Questions About The Sense of an Ending

by Julian Barnes

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Answered Questions (26)

I don't get the ending.. Anyone have an opinion?

John Addiego

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is there anyone else who is confused about Veronica's blaming of Tony for something that he did not himself do and really had no part of except for one angry outburst, under somewhat justifiable provocation? i can't see any rationale for it without ascribing a lot of feelings to her that don't have anything to do with what we see in the text. i've read it twice and i still don't get it.

Sarah Gray

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[Yes.

I just finished this book tonight. I thought it was beautiful, read it quickly over two days, and then felt like the ending (and therefore the whole premise) was a total cop-out, albeit beautifully written.

1) angry teen sends ragey letter. OK, but even this letter felt over the top and out of character for the author. Memory narrative history what is truth yada yada.. those feel like intellectual cheat-screens to mask the fact that it's an implausible letter, and has no place as the central piece of plot.

2) we're supposed to believe that because of this ragey teenage letter... Tony has responsibility for the decisions and lives of the people who read it?

2a) Adrian was a smart guy. The whole book is about "hey this guy Adrian is really smart and thinks things through without emotion". So why would he even bother taking advice out of a red-hot missive, filled with vituperative and ill-expressed emotion, and be like "oh, good idea Tony! I'll go visit this mother and ask if Veronica is damaged". That in itself makes no sense.

3) Ok, so he goes... and then, completely off the page and out-of-scene, has an affair with this woman we've met for all of two pages 40 years ago? That feels like when a mystery is solved and clues weren't even in the book: a cheat.

4) But OK, he has this affair and falls in love: that's on him.

5) She is aged (I pronounce this as two syllables) and has a damaged child. Again, why is this Tony's fault? Also... really??

I feel like this book is in the tradition of books which use "their big reveal" as basically an episode of crazy. Also, it glorifies random acts of male violence ("Hi, I'm Tony & I wrote a letter in a drunken rage calling Veronica a bitch and spelling 'fetus' the english way, while weaving and casting a curse as if I'm a character in Oedipus Rex").

So Tony wrote that letter: it's a ragey outburst of entitled violence, but the book dresses it up in Cambridge gauze, talks about the inconsistencies of memory, and wants us to believe somehow that the strength of this emotion put to paper cast "a curse" that ruined lives.

Its second weak link is the ascription of manipulative status to this "aged mother" without even bothering to flesh out her character. She's a cipher, standing in for "manipulative woman" while Tony, a garden-variety angry dude, gets to be a myth-maker? That feels like a narrative cop-out, attempting to dress up random acts of male rage in mythical stature. It's just not interesting, and it's a weak plot device.
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In Adrian's algebraic equation, a1=Adrian, S=Sarah, and V+Veronica. Clear enough. But what about a2 and b? My first thought was that a2=Adrian Jr and b=baby, but then both values refer to the same person and that doesn't make sense. Am I missing something obvious?

Martin Boer

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Is there any special meaning to Veronica telling her family that Tony wanted a "lie-in" when as he said, she was aware he never had lie-ins? Why did Veronica do that?

Tstottle I took this to mean that Veronica sided with/valued the men in her family and kind of disregarded her mother; she wanted time alone with her father an…moreI took this to mean that Veronica sided with/valued the men in her family and kind of disregarded her mother; she wanted time alone with her father and brother, possibly to show the men that she wasn't too attached to Tony after all, but also to see what they thought of him.(less)

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Did Veronica ever loved Tony? I am really puzzled about how those 2 were in a steady relationship in the first place, as from their conversations it seemed they were planets apart. Tony was attracted to more intellectual people than him, that I can understand, but why Veronica chose him?