Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jan 26, 2012

Troy rated it:

**Spoilers**

I would probably have passed this book by were it not for Michael Wood's review, titled 'Stupidly English', in the LRB Vol. 33, number 18. I tend to imagine your Austers, Rushdies, Franzens and Barneses of the publishing world aren't short of readers and don't need me added to those legions. However, if 'The Sense of an Ending' is anything to go by, the greater loss is certainly mine, and I'm grateful Wood's review drew me to Barnes's Booker winner.

On th More...

23 comments like (32 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2012

Elizabeth rated it:

I didn't know Sherman that well. He sat next to me in Algebra freshman year. We were in the far back corner, closer to the class behind us than the teacher, and for the first half of the year all of the material was a repeat for me (fuck you again high school and your insulting policies about mid-year transfers), so we talked more than we paid attention, and, like any healthy fourteen year old, I developed a crush of the kind only fourteen year old girls can have, which means that I was lost in More...

16 comments like (35 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2011

Caris rated it:

The opening scene, which struck me as an overly-pretentious Dead Poets Society, left me with a faint taste of vomit in my mouth. Here we have these boys, and boys they very much are, debating philosophy in such an off-handed way. When they're faced with a true life experience, something that is held out to them, they intellectualize it and forget- proving that all of their books and grand ideas are nothing but a half-assed show. Their words have as much meaning as the foam on a gas station cappu More...

56 comments like (62 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Teresa rated it:

This book got under my skin. Not in the negative way, like what Tony, the narrator, may be doing, or trying to do, to Veronica, who 40 years ago was his first serious girlfriend, but in the way he describes how his ex-wife would dress a chicken -- slipping butter and herbs under the skin, with a delicate hand, never breaking the outer layer. I was hooked from the first page and even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it, even in my sleep, or, more likely, semi-sleep. I was pulled int More...

67 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Melki rated it:

We seem to have little control over our memories. The smallest things - an image, a smell, a color - can trigger scenes from our pasts, with such intensity, that it can cause physical pain.

And then, there is that small grain of doubt. Are we remembering things the way they were, or the way we wished they had been? In our recollections, we surely appear kinder, smarter, younger, thinner and better looking. And we never did anything deliberately cruel... did we?

This is More...

0 comments like (13 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2012

Sue rated it:

So much has been said about this book. I don't want to add spoilers here though most people I know have already read it. Sense of an Ending concerns memory, how we retrieve it and shape it, it's subjectivity and malleability over time, aging which is part of all our lives (should we survive) and inevitable death.

I had a large gap between book 1 and 2 as I was reading it on a friend's iPad. That was a nice experience---as was discussing the book afterward. The reading varied. Barnes' More...

14 comments like (8 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2011

David rated it:

WOW What a book. From beginning to end I was hooked by the story, by the intelligence of the words and the mystery that Julian Barnes subtly unravels before us. This is a novella or short novel (150 pages) but there was not a word lacking nor superfluous. I read it in a day and the ending wallops you.

This is the story of memory and how we use it. It centers on Tony, a sixty-year old who forty years ago was intertwined with two friends Adrian and Veronica, who he dated for a year before More...

2 comments like (29 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

Aldrin rated it:

In the last sentence of the first paragraph of the new, Booker-shortlisted novella “The Sense of an Ending,” the narrator states that “what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.” Preceding it is a short list of what he remembers: “a shiny inner wrist,” “steam rising from a wet sink,” “gouts of sperm circling a plughole,” “a river rushing nonsensically upstream,” “another river,” and “bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door.” Following it is a hundred-plus More...

18 comments like (30 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2012

Ellie rated it:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes begins as an engaging if somewhat familiar story of a group of English boys coming of age and making their way in the world with the member of the group Adrian Finn the "different" and "mostly likely to" stand out in the world member of the group. The narrator is one of the other three boys who all meet at school and negotiate their way from the middle class into the world of 1960s' London.

