After being captivated by the film, The Sense of an Ending, I enthusiastically got my hands on as many Julian Barnes books as possible and then randomly picked one to be my print print introduction to him. The only reason I made it to the end was to see if the same person who created that magnificent piece of art was going to ever live up to that promise in this book.

Not. I'm hoping this was a fluke and not indicative of all his work.

Love triangle between girl and two best friends goes nowhere. A few parenthetical characters thrown in. Ah, but let's assume this is one of those post-modern books where its not about The Plot.

The writing is high brow, one of the three being some sort of rambling intellectual who could easily be found guilty of mansplaining virtually every chapter. But it lacks heart. I never felt empathy for anyone as they were all cold and distant in their own way.

I'll try two more of his but after this one I wonder if it can get much worse.




( )

Interspersed narratives by 3 main characters: Gillian, her first husband Stuart, her second husband Oliver, demonstrate how different interpretations arise from the 'same' instances. Sequel to 'Talking It Over', better than the prequel. Highlights the difference between falling in love and loving, between needing love and needing to be safe, and how it's debatable if any of it is truthful, or if it matters that it's truthful. Character of the Lothario Ollie divides world into those who think anything important falls into the 'Love,' section or the 'etc.' section. Better insight into characters than first book. ( )

Oliver ha dejado de ser la joven promesa artística con ganas de dinamitar parejas y Gillian sigue pensando si habrá hecho lo correcto a la hora de hacer lo incorrecto. Así es: Stuart, Oliver y Gillian continúan hablando del mismo asunto de siempre pero ahora -definitivamente cambiados por el paso del tiempo y castigados por las desilusiones de lo que pudo haber sido y no fue- tal vez mucho más preocupados por la permanencia del etcétera que por la fugacidad del amor.

A love triangle from 3 different perspectives. A novel approach of having each character address the reader directly while the other characters listen and react. Their relationship to each other defines them more than anything else in their pasts. ( )

There's no doubt in my mind that Julian Barnes is a clever person. His characters sometimes reflect that cleverness, but they're not always appealing to me - perhaps because I am not that intellectual type myself. This book was quite enjoyable to read. The story was interesting, the characters were varied and reasonably true to life, I imagine, although I didn't personally relate to any of them. For me, the book was largely dealing at the head-level with gut-level issues. People spoke about their feelings in a rather detached way, leaving me the reader feeling a little too distant from it all. ( )