The Sense of an Ending (2011)
Who wrote it?
Julian Patrick Barnes (1946- ; active 1980- ), born Leicester, England but brought up in suburban London. He studied Modern Languages at Magdalen College, Oxford, and subsequently worked for the OED and then as a reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesman and New Review, before becoming a television critic alongside the early years of his fiction writing in the 80s.
His first novel, Metroland (1980) draws on themes observed from his life in suburbia. His subsequent novels have ranged from relatively straightforward relationship studies (such as Talking it Over (1991) and is sequel Love, Etc.) to experimental non-linear narratives like Flaubert's Parrot (1984) and A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1989.) The former was shortlisted for the Booker along with the comic dystopia England, England (1998) and Holmesian historical metafiction Arthur & George (2005.) The Sense of an Ending is his first and thusfar only Booker winner, though he has won numerous other awards including the Commandeur of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, where he has been highly regarded since the publication of Flaubert's Parrot. In the 80s he also wrote crime fiction under the pen name Dan Kavanagh.
What's it about?
The Sense of an Ending is a short novel narrated by a retired, divorced man named Tony Webster. Its first part sees him recalling a series of incidents from his schooldays, largely concerning his group of intellectual / pretentious friends, of which the most significant is the newcomer Adrian. Eventually the two head off to separate universities where Tony has a short, unsatisfying relationship with a girl called Veronica, which involves an awkward visit to her family, and a meeting with his schoolfriends in London. Towards the end of his degree, he finds out that Adrian is dating Veronica. Not long afterwards, he finds out that Adrian has committed suicide, with a letter to the coroner citing philosophical reasons, which Tony admires.
The latter part of the novel is set in the present day, commencing when Tony receives a letter from Veronica's mother (who has recently died) bequeathing him several documents and £500. The documents are in the possession of Veronica, who is not keen to renounce them. Tony pursues the documents, but is given only cryptic responses and fragments of the main document (Adrian's diary) from her, plus a bitter letter written by Tony which he had erased from his memory. Eventually, through chance rather than intelligence, he manages to deduce the message that Veronica is trying to communicate to him about her life and Adrian's fate, which causes him to reassess his judgement of himself, his friends and the nature of memory.
What I liked
I’ve always enjoyed Barnes’ novels, however different they may be, because of his writing style, which is sparse yet filled with moments of pithy insight. This one feels like a logical culmination of that. It is a very short novel, but within it there’s an awful lot to think about.
While it only tackles selected moments from Tony’s past, it does somehow manage to give a sense of a full life within its few pages. And more impressively, perhaps an entirely different version of that life, if read a second time with the knowledge of its conclusion.
The central “what happened?” mystery, which as I noted in my noughties wrap-up seems now to be a feature of every second Booker winner, is well-handled and manages to surprise.
There’s some very wry moments of humour in here, which I enjoyed.
Overall it seems slight at first glance, but offers a lot in terms of reflection and post-read pondering. There are a lot of interesting provocations in here: from basic questions on the reliability of memory to deeper ones around the relative moral merits of differing rationales for suicide.
What I didn’t like
I’m ALMOST certain that I read this when it was released (or thereabouts) yet virtually nothing of it had stuck in my mind. Either my memory is playing up, or it’s a bit forgettable. Either way, in a book with memory as a central theme: apt.
Some of the classroom interactions in the early part of the book feel a bit obvious. Though I guess it’s partly Barnes’ point, highlighting that the supposedly intellectual heroes are in fact playing out conversations that have been had over and over again throughout time…
While it’s not long enough to feel like a chore, there are moments in Tony’s pursuit of Veronica’s documents that feel slightly tiresome. Occasionally you do rather feel that her cryptic and increasingly infuriating behavior moves beyond character quirk and into the realms of convenient plot device.
Food & drink pairings
“Hand-cut chips” :(
Fun facts
Yet another year of grumbling as to whether this was a belated acknowledgement of an author who had been unfairly shunned in the past. In my view, though, this is no Amsterdam, and feels like a deserving winner, even if it isn’t perhaps Barnes’ absolute best.
This was also the year where head judge, Dame Stella Rimington, thriller author, attracted some degree of criticism for publicly declaring that her panel would be looking for 'enjoyable' books that were 'readable.' Ostensibly an amusing bit of non-controversy, the furore in literary circles over this does rather come to the heart of what all this Booker business is and/or should be about. Over my trawl through the winners, it’s been fairly obvious that the Prize has always struggled with this issue - there are few truly “boundary-pushing” winners but at the same time few that seem overly populist. The challenge seems always to be to “find you a book that does both” - or, more cynically, one that does neither while being broadly inoffensive and well-written. Harsh?
