tisdag 31 maj 2016

Book review: The Sense of an Ending

Title: The Sense of an Ending
Author: Julian Barnes
Genre: Fiction
Year published: 2011
Pages: ~192
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Bokus, and if that's not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Other: Winner of the Man Book Prize for Fiction in 2011
Previous book review: The List of My Desires

Beautiful and elegant

I absolutely loved this book. The story is told by Tony, and he is telling the reader a story that begun in his youth but ended much later. I don't want to reveal too much of the story, but his friend's suicide and ex girlfriend are involved, along with his dead friend's diary. It's an interesting story, but there was parts in the book when I almost felt like the story came in the way of the things I actually wanted to read about - philosophical thoughts and reflections revolving around issues like history, memory, life and death. I could have read a book twice as long with just old Tony reflecting and contemplating his life or just life in general. And that is something that very easily can become boring, but it was really beautifully written.

The story itself is quite subtle in the beginning, I didn't really grasp the plot - because the plot is not introduced right away - but it wasn't a problem, the way Julian Barnes write is good enough. It was towards the end that I understood everything much clearer, and when I was done reading the book I realized how elegantly the story was put out.

Calm, interesting and recommended

Part of the charm with this book is the beautiful language and the carefully played out plot in a good combination, but I also enjoy the fact that everything appears very calm. I never felt the writer hurrying something just to get to the end, it was like floating on a still river the whole time. In my opinion it's not many books that manages to be so calm and still be that interesting and not at all boring.

I highly recommend this book, it's a good read and you feel like the story is told directly to you. Young Tony and older Tony also show great character development, and the story is good. So whether you appreciate the words and language - like me - or if you think the plot makes the book, read it!

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