Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 247

How To Become A Tyrant – Quick Review

Peter Dinklage has the voice of a God. It wasn’t until the credits rolled in for the first episode of “How To Become A Tyrant” that I realized Dinklage was the narrator of this docu-series.

This deviously witty documentary talks of a “playbook” that will help aspiring tyrants on the path of world domination. Divided into six episodes, the makers then explain how six infamous tyrants made their mark in history. And it obviously starts with the führer – Adolf Hitler – and the title of the episode is “seize power”.

So how did Hitler seize power? “How To Become A Tyrant” makers introduce to us a young Hitler who was merely another one of the many German soldiers duringn World War I. But not for long. And here’s what makes this documentary stand-out from all the 1000s of explainers on these villains – some really good animation. For the historical bits where there is no archival footage to go along, the team conjures up animation to carry the story forward, instead of an “expert” or “narrator” looking at the screen and delivering monologues.

Each episode is spun like a mystery novel, trying to crack the key to brutality of a famous few. Throw in Dinklage’s deep-throated narrator voice, some grunge-style music, clean bold info-graphics, colourful animation and you have the recipe for an engaging documentary. Although, there’s definitely some subtle American propaganda thrown in the mix, conveying how their formula of democracy and leadership style is what’s best for the people. Let’s give you a clear example – each animated parallels of the tyrants are given these mad shiny eyes, like those of a serial killer. Ensuring you see them as treacherous figures, even if they looked quite ordinary.

After Adolf Hitler, we have Saddam Hussein, followed by Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin, Muammar Gaddafi and finally the North Korean dictators – the Kim family. Viewers will soon begin to see a pattern to these oppressive regimes that terrorised different parts of the world. And there isn’t just a pattern that stands out, but soon, viewers who follow world politics will also be able to draw parallels with national leaders that are at the helm of democratic nations. Maybe all leaders have a little tyrant tucked away in a deep corner of their heart. Because let’s get real, like Dinklage says at the beginning – we all want absolute power, we just don’t know how to get it.

Of all the episodes, the last one felt a little rushed and unsatisfactory. It’s perhaps because unlike the first five parts where the focus is only on one cult personality, Korea didn’t have just one successful tyrant, but three. So the episode is split into three parts and given the fact that Kim Jong-un’s reign is still an ongoing history, it becomes tricky to satisfactorily wrap the story.

“How To Become A Tyrant” is one of those rare documentaries that has a high re-watch value. You could watch it with the entire family, and maybe start laying a foundation for your own Kim style family dynasty.

Searching for Jimmy Page – Book Review

“Don’t eyeball the moon, my great-grandfather used to say. Don’t you get yourself some back luck. I was fettered to his folklore, just as I was fettered to my hometown…” – this quote from the novel ‘Searching for Jimmy Page’ by Christy Alexander Hallberg is symbolic of the strongest theme in her book – the difficulty of letting go.

It’s an impressive debut book that’s set in the 1980s, about eighteen-year-old Luna Kane, who finds herself asking questions about her dead mother and the identity of a father she never knew. Hallberg carefully weaves this story, ensuring readers can’t just casually speed-read through it, because the sentences need a little extra attention or you wouldn’t be able to savor their rhythm or understand their meaning.

The plot is pretty straightforward – a young girl gathers courage to leave her small American town, to look for Jimmy Page, the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist who her mother was obsessed with. Luna lands in London, desperately hoping that meeting Page will help explain the missing chapters of her mother’s life. But is she prepared for the adventure and harsh realities of life that await her as she takes off from her home, to meet somebody that doesn’t even know she exists? That forms the rest of the story.

Luna’s character is an interesting contrasts of traits, she seems wise beyond her years, yet gullible in ways somebody who has never stepped out of their small town can be. She is a literature student who can quote the greats, but is asocial, with just one friend to rely on. Her mother killed herself when Luna wasonly nine and Hallberg vividly describes the tragedy in poignant flashbacks. I don’t believe in trigger-warnings, but there is some self-harm in the story, so be prepared for some graphic content.

