adrian's diary - apparently. A series of all the more irritating encounters with Veronika in an attempt to get the diary (which she admits to having burnt part way through the narrative) leaves Tony - and the reader - wondering what's going on. Finally a number of events, and Tony's hanging round certain shops, pubs and people (despite his assertion that he's "not wasting my time") allows him to make a conclusion which Veronika yet again has to point out "you just dont get it".

The narrator reminded me much of Matthew Parris from Radio 4, and was a soothing voice to listen to, even when swear words were required. I listened to this over several weeks and suspect that I may have to listen to again based on the ending I heard the first time round.

Worth a second read someday. ( )

This book can only be described as a flawed masterpiece - had the novel bothered in fleshing out the characters from the bland caricatures that they were (lucid vs mysterious, 'clever' vs pragmatic/complacent, and so on), it would have been an amazing read. But it was not, and I can't even blame Barnes for the result - the book is meant to be a short slice-of-life piece, and that's what it remains till the end.

This is a short read, but the ending, while not being a gut punch, was a surprise for sure - of facades and of avoiding responsibilities.

TL;DR - good read for a lazy weekend afternoon, the protagonist is worth empathizing for, and the digressions are not dumped, and feel natural. ( )

What a terrific (small) book! I like his writing very much, and the story & characters fascinated me. It is unusual, largely the protagonist's reflection on some of his actions with others in the long past & reflecting some of his present actions with some of the same people, 40 years later. It is compelling and did not work out as I expected it would. Quite a book. ( )

I appreciate why this book won the Booker Prize. The prose is beautiful, and the content is compelling and really makes you think about your own memories and how others' actions (or yours) might have been misinterpreted, etc. ( )

So glad I read this. One of those books that makes you think about things differently. It reminded me of how fluid human memories and experiences are. The ways that you can change your recollections, particularly over time,to protect you from memories of the more unsavoury things you did/thought/said/were in the past.

An excellent story.

( )

This is a magnificent book, the kind that I try to read slowly so I can savour it and understand what's going on, but which I end up racing through, on to the next beautiful turn of phrase or poignant scene. There is so much to like about it I don't even know where to start my gushing. I guess the first point is that it's a perfect book. There is not a single misstep or awkward sentence in all hundred and fifty pages. Nothing is wasted and it thus feels totally whole.

Point two is that it's profound, and not just at the end as some books are. Right throughout it conjoured emotions beyond just delight and pathos. It is an experience in itself, as great literature must be. At different stages it prompted me to reflect on the unknowability of others and the self, on the uncertainty of memory, on the fear of death, on ambition.

Points three and four are that the characterisation and plot are wonderful. Point five is that it's funny when it needs to be.

Point six is for example, the last sentence of this quote: "...she never wore heels of any kind.I'd read somewhere that if you want to make people pay attention to what you're saying, you don't raise your voice but lower it: this is what really commands attention. Perhaps hers was a similar kind of trick with height. Though whether she went in for tricks is a question I still haven't resolved." ( )

spoiler alert ** This short thought-stimulating novel explores themes of the unreliability of memory and the unforeseen consequences of our actions. The narrator, Tony Webster, and his two adolescent school friends are joined by a new student, Adrian Finn. Finn is intellectually superior to the three but they all express youthful cynicism in their philosophy, Adrian much more sophisticated in his thinking.

After secondary school, Tony enrolls in the University of Bristol while Adrian is accepted at Cambridge. While at Bristol Tony has a girlfriend, Veronica who treats him rather poorly; she is superior and condescending and withholds intimate sex from him. Veronica invites Tony to her home for a weekend. where he senses that Veronica's family is of a social class above his. Veronica's mother shares a rather cryptic warning with Tony to be aware of Veronica's manipulation.

Veronica meets Adrian who she realizes is on a higher social and intellectual plane than Tony. Tony and Veronica break up with a strange coda in which Veronica finally engages in intercourse with him. Soon after, Adrian writes to Tony asking his blessing to date Veronica. Tony responds with a letter that will become integral to the plot many years later.

Tony is shocked to hear that Adrian has committed suicide. He left a letter that justifies his decision based on his philosophical reasoning that he can opt to take his life in as much as he never asked for it in the first place.

Many years pass. Tony has lived a life characterized by passivity and mediocrity. He is married, divorced and lives a banal retirement. To his shock, he receives notice that Veronica's mother has died and willed him 500 pounds and a copy of Adrian's diary. He wonders why as they only encountered each other for a weekend. The will also says he is to receive Adrian's diary, but it isn't contained with the settlement. Veronica, he concludes, has kept it. He contacts Veronica to insist that she turn over the diary. Veronica shares the letter Tony wrote to Adrian about his taking up with Veronica. The letter is extremely vile, wishing malevolent outcomes to the pair, including, if they ever have children, the worst for their offspring. Despite this antipathy, Tony and Veronica continue to meet and Tony finds that his feelings for Veronica are rekindling. She remains aloof and secretive. He persists until finally she drives him to a location in London where she wants him to witness a group of mentally disabled men in the presence of a care giver. The men obviously know Veronica, who they address as "Mary". She tells him angrily to get out of the car and never contact her again. Tony is intrigued about the meaning of it all until he finally perceives that one of the men, who is named Adrian, bears a resemblance to Adrian. He believes the man is Veronica's and Adrian's son. He then learns that Adrian is the son, not of Veronica, but of Veronica's mother who had an affair with Adrian. It was not Adrian's high-minded philosophical reasoning that led to his suicide; it was the guilt and grief about his son.

The novel addresses the flaws and distortions of memory and how we inevitably distort and reorder the events of our past. ( )

This book seemed familiar, and I appreciated it much more the second time I read it. The author talks so much about how our memories are so important in fashioning our lives, and how we are so certain of our memories even many years after they've passed. The characters were very interesting and so many symbolized different philosophies. This time I was very surprised by the complicated ending. ( )

Recommended by Andy. He's a great writer of course (I mean Barnes). This has a contrived quality. ( )

I'm not sure what to do with this one. It's been on my shelf for years, and having finally gotten round to it, I don't know what made me pick it up. The whole story hinges on one person withholding a piece of information from another for....what reason? I guess the theme of memories being fickle and only falling into place in retrospect with information from more parties was worth exploring. And the writing is fantastic. I think I just need fewer books of white men being clueless. ( )

What a thought provoking book. It brings so much to mind: memory, remorse, relationships, and the meaning of history and memories. ( )

Barnes at his finest. Every chapter a wonderful line or a fantastic image; similar viewpoint regarding time; expertly captures late adolescence. Similar in feeling to Brideshead Revisited in the character of Adrian to Sebastian. The story is told in three sections by a central narrator who questions his own reliability. The nature of love, the passing of time, the sensation of loss and our own point in the arc of our own storyline. A little bit of the butterfly effect but mostly about the bigger ideas of other people each in their own timelines and the permeability and revisionist nature of history. 2011 Booker Prize. ( )