Book Review by K.S.Loganathan
Some plot spoilers ahead.
Julian Barnes is a post- modern English writer and translator . His book ‘The Sense of an Ending ‘ was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2011: he had been shortlisted for the award three times earlier.
The story is told by Tony Webster, in two parts . In the first, he recounts events at school in central London where he and his three friends devour books and argue about philosophy while wondering if Life wouldn’t turn out to be like Literature, with character developed over time. Adrian Finn , the most novel-worthy of them , sees History as “the certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” . A boy’s suicide raises discussions about probable causes, and how these could be brought to light . These events foreshadow the shape of things to come.
After finishing school, Adrian goes to Cambridge, while Tony does History at Bristol. Tony’s girlfriend Veronica invites him to meet her family in Kent one weekend where he meets her mother Sarah Ford , who warns him not to let Veronica “get away with too much”. He takes Veronica to meet his friends, when she is impressed with Adrian.They witness the turning of the tidal bore in Bristol one day after midnight. After Tony and Veronica breakup, she goes out with Adrian. Later Tony learns that Adrian has died by suicide, leaving a full philosophical account of his reasons for doing so .
ln the second part which opens many years later, Tony as a divorcee, retiree and father of a daughter, receives a bequest of GBP 500 and two documents from the estate of Mrs Sarah Ford from her attorneys. Why does Mrs Ford leave Adrian’s diary, (which Veronica later claims she destroyed) and money( which Veronica calls ‘blood money’) to Tony ? The story meanders on as Tony searches for answers, and he soon learns that a son Adrian , about 40 years old and needing medical support, is being cared for by Veronica . His sense of an ending is neat , but likely false in our view as we connect the dots and come to the conclusion that Tony is an unreliable narrator and ditherer.
The book deals with past experiences and the failures of memory and interpretations. It is easy to finish in a couple of sittings , but due to the limited number of characters and events, fails to sustain the reader’s interest .