The book almost reads like a non-fiction memoir, which is a compliment to the author for spinning a tale that is steeped in reality and the Rock n’ Roll era of the 60s/70s. For fans, this would come across as a fitting tribute to the legacy of Led Zepellin, and for non-fans, it creates a strong sense of intrigue – you feel the need to know more about these rock Gods who held so much sway on their followers and the ‘groupie’ culture. I found myself looking up a lot on Jimmy Page and his band-mates, leading me to a never-ending bank of trivia about their contemporaries and lifestyles. While I ended up reading some disturbing details about the musicians, Hallberg largely keeps it to the enigmatic side of the spectrum.

The story unfolds in a linear fashion, and even though some flashbacks are interspersed in between, the narration continues to flow smoothly. The only thing that felt slightly unrealistic was Luna’s powerful memories of her mother, she is able to conjure an eerily real vision of her 9-year-old self and the suicide. As a reader one has to be wary about the authenticity of these impressions. Luna’s memories could’ve been tailored in her head to suit her own expected image of the past. Or they could just be dreams that the protagonist passes off as reality. We cannot be sure.

The climax is grounded, and will be satisfactory for most readers. Luna builds a grand illusion and we all know how that can end. ‘Searching for Jimmy Page’ is a coming-of-age tale, that artfully mixes music, poetry, travel and memories. It’s easy to tell that the author is a professor of English, with meticulously constructed prose and clever allusions to literary greats constantly popping up through the book.

It’s a 4/5 from me.

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‘A First Love Story’ – Short Film Review

Don’t you just love it when YouTube recommends a nice short-film to watch when you are browsing your home page? Well, today morning a Korean film called “A First Love Story” by a studio called Strongberry came up on my recommendations. It’s about two best-friends realizing their relationship might be more than just platonic, when one of them announces he is going to join the army soon.

Korean male citizens have to perform compulsory military service for about two years before they turn 28. This 2021 short film explores the emotions of two close friends, who will no longer get to see each other every day, because one of them has decided to take up the call of duty to the nation. Jaeseong casually announces his decision to Mingyu while reading a comic.

“How can you say such a thing without a notice?” Mingyu asks. He is completely surprised.

“Everybody is going, it’s nothing special” Jaeseong shrugs.

But in less than a few minutes, the makers encapsulate the maturing of a relationship, triggered by an inevitable possibility of a separation. The setting is warm and cosy – in Mingyu’s bedroom, with photos, drawings and medals, symbolic of an easy intimacy between the protagonists. The second-half of the story unfolds on a neighboring street, as if foreshadowing their farewell. But first, there’s love to be found.

Actors Kim Hyeongwon & Jung Jaewoon play the leads, their camaraderie is fun to watch, like two childhood friends having their usual banter. Given the short run-time, it’s great that the makers don’t try to stuff any other characters into the plot, keeping it simple, without any distractions.

The climax is sweet, ending on an open but positive note, with room enough for the makers to do a follow-up film. I’ll leave you with the trailer. Watch the film if you are up for a sunny LGBTQ+ short movie.

Black Widow Review – Boring AF

Natasha Romanoff deserved her own standalone spin-off ages ago, and Marvel Studios finally gives us one in 2021, a story that picks off right after ‘Avengers Civil War’ film (that came out in 2016). With Marvel guys bombarding fans with one creation after another, who even cares for a timeline that’s five years too late? Okay, a lot of us did, but director Cate Shortland’s film wasn’t worth the wait at all.

Scarlett Johansson as Romanoff looks more tired than Rachel Weisz who plays her mother in the movie. And viewers would be tired half-way through the runtime. Honestly, this film turned out to be such a boring disappointing mess, that it really feels a little pointless to write a review, because it’s only going to end up looking like long rant. For starters – the whole plot seemed about a soppy fake family reunion, than Black Widow trying to dismantle the ‘Red Room’, a sinister soviet-era program that turns orphan girls into deadly assassins. So we get to meet Natasha’s ‘sister’ Yelena (Florence Pugh), her ‘mother’ Melina (Rachel Weisz) and ‘father’ Alexei (David Harbour), all of whom are Russian agents for ‘Red Room’. Alexei is the soviet equivalent of Captain America, a ‘super soldier’, who was imprisoned in the 90s after successfully stealing S.H.I.E.L.D intel for the Russians.

