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The Sense of an Ending (Hardback)
$19.62 - Save $1.04 (5%) - RRP $20.66 Free delivery worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours | |Short Description for The Sense of an EndingTony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.
Full description- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
- Published: 27 October 2011
- Format: Hardback 160 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Contemporary Fiction
- ISBN 13: 9780224094153 ISBN 10: 0224094157
- Sales rank: 79
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Reviews for The Sense of an Ending
How our memories change
I did not want to like this book as I have become somewhat cynical about award winners, they never seem to live up to the hype, so with trepidation I sat down and read this in a day. It wasn't perfect and sometimes the language saw me reach for the dictionery, but I loved the sense of how our memories change over time especially when we are forced to retell them to others. Read my full review at http://www.ourbookclub.net.au/LiteratureAndFiction2012.php by Tracy Hudson
- Top review
Engaging enough but hardly ground-breaking
The winner of the Man-Booker Prize, I think this book can be well summed up by the faded-font and scattered dandelion seeds on its cover; delicate, inoffensive and rather fleeting. The story wasn't terribly engaging nor will I remember it for very long having turned the last page, but as it wasn't as awful as the last book I read (Man Booker competitor Snowdrops) I have to give it an extra star or two by default - for what it's worth, it's certainly better written, and regardless of the story, or lack thereof, I did find Barnes' ability to provide a sensitive narrative engaging enough to take me to the end of a book I might have otherwise abandoned.
For readers with an aversion to painfully middle class narrative, somewhat disjointed storytelling (Tony, our main character reminisces over childhood history classes with pages of perfect-recall dialogue while acknowledging his marriage, birth of his daughter and her own wedding in a matter of a single paragraph) or the idea of being left clueless for the majority of the novel, then perhaps this book should be left on the shelf. I daresay that the feeling of cluelessness continues even after the book is finished, as the mysteries and unknown factors are supposedly answered with a somewhat lack-lustre twist which serves only to confuse further, indeed the common insult for Tony is "You don't get it", perhaps that would have been a more suitable title for this novel; "You won't get it." Another gripe is the constant repetition of certain phrases; if I never read the word "corroboration" again it won't be too soon. The tale feels overly drawn out while simultaneously failing to flesh-out any of the characters; we are told to think Veronica, Tony's ex, as a cruel femme fatale type without a single scrap of evidence to prove it, meanwhile child genius Adrian only proves useful when he resurfaces mid-way as a catalyst for tragedy and even then the effectiveness of this is less than heart-breaking as we simply aren't allowed to get to know his character well enough. Drawn out reflections, a few deaths, a missing diary, bad memories and even an utterly mind-boggling algebraic equation later, the tale all comes to a bizarre end when Tony suddenly "gets it". I'm sorry to say, I honestly didn't. by Leigh
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