The judges seemed happy with it, in any case, coming to a decision in a reported 30 minutes. Judge Gaby Wood said:
"It seems to be the most obvious book on this list. It's a quiet book, but the shock that comes doesn't break stride with the tone of the rest of the book. In purely technical terms it is one of the most masterful things I've ever read.”
It was adapted in movie form in 2017 by Ritesh Bashra, Indian director famed for The Lunchbox. It stars, with only the tiniest degree of predictability, Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling in the major roles. It seems to have fairly solid reviews, though I admit to a degree of skepticism here as I feel the best parts of this novel are in the writing, not necessarily the story. Anyone seen it and disagree?
Vanquished Foes
Carol Birch (Jamrach's Menagerie)
Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers)
Esi Edugyan (Half-Blood Blues)
Stephen Kelman (Pigeon English)
A D Miller (Snowdrops)
This seems to have been regarded as a relatively weak year for the Prize, overall. In my humble opinion, it would have been considerably improved by the inclusion of Alan Hollinghurst’s wonderful The Stranger’s Child, but then what do I know? Any other good ones on this list?
The 2011 Orange/Women's Prize was won by Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife. Emma Donoghue’s Room was on the list, as the only crossover with the 2010 Booker.
Context
In 2011:
Anti-government protests began in Tunisia in late 2010 spread across the middle east in the so-called Arab Spring, dominating news for much of the year
Osama bin Laden killed in a US military operation in Pakistan
Huge earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan kills more than 15,000 and sparks the Fukushima nuclear disaster
Riots erupt in London and other UK cities following the murder by police of unarmed black man Mark Duggan
Occupy Wall Street protests begin in the US
Far-right terrorist Anders Breivik kills 77 in a bomb blast and youth camp massacre in Norway
Basque separatist group ETA declares end to 43-year campaign of political violence
Ongoing European sovereign debt crisis, including bailout of Portugal and writedown of Greek bonds
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies
Guantanemo Bay document leaks by WikiLeaks
Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in the UK
South Sudan cedes from Sudan, following an independence referendum
Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
Adele, 21
PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
Jay-Z & Kanye West, Watch the Throne
St Vincent, Strange Mercy
Drake, Take Care
Kate Bush, 50 Words for Snow
The Artist
The Help
Moneyball
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - part 2 (final movie)
Life Lessons
Memory, it is unreliable
The self, it is unknowable
Hand-cut chips, they may not be cut by hand
Score
8
I just can’t help but enjoy Julian’s writing. I don’t know whether or not it should have been a prize-winner, but it’s an “enjoyable” and “readable” book as well as being extremely thoughtful, so the judges are at the very least succeeding on their own terms…
Ranking to date:
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) - 9.5
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981) - 9.5
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee (1999) - 9.5
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst (2004) - 9
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (1987) - 9
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (2008) - 9
Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth (1992) - 9
Oscar & Lucinda - Peter Carey (1988) - 9
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978) - 9
Life & Times of Michael K. - J. M. Coetzee (1983) - 9
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997) - 9
Schindler’s Ark - Thomas Keneally (1982) - 9
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (2006) - 9
Life of Pi - Yann Martel (2002) - 8.5
The Bone People - Keri Hulme (1985) - 8.5
How Late it Was, How Late - James Kelman (1994) - 8.5
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (2011) - 8
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (2000) - 8
Possession - A. S. Byatt (1990) - 8
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (2009) - 8
Saville - David Storey (1976) - 8
The Sea - John Banville (2005) - 8
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre (2003) - 7.5
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (1992) - 7.5
The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (2010) - 7.5
Rites of Passage - William Golding (1980) - 7.5
The Gathering - Anne Enright (2007) - 7.5
True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey (2001) - 7.5
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) - 7.5
Last Orders - Graham Swift (1996) - 7
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7
Heat & Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) - 6.5
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle (1993) - 6
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
The Famished Road - Ben Okri (1991) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
The Ghost Road** - Pat Barker (1995) - 5.5
Staying On - Paul Scott (1977) - 5
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan (1998) - 5
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (1984) - 4.5
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis (1986) - 4
*Read in later condensed edition.
**Third part of a trilogy of which I hadn’t read pts 1&2
Next up
We’re diving straight back into the Tudors, with Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall sequel Bring Up The Bodies, from 2012.