“They are making movie mistakes that Bollywood made in the 1990s” my co-watcher exclaimed during a scene where Romanoff screams “get us out of here” to a helicopter that’s hovering quite far-away from her. And it’s really hilarious, because seconds later, when Romanoff does get on to the chopper with Alexei, the latter says something to Yelena who’s on the pilot seat, but she cannot hear him. But she could hear Romanoff over a lot of shooting and explosions, meters away on the ground? Sure.

The movie does start on a promising note, but keeps getting hare-brained, ridiculous and unnecessarily emotional. The second-half was a total snooze-fest. The usual easy humor viewers are used to seeing in Marvel movies is completely missing from this one. They try to make fun of their own tropes, but even those jokes fall flat. Even the soundtrack does not stand-out and it can make so much of a difference during combat scenes. Remember how the Led Zeppelin track ‘Immigrant’ made Thor’s awakening as the God of thunder so much more iconic during the climactic war scene of the Ragnarok film? No such moment in the Black Widow film.

Above all the little things that the makers overlooked, it’s really bad, lazy writing that sinks this ship, because the cast is completely top-notch. Florence Pugh is able to match up to Johansson’s screen presence and the two make a good fighting team. But well, like I’ve said in some earlier reviews, a good cast cannot save a bad script. A lot of potential is wasted, despite names like Eric Pearson, Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson onboard – they have worked on Ragnarok, Wanda-Vision.

It’s a 4/10 from me.

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10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes

If you aren’t into reading long book reviews, listen to our podcast episode 46, where we quickly talk about 10 books and if you should read them. The titles we cover are as follows –

1. Nectar In A Sieve – Kamala Markandaya

2. The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune

3. 30 Days of Night – Steve Niles

4. Klaus – Grant Morrison & Dan Mora

5. The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

6. Eva Goes Solo – Evangeline Neo

7. Spellbound – Bishakh Som

8. Remind – Jason Brubaker

9. The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes

10. I Think I Am In Friend Love With You – Yumi Sakugawa

Please subscribe to the channel on YouTube, if you still haven’t.

‘The Call’ Review – Packs A ‘Killer’ Duo

If you suspend your sense of logic for a while, you will enjoy watching the 2020 Korean thriller ‘The Call’, which is about two women finding themselves connected over the phone, even though they live in different eras. Another twist – they live in the same house.

Directed by Lee Chung-hyun, ‘The Call’ is a gripping tale of a serial killer and a hapless victim from the future. Seo Yun (Park Shin-hye) lives in the present day Korea and finds herself on a call with Yong-sook (Jeon Jong-seo) who is dialing from the 1990s. While Yong-sook doesn’t believe Seo Yun at first, the latter gives her proof by reading out a tragedy that is scheduled to take place in her timeline (by looking up the internet of-course). Convinced, the two begin tampering with the past, with dangerous results.

The two ladies in the lead are the absolute heart of this film, while Jeon Jong-seo is great as an unsuspecting victim, Park Shin-hye is deliciously evil as Yong-sook. She is not your average serial-killer, she is impulsive to the point of being stupid, but she has a great asset on her side – a contact from the future to help her evade law and keep up the blood-lust. Actor Lee El as Yong-sook’s mother looks every bit the witch/shaman she is made out to be. It’s a power-packed women led-film.

Stylishly edited, with gothic tones, grunge-y Japanese rock music from the 90s is blended brilliantly throughout the course of the story. The juxtaposition of the cassette player era versus the social media modern day makes for fun viewing. The contrast between the two leading characters is also intriguing, one is a stone-cold mentally sick murderer, while the other one is an emotional daddy’s little girl. Although Seo Yun’s character matures in a short period of time and isn’t one dimensional as it seems in the beginning.

