Winner of the 2011 Man Booker PrizeBy an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse. This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about—until his … with a past he has never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he’d left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he’d understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.
A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes’s oeuvre.
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This is a gem of a little book. I enjoyed its elegant prose and its timely propositions about history and truth, eg “What you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed,” or, “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 …
A Man Booker Prize winner for a reason. Stunning and shocking and I read it in one evening. Could not put it down.
Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England, in 1946. He now lives in London. He is the author of several books of stories, essays and also a translation of Alphonse Daudet’s In the Land of Pain, and numerous novels. His publications include ” The Sense of an Ending” which was published in 2011. I chose this book because it was recommended …
I needed this book. It had been a while since anything moved me and this one managed to get under my skin. I wanted to kick the protag from time to time, but that made it none-the-less enjoyable. Definitely a thumbs up.
Though I don’t much care for philosophy, I found The Sense of an Ending to weave it into the story beautifully. Retrospective and introspective, it is a one-sitting read that take you on the journey of a man exploring some of the choices he’s made in life.
I adore Julian Barnes’ writing. His spare prose paints a clear picture of people and place, and his exploration of themes is meaningful, provoking thought about the ideas. In this short book, a winner of the Man Booker Prize, we are invited by the narrator to consider memory, and how it plays us false, and why.
A life lived well, but unexciting, …
Told in first person, it becomes a little boring because the poor author has had two women in his life (both in the first half), and he’s expounding and looking at everything under a microscope as if it had taken place last week ~ not decades previously.
I man looking back on his youth. He must reassess how he viewed his friends from college.
I could relate to the he story.
I read this a long time ago, but it stayed with me, maybe because I’m still trying to figure it out. I liked that it is thought provoking.
When I finished this book I spent a lot of time reviewing crucial events in the story to try to understand what had happened. The surprise ending was the most intriguing part.
I recommend this book for many people but for myself, I found it dull.
Outstanding writing makes it deeply satisfying.
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
2011
Read: July 2013
What can I say that hasn’t already been stated in the many posted reviews of this book?!
This is a story in which I had a love-hate relationship with the characters, primarily Tony the unreliable narrator. What’s annoying is the fact that Tony admits he is not a reliable source as his …
The title of the novel The Sense of an Ending pretty much sums up the book. There are a lot of endings and what we get are just a sense of them from a narrator who may or may not be remembering events correctly. There are several seemingly insignificant observations that carry a lot of weight by the end of the book. Not my favorite novel but it …
One of those great little novellas that sucks you in so deeply that after reading it you spend days thinking of the story and characters.
There was no resolution at the end. Disappointing. Did not “get” the references to British humor.
The internal narration brings the reader into this skillfully reflective story. As time passes, how can we be sure what we remember is true? A meditative rumination on philosophy positing the question, are we who we believe we are. Near the end of his life, the protagonist is forced to reconsider his past to make sense of the ending. The narrator …
Beautiful writing of a persons reflections on their past as they are aging. Vivid description of how we rewrite our own history, or come to understand it in a different way. Very thought provoking.
Excellent. Head to read it at least twice to get full impact.