About 3/4 through the book, the hea More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Jo Anne rated it:

It was hard for me to like this book. I didn't like the main character Tony Webster, a sixty something lonely divorced man filled with nostalgia and regret about the past. The author had several great philosophical insights that made the book worthwhile. I just wish he could have left the rest out.

I did not care for the retelling of Tony's past relationships, including his friends in high school and college, lovers, marriages, and divorce. I suppose it was all necessary for the autho More...

2 comments like (16 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

Cheryl rated it:

A wonderful book. Tony, an older man, recently retired, reflects on his callow teenage years and the relationships he had with his best friends, and with his first girlfriend. More recent events make him think again about the nature of memory, and about the rolling changes of history. Their history teacher many years ago had asked them to consider, 'What is history?'. One of Tony's friends Adrian said that "History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memor More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Kinga rated it:

Let me begin by saying that I don’t mind short, understated books – novellas if you like. I do like them. What I don’t like is paying the same money for a 150 page book, that could have easily been written by a skilled writer in a month, that I have to pay for a 826 page book involving loads of research full of medieval and linguistic references (yes, I am reading Nicola Barker’s Darkmans). I just don’t think that’s fair.

That said, it was a pretty decent book. It follows a very simpl More...

2 comments like (14 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2012

Riku rated it:

What a wonderful wonderful novel. No, not a novel, or a novella; it was a poem, with rhythm, repetition, and cadence, looping back on itself. Yes, it can only be called a poem - a poem about time, about forgotten time, long gone cold.

Having laid off from new Booker winners after a traumatic experience with Adiga, I started on this book with a lot of trepidation. But I was drawn in from the first paragraph and the amazing childhood anecdotes seemed to be promising a night of unbroken More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Readingjay rated it:

Some books you can finish, put aside and never give another thought to. Some, you are glad to have read and know that they will resonate for quite a while, if not forever. My first Julian Barnes, the winner of this year's Booker Prize, is the latter. An elegant not-quite-novel (at 150 pages) the tone is confidential and ultimately confessional as Tony grapples with the tricks of memory. In two parts, initially he tells us of his senior schooldays and the arrival of the charismatic and extremely More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2012

Jann rated it:

I read this in one sitting. It definitely deserved the Man Booker Prize!

Julian Barnes was able to pack so much into these pages. This is a phenomenal character study about what we think we remember, what actually (?) happened, and how we never know other people, much less our own selves.

Anthony, the narrator, Alexander, and Colin are already good friends when Adrian comes to their school and becomes a member of their group, even though he is so serious and in some ways, o More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Zornitsa rated it:

Рядко съм срещала толкова ясно и поетизирано чувството за тревожност - от съзнанието за собствените граници, от усещането, че собствената ти история страда от същите недостатъци като онази, писаната от историците - неминуемо орязана откъм факти, които не се вписват в официалната версия, неминуемо непълна, субективна, подлежаща на оборване, на неласкави прочити.
Остарявайки, героят се опитва да затвори някои от нишките на своята история. Човъркан от презрението, демонстрирано към него от няк More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Gerald rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

17 comments like (28 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Seth rated it:

I read the Sense of an Ending for my book group. Previously I had never heard of the author Julian Barnes. So my book group is serving its purpose of expanding my horizons. I look forward to a lively discussion a week from now.

The themes of this book are the nature of time and the importance of personal closure. I will withhold all specific comments about the plot. Suffice it to say that the narrator, Tony Webster, plays a vital role in how events unfold. After all, the book is essen More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2011

Felicity rated it:

This is the third book from the 2011 Man Booker Prize Shortlist I've read. Patrick DeWitt's "The Sisters Brothers" remains far-and-away my favorite, but I can't say whether it's the best (or the most deserving winner). Both books are far superior to A. D. Miller's "Snowdrops," in my view. So that's my rankings so far.