There are no moral lessons to take away from the story, except for maybe – don’t talk to strangers, claim to be calling from the past. The writers take a lot of fictional liberties, which sort of makes the Korean cops look like half-wit fools. The flitting between the past and the present is cleverly done, with some chilling twists in between. The pacing is done very well, and so much is happening on the screen all the time that viewers will find themselves invested in the plot till the end.

For most part, it’s a satisfactory watch, however, towards the end, the makers get ahead of themselves and make a major timeline blunder, which absolutely makes NO sense. It’s like those little twists one usually gets to see in the last few seconds of horror movies, and was completely unnecessary in this film. So the super-dumb climactic twist is maddening, but if you deduct that from the story, ‘The Call’ is a gripping one time watch.

It’s a 7/10 from me.

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Cinderella Review – Like A Parody, But Barely Funny

Cinderella has to be one of the most vanilla fairy tale in the Disney realm, unless you read the bloodier Brother’s Grimm version of-course. Yet, movie-makers cannot seem to stop themselves from picking these old tales and giving them their own little touch. So the 2021 ‘Cinderella’, a musical directed & written by Kay Cannon, has very little to offer in terms of ‘new’ material, except for giving the heroine purpose and a ‘fabulous’ Godmother.

The film is an awkward combination of fluff, fake sets and a grand castle. The story starts off in a fictional place that’s simply referred to as ‘an old-fashioned’ kingdom. The townsfolk dance to a fun rendition of Janet Jackson’s ‘Rhythm Nation’ and the kingdom looks like an elaborate set from High School Musical. Seriously, it feels like a bunch of senior college students taking part in a musical. Cinderalla’s step-mother Vivian (Idina Menzel) and sisters are also introduced as they sing and dance to this communal anthem of being a part of a ‘rhythm nation’.

The narrator introduces our heroine by noting how her face is often besmirched by cinders, thus her name Cinderalla (Camila Cabello), however, ironically, Camilla actually looks perfect, caked with minimal make-up. No cinders whatsoever. By this time, one begins to wonder about the odd costume designs, except for Cinderella who wears a maid’s dress, everybody else is just in random colorful clothes. When Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine) is finally introduced, the script pretty much makes him out to be a rich brat who loves nothing more than drinking and hunting his days away. They quickly try to redeem that image a little later and make him seem like some sort of tragic hero who is least interested in royal life, bullied by the king into behaving a certain way. Why so confused guys?

The first 20-30 minutes of the film has very little charm and is quite insufferable. Things only start to get better when the Prince meets Cinderella for the first time, although he is disguised as a commoner. Camila Cabello and Nicholas Galitzine are adorable in their first interaction, but just as the film gets its first sweet moment, the scene is interrupted by an ANNOYING song routine, to announce the grand ball, where the prince will choose his bride.

It’s nice that the makers try to elevate Cinderella from this poor damsel in distress, and make her ambitious, someone who loves to designs clothes and would rather be a dressmaker than someone’s wife. But they barely push the envelope. And if you are not going to be too serious about the theme, then why not go a little more crazy and give the audience some over the top fun-fantastical stuff? For example, every time the characters break into a song and dance routine, they could’ve just changed the sets into more fun settings, instead of just keeping the routine limited to one background. And it could be me, but Cinderella’s magic dress for the ball was so underwhelming.

The whole ‘fabulous godmother’ twist was nice, Billy Porter plays this gender-fluid fairy (pun wasn’t intended) in a gorgeous orange-gold dress, and when he breaks into a song in Cinderella’s backyard, the makers could’ve easily given the scene some more grand elements, except for some boring fairy dust spewing out of his wand. Boring. Boring. Boring. Cinderella might be more ambitious in the film, but the makers – not so much. It would be interesting to see Camila Cabello and Nicholas Galitzine cast in a present-day romance, because they make a great-onscreen couple. But given the muddled script in this fairy-tale, their chemistry gets lost in the bland chaos.

