The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

This book is: an bright, engaging, character-driven novel.
Other elements: friendship, philosophy, being middle-aged.
Read it: if you are fascinated by excellent characters.
Overall rating: 7.75/10

I don’t remember how I found this book. I think maybe Goodreads recommended it? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

This book is what I think of textbook literary fiction. The action takes place in the form of character development. If it were a movie, it wouldn’t seem like a whole lot was happening. But for the main character, the events are life-changing.

This book takes part in two times: when the narrator is 18-25, and when the narrator is middle-aged. The precipitating event is that the narrator suddenly learns there may be more to the suicide of one of his childhood friends than he’d originally thought. The new information leads him to open a lot of closed doors and brings about some significant changes in his perspective.

This is actually a great book to post on New Year’s Day. There’s a lot in it about beginnings and endings, and about how the passing of time changes people. It’s not my favorite book of all time, but I enjoyed reading it and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who enjoys literary fiction.

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