Barnes' novel (or novella) is very short--only 160 pages. You will easily be able to read it in one sitting. The book has generated much discuss More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Fionnuala rated it:

One of the things I admire about Barnes is the pared down nature of his writing. Every word counts. The division of the novella into two parts counts too. Has anyone noticed that the reader could start with Part Two and the book wouldn't be any less clear. In fact, possible answers to most of the questions raised at the end of the book can be found on rereading Part One. More enlightenment comes while rereading Part Two.
(The following paragraph may contain spoilers) As to the possible answ More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 08, 2012

Maggie rated it:

I was drawn in by the opening chapters and the novel looked pretty promising to start with. It then drifted into a mundane, contrived and wearisome ending.

I kept looking out for a big surprise but it never deliver! A bit of a letdown really. I know, it won the Booker Prize and I read such rave reviews from other readers. I am torn between giving it three or four stars. It should really be a three and half.

I do not like the characters in the novel: Tony Webster the narr More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2012

Linda rated it:

Wow!

It is so unusual that I like an illustrious award winner. Usually my response is "What did the judges see in this book?" the Sense of an Ending breaks that chain. This slim volume captivate me from the beginning. The chronology progresses swiftly from pre-university to retirement with the main character reflecting on happenings of 40 years previously. Something I find myself doing now that I'm the same age as Tony.

If you are one to read the ending before the beg More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Karen rated it:

Quite simply superb. A featherweight with the punching power of the Klitchko brothers. Both of them.
Gah! Typing on this annoying little touch screen is soooo irritating. A proper review to come.

Here it comes! And spoilers with it, so BEWARE.

This is a book that does not let you go easily. It irritates like an itch. Just like my GR friend Teresa says in her review it creeps under the skin, much like Margaret's way with a chicken, dressing it with butte More...

13 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2012

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

Maybe, like Tony, I just don't get it, but this was a whole lot of Man Booker-winning to-do about very little.

Pretentious, upper middle-class schoolboys behave badly, and -- through too much ego and too little self-knowledge and empathy, too many book smarts and not enough life experience -- inflict cruelty on ex-girlfriends and others as they cavalierly grow out of their coddled adolescence into a ho-hum average life. It then comes back to haunt them - or one of them, anyway - in More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2012

Auntjenny rated it:

Definitely has a plot, but a pathetic one. Thin characters, cliched ideas. I feel annoyed by having read this book. OK, there was one good quote: “Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn't all it's cracked up to be.”

But ultimately, the plot is a gimmick! I don't understand how this won the Booker Prize.

What the heck did Tony ever do to anyone except send a crap More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Julie rated it:

There were probably some good thoughts and ideas in this book but they were told along with a story that was quite boring for most of the book and I had a hard time concentrating. It got a little more interesting in the last part, but I figured out the ending, so it was not a surprise. Tony might not get it, but I did.

Boring plot + annoying characters=blah book

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Laurie rated it:

In ‘The Sense of an Ending’, Julian Barnes explores memory, relationships and disillusionment.

The tale is told in the first person. Tony Webster is our protagonist; the first section of the book is his youth. He and three friends, including Adrian Finn, get through their last year of school and scatter to different colleges. In school, they feel that they are just waiting for their lives to begin; that adventures will come to them once they are out of the holding pen. Adrian is the be More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

Grady rated it:

Now and Then a great Thing

According to the encyclopedia 'the Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success; therefore, the prize is of great significance for the book trade.' Julian Barnes deserves this year's Booker Prize for his lumin More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2012

Richda rated it:

This is an extremely distubing book, especially if you're over 50 - I don't think it would have quite the impact on someone in their 20's or 30's. Although quite short as novels go, it packs a powerful wallop, and really flattens you in the last three pages. We remember our lives through the eyes of justification and altered memory - and when forced to confront the actual events, we sometimes have to confront our true selves - and it's not always a pleasant confrontation. There were several p More...

0 comments like

Feb 18, 2012

Rebeccahowden rated it:

Carefully distilled into a slim novella, Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending is a sombre and intriguing story that questions the reliability of memory and highlights the limits of self-knowledge. The winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, the exquisitely written book centres on the frustrating puzzle of “not getting it” the first time around, and having to revisit the past to make sense of the memories we construct ourselves.

The novella opens with narrator Tony Webster’s recollections More...

0 comments like