For most parts, this 2021 film feels like a parody of the fairy tale genre, but lacks imagination and is barely funny. The CGI mice who play Cinderella’s friends were cute though and will manage to crack up the viewers a little. Director Kay Cannon comes across as trying too hard to be cool, going as far as making even Cinderella say “cool” in one scene. There is also the sneaky suspicion that creeps into your mind – maybe the makers were banking on Cabello’s popularity as a pop-star to roll this movie into the hall of fame. Well, that doesn’t change the fact that a good cast is wasted on a weak script.

It’s a 5/10 from me.

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Listen to episode 29 for some fun movie recommendations.

Voltaire’s Candide Review- Ridiculous, Entertaining, Boring in Bits

It’s funny how we didn’t have any of Voltaire’s work as mandatory reading as literature students, makes me question my degree a little. Anyway….

‘Candide’ is a novella sized satire, first published in 1759, and Voltaire had it printed in four different countries anonymously, without having his name or the publisher’s name on any page. Because he mocks the church, criticizes monarchies and didn’t want to end up in Bastille for pissing off people. The story follows young Candide, who gets thrown out of his castle, ends up in the Bulgarian military, is almost beaten to death, shuffled around the world, escaping death dozens of times through the course of this ridiculous and hilarious work.

Through his protagonist, the simple-minded Candide, Voltaire exposes and exaggerates all possible vices to be found in the world of men. It almost feels like there is no civilization, and perhaps it is reflective of the times in which he lived, where monarchies still ruled most of humanity, and men were feuding barbarians, ready to murder and rape at the drop of a hat. After a point, it’s hard to keep track of the number of lands Candide travels to, either fleeing from death or on the lookout for the woman he loves. And almost everywhere he goes, he is swindled in some way or the other. But it seems that every mortal in this story has had tragedy upon tragedy befall upon them, so much so that they can have a contest to see who has led a more miserable life, and it will hard to decide upon a winner.

Reading Voltaire makes one wonder if he is the source of the ‘comeback’/’back from the dead’ trope, popular in most television shows across the world – where a beloved character dies, only to be found alive after a few episodes. Although, one needs to credit Voltaire’s extraordinary wit, because at least his characters have more logical reasons for re-surfacing, than the ones in modern soaps. Remember, Joey from the American sitcom making a comeback as Dr Drake Ramoray in a tv soap, long after his character dies and is then resurrected after a brain surgery? Or if you are an Indian, you’d perhaps know of the many Ekta Kapoor serials, where characters die only to to be brought back from the dead in the most ingenious of ways. Voltaire’s influence is clearly everlasting.

For a lot of readers, ‘Candide’ doesn’t become interesting till at least chapter eight, until then, the story feels very disjointed and pointless, the protagonist simply floating through life, with some incredible luck on his side. In-fact, Candide is ridiculously fortunate, almost like the 18th century version of Rajinikanth (an Indian super-star who can stop bullets with his teeth), somebody who constantly survives death by a whisker. Tempests, earthquakes, lashes, daggers, diseases, nothing proves fatal to our hero. While some would say he is extremely unfortunate, but with his simple wit and easy trusting nature, he is rather extraordinarily lucky.

As far as Voltaire’s own influences are concerned, it’s very obvious that he drew heavy inspiration from the ‘1001 Nights’, stories from the Arab world. There’s an ‘oriental’ touch to the way he describes scenes that involve traveling to new places. And just like ‘1001 Nights’ embeds several tales within tales, most characters in Candide too keep narrating interesting stories. In-fact, along with mocking the Catholic church, Voltaire doesn’t shy away from mocking Islam either. There’s a part where a character recalls Muslim men of plundering and raping women, but never failing to do their prayer five times a day, amid all the chaos and barbarity. With the church he takes even more liberties, going as far as having a fictional Pope with a bastard child.

