Book Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Title: The Sense of an Ending
Author: Julian Barnes
Enjoyment Rating: 9/10
Referral: I had seen this one mentioned frequently on book lists this year and my friend Nicole said she wanted to read it.
Source: Audible for iPhone
Books I've read this year: 20

The book I listened to just before The Sense of an Ending was 11-22-63. That book was thirty hours long and while it had many introspective moments, it was filled with action and shooting and fights and time travel. The Sense of an Ending couldn't be more different. For one thing, I'm not sure I'd characterize it as a novel at all-- I think the audiorecording is four hours long, which is about half as long as most YA novels. Not much happens in the book-- Tony Webster, a sixtysomething, retired divorce living in London receives word that the mother of a former girlfriend has willed him 500 pounds and the diary of another old friend who died 40 years earlier.

This letter (which Tony actually receives about halfway through the novel, although presumably everything that comes before is backstory) sends Tony on a mission to understand why his ex's mother had Adrian's diary in the first place, and why she wanted Tony to take possession of it. We get a LOT of introspection in the story-- we  have Tony looking back at his youth and analyzing it, Tony looking back at his time with the ex-girlfriend and analyzing it, Tony looking back on his marriage and analyzing it. In fact, there's so much introspection that although I get the sense that Tony's not out to deceive us as readers, his logic and remembering might have some gaps. This is evident when the ex, who now has the diary and doesn't want to give it up, sends Tony a copy of a letter he sent to her shortly after the breakup. Tony has told us that the breakup was relatively uncomplicated, but the letter is vitriolic. Once he sees the letter he reasons that he just forgot writing it.

There is a reward for all this introspection-- the plot picks up significantly in the last third. Although the turn of events is a surprise, it also makes perfect sense. And my sense of this ending was that Barnes got it just right.

Now the inevitable question-- is it right for a book club? It depends on the book club. It's nice and short, but it is dense, and I think many readers might find the introspection kind of boring. There is at least one sex scene, lots of talk of frustrated lust, and a good smattering of cursing.