The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” - Sir Francis Bacon

Julian Barnes’ ferocious new novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’, is one such book which is to be read wholly and savoured. It is a book that stays with you long after you have finished reading it.  No wonder Barner has been awarded Man Booker Prize 2011 for this book. It is a book that will universally appeal to all ages. It is like a piece of poetry laced with mystery that engages, manipulates, wheedles and churns for our undivided attention and love. What makes this book extremely enchanting is its beautiful style of writing and choice of words that is so rare these days. No wonder Julian Barnes is such a decorated writer today. His novel is filled with gems like:

• “When we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others.”
• “History isn’t the lies of the victors … It’s more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated.”  
• "History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.” 
• “Marriage is a long dull meal with the pudding served first.”
• “Life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks for, it is a moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision.”

There are few but strongly etched characters – Tony, Adrian & Veronica. Tony who have lived an ordinary life: stable job, marriage, amicable divorce, child who grew up to have a child of her own. Adrian, Tony’s school friend with a philosophical bent of mind and clarity of thoughts. Adrian’s indifference to playing it cool somehow made him the leader of the boys’ clique when they were teenagers. Veronica, an elusive and enigmatic girl who was Tony’s first girlfriend.

Tony Webster, a peaceable, divorced man in his 60s receives an unexpected bequest from a woman, Mrs. Ford, he’d met only once, 40 years earlier. The mother of his college girlfriend, Veronica, has bequeathed him £500 — a legacy that unsettles Tony, pushing him to get in touch with Veronica (his first girlfriend with whom his relationship had ended badly) and seek answers to certain unresolved questions.

He tries to rediscover and unravel his own emotions and relations that he had long forgotten. Gradually, Tony assembles his willfully forgotten past impressions and actions, joining together the links that might explain how it happened that his life’s modest wages had resulted in “the accumulation, the multiplication, of loss.

Tony enters college and starts dating Veronica. Their relationship suddenly fizzles. When Tony discovers Adrian has begun dating his ex-girlfriend, he dashes off a letter of unapologetic nastiness causing the reader to recast the first half of the book. Decades earlier, Tony had accused Veronica of an “inability to imagine anyone else’s feelings or emotional life,” but it was he, not she, who was incapable of looking outside his own head.

“The Sense of an Ending” is a short book, but not a slight one. This short, unlikely novel is a page-turner. You arrive at its conclusion breathless and befuddled, duped into the idea that a life’s conclusion brings some kind of wisdom. Not always.

A MUST read for the people who think books are just not meant for time pass but are a way of life.

Go for it NOW and you’ll not be disappointed