A lot of witty parallels to real figures will be lost on contemporary readers, because like most writers, Voltaire was in the habit of basing his characters on people he encountered. So It’s easy to see why the author would have wanted to remain anonymous with this wild sarcastic tale. He takes jibes at the the French, the German, the Arabs, the Bulgarians, Jews, well, pretty much everybody. If there’s one idealistic place in the text, it’s the mythical “El Dorado”, a rich inaccessible kingdom, where gold has the value of clay, diamonds and precious gems are considered mere pebbles, and travelers who accidentally find their way into that elusive kingdom, are treated no less than visiting kings. It’s the only place where the hero finally has some respite, and is able to take a real break, and yet, he leaves, for love. Of course.

In subtle ways, Voltaire contradicts all sorts of philosophies he presents through the story. While many a times he extols the virtues of being wealthy, simultaneously, he also displays how riches can only doom one to suffer more misery. Then there’s the optimistic philosophy he professes through Candide’s tutor Pangloss, who firmly believes that “every effect has a cause, and that things happen for the best”. But Pangloss expounds his theory in such an imbecilic manner, that one loathes Candide’s faithful admiration for the man. For example, according to Pangloss, people eat pork, hence, pigs are on earth to be eaten. His explanation amounts to making the effect responsible for the cause and not vice-versa.

I have to confess that half-way through, I really lost interest in the text, it gets really boring and tedious in between, and the 18th century English is just doesn’t make for smooth reading. Yet, as readers, you get invested enough to want to know what happens in the end, and the small size of the story helps. Most popular modern works seem a lot less exciting against this work, which has so much happening, that it’s ludicrous and fantastical.

It’s a 4/5 from me.

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Listen to Episode 45 – 15 Freaky Facts About The Case ‘Conjuring 3’ Is Based On

Honor Girl – Graphic Memoir Review

It’s so easy to forget what it was like to be a teen, when infatuations could seem like the end of the world if they weren’t reciprocated. Maggie Thrash in her graphic memoir ‘Honor Girl’, poignantly draws her life as 15-year-old camper, navigating with feelings for a 19-year-old counselor.

The story unfolds at the 100-year-old Camp Bellowflower for christian girls, where their days are spent blissfully in the woods, playing outdoor games or sports, reading Harry Potter, mooning over boys, teasing each other and doing little mandatory chores. Maggie is much shorter than her peers, and is slightly on the asocial side, so she prefers spending her time at the rifle range doing target practice, since it’s the highest point in the camp and very few like to hike it up. Kevin Richardson from the ‘Backstreet Boys’ is Maggie’s ideal type, so she is taken aback when she finds herself obsessed with Erin, an older girl.

The art-style in the book is very simple, like color-pencil illustrations made by a teenager, giving the mood an adolescent innocent touch. And yet, the themes are not all that simple, neither are the several girls that appear in the book, camping out and taking jabs at each other, in both fun and devious ways. Maggie’s recollections will make most nostalgic of their own teen years, regardless of whether they’ve ever attended a summer camp, isolated from the adult world for weeks.

Maggie pulls you into the past, among the giggles of her friends, and you get lost in that awkward age between adolescence and adulthood, acutely feeling the protagonist’s confusion and despair. Muggle love is such, that even the enchanting spells of the wizarding world pale in front of it. Readers would love the carmarderie between Maggie and some of her friends, who try to encourage her to pursue her feeling for the senior girl and don’t put her down for a second.

‘Honor Girl’ is a title that is bestowed upon one chosen girl in the camp, someone who is considered an ideal camper, who everyone else can look up to. The girls have a candle ceremony where everyone would light a candle, then take turns to touch the flame of the honor girl’s candle, a symbolic attempt at sharing her virtues. The title is symbolic, because for Maggice Thrash, the ‘weirdo’ for who like girls, being a ‘honor girl’ is the last thing on her mind. But who is to say what an ‘ideal’ camper is?

I loved reading every page of this graphic novel, from the simple illustrations, to the range of different girl characters, each asserting their individuality in their own unique ways. It’s funny how you will find so many relatable elements in the book, doesn’t matter if you aren’t a teen anymore, or a lesbian.

It’s a 5/5 for me.

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Listen to Episode 45 – 15 Freaky Facts About The Case ‘Conjuring 3’ Is Based On

The Sense of An Ending – Book Review

While reading ‘The Sense of An Ending’, there comes a point, where some readers will experience a wave of anxiety wash over them, making them want to begin chronicling their lives in a diary, so that they won’t be a blank page when they are old and fading. Well, at least that’s how I felt.

The 2011 novel by British author Julian Barnes, is a compelling story of how we twist our memories, to suit how we see our past selves. Like several historians have said, if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. Barnes’ book is one of those rare novels, where the theme hits you stronger than anything else. You might forget the plot, the characters, perhaps even the climax, but Barnes’ little lesson on human memory might stick around in your head for a long while.

The protagonist Tony Webster, is an ordinary middling man, now in his 60s, recalling his life and friends from school. His school friend Adrian Finn stands out the most, an earnest intelligent boy, seriously philosophizing about life, while his chums joke around. Finn eventually gets a scholarship to Cambridge and the boys barely stay in touch. Tony completely stops talking to Finn, when the latter starts dating Tony’s ex-girlfriend Veronica. However, months later, Finn commits suicide, leaving a note citing existential reasons – he didn’t choose the gift of life, so he chooses to end it. It’s hard to share Tony’s admiration for Finn, like he is some sort of tragic-philosophical-hero, who achieved eternal youth by dying young. Whatever.

Anyway, Tony continues to live an ordinary life, gets married, has a kid, gets an amicable divorce, has grand-kids, and lives a simple enough retired life. But things shake up when Veronica’s mother leaves him money and a diary – Adrian Finn’s diary. But Veronica, who he hasn’t even seen in four decades, refuses to hand it over. So what does the diary hold? And why leave it for Tony? Veronica makes it clear she is not going to simply hand him the diary and Tony is adamant of subtly badgering her about it. As the mystery unfolds, the reader is revealed that Tony’s story isn’t as straightforward as he made it out to be.

Barnes brilliantly depicts how dating and relationships worked in the 1960s, a time when the young folks were caught between the old Victorian morality of staying chaste, and the magic of modern contraception that allowed sexual freedom. However, the perils of accidental pregnancy and the ignominy that follows, still held a lot of horses back. There’s a lot of nostalgic value to the story, especially for anybody who has seen a time when hand-held mobile phones hadn’t penetrated the lives of all classes. In-fact, it’s owing to our digital devices, that our memories have become even more fragile than before, retaining less and less.

Barnes’ writing style is simple, conversational and easy to read. Some of the British slang might be lost on non-UK readers, but there are few such instances, so it doesn’t get annoying. The book is almost novella sized, so there isn’t exactly a lot of space for characters to bloom. And since Tony Webster the protagonist, is also the narrator, the reader has to heavily rely on his account of things and people. And as the story progresses, the reader realizes that Webster may not be a very good judge of character, making his evaluation of all supporting characters questionable.

Towards the climax, Barnes cleverly builds up a lot of intrigue in the plot, almost as if some big terrible secret is going to be unraveled. I had guessed a possible twist early on, and my prediction came true, but not all readers can foresee it. Or maybe I am just being pompous. Fine, maybe it’s slightly predictable for a few readers, so for them the ending will feel a little underwhelming. Barnes leaves us with some barmy philosophical rumination in the last page, and that’s supposed to console the readers who were perhaps hoping for more. Maybe some sort of closure between Veronica and Tony.

At the heart of it, ‘The Sense of An Ending’ is an ordinary tale, about a man forced to confront his past and finding new meanings to old actions. Of having to re-look the way he saw those close to him. Of accepting his mistakes, apologizing, and making peace with himself. And like I said at the beginning, it left me with this need to begin chronicling my life, so I won’t desperately look for lost memories when I am older.

It’s a 4/5 from me.

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Listen to Episode 45 – 15 Freaky Facts About The Case ‘Conjuring 3’ Is Based On