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kktaylor11's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'll be chewing on this for quite awhile...it's a book I picked up purely because the front cover caught my eye with it's simplicity and the notation that it won the Man Booker. I knew it would have some literary merit, but it's short and condensed, so I grabbed it.
The whole book is a reflection on life, giving it poignant moments of reflection and self analysis on all the topics from love to the passage of time. There are powerful lines spread throughout, moments that caught me and seemed to convey my own thoughts even when I hadn't quite thought them yet. It's divided into two halves -- the first half the main character, Tony, reflecting on his youth and the second half Tony dealing with a development in his "current" day. Through it all we are with him in his mind, listening in on the internal dialog so many of us have running constantly, and like the dialog Barnes takes us with Tony through random thoughts, divergences and memories with meaning connecting and challenging each of them.
What that dialog reveals? Spoilers ahead:
The first half of the book centers on Tony's time in school, his first love (Veronica) and the ultimate betrayal when Veronica and his friend Adrian end up a couple. As that betrayal plays out in his memory, Tony makes his friend, Adrian, into something of a mythic hero -- a student smarter than the teachers, whose eventual suicide is seen as a heroic act, a philosophical choice to remove himself from the equation of life as the ultimate act of self control. Veronica becomes the evil villan, and Adrian rises above the fray. Tony is delightfully "average," experiencing and living life on a "typical" plane and taking us with him. I struggled a bit with his view of Adrian, the hero-worship was a bit too much for me -- but the reflection on youth and feeling like you understand the world was powerful and meaningful. The second half is a bit more chaotic and less philosophical - perhaps in part because Adrian the great philosopher has left the world at that point? It centers on Tony's attempts to retrieve Adrian's diary which has been left to him by Veronica's mother and is being held hostage by Veronica herself. Tony tries everything (emails, legal advice, repeated meetings) to get Veronica to give it to him, and in the process finds himself sucked back into the promise of possibility that Veronica always seems to offer him - but which remains always beyond his reach. In the end (BIG SPOILER...look away if you didn't read it all yet!!) he discovers that the true cause of Adrian's suicide was not philosophical self-choice, but normal youthful fear at facing consequences when Adrian ended up getting Veronica's mother pregnant with a child who was born with significant mental challenges.
There are only 163 pages in this book, and yet there is SO much to play with on a literary level...The role of parents, the impact of family, social class divisions, education. The Mary/Eve dynamic is definitely at play, with a specific twist when Margaret suggests there are two types of women -- those who are mysterious (Eve/Veronica) and those who are clear (Mary/Margaret)...and Veronica's mother seems to be an enigma beyond both of them. Tony thinks he understands her until the final page of the book when he discovers she is the biggest mystery of them all.
Overall - I'll definitely keep thinking about this, and could write about it, but I don't think I *LIKED* it enough to put it at 5 stars. It's good, and worthy of discussion, but not something that changed my life and touched my heart. I do recommend it, though - well worth reading!
The whole book is a reflection on life, giving it poignant moments of reflection and self analysis on all the topics from love to the passage of time. There are powerful lines spread throughout, moments that caught me and seemed to convey my own thoughts even when I hadn't quite thought them yet. It's divided into two halves -- the first half the main character, Tony, reflecting on his youth and the second half Tony dealing with a development in his "current" day. Through it all we are with him in his mind, listening in on the internal dialog so many of us have running constantly, and like the dialog Barnes takes us with Tony through random thoughts, divergences and memories with meaning connecting and challenging each of them.
What that dialog reveals? Spoilers ahead:
The first half of the book centers on Tony's time in school, his first love (Veronica) and the ultimate betrayal when Veronica and his friend Adrian end up a couple. As that betrayal plays out in his memory, Tony makes his friend, Adrian, into something of a mythic hero -- a student smarter than the teachers, whose eventual suicide is seen as a heroic act, a philosophical choice to remove himself from the equation of life as the ultimate act of self control. Veronica becomes the evil villan, and Adrian rises above the fray. Tony is delightfully "average," experiencing and living life on a "typical" plane and taking us with him. I struggled a bit with his view of Adrian, the hero-worship was a bit too much for me -- but the reflection on youth and feeling like you understand the world was powerful and meaningful. The second half is a bit more chaotic and less philosophical - perhaps in part because Adrian the great philosopher has left the world at that point? It centers on Tony's attempts to retrieve Adrian's diary which has been left to him by Veronica's mother and is being held hostage by Veronica herself. Tony tries everything (emails, legal advice, repeated meetings) to get Veronica to give it to him, and in the process finds himself sucked back into the promise of possibility that Veronica always seems to offer him - but which remains always beyond his reach. In the end (BIG SPOILER...look away if you didn't read it all yet!!) he discovers that the true cause of Adrian's suicide was not philosophical self-choice, but normal youthful fear at facing consequences when Adrian ended up getting Veronica's mother pregnant with a child who was born with significant mental challenges.
There are only 163 pages in this book, and yet there is SO much to play with on a literary level...The role of parents, the impact of family, social class divisions, education. The Mary/Eve dynamic is definitely at play, with a specific twist when Margaret suggests there are two types of women -- those who are mysterious (Eve/Veronica) and those who are clear (Mary/Margaret)...and Veronica's mother seems to be an enigma beyond both of them. Tony thinks he understands her until the final page of the book when he discovers she is the biggest mystery of them all.
Overall - I'll definitely keep thinking about this, and could write about it, but I don't think I *LIKED* it enough to put it at 5 stars. It's good, and worthy of discussion, but not something that changed my life and touched my heart. I do recommend it, though - well worth reading!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Classism and Mental illness
It is important for anyone picking this up to know that it CENTERS on the impact of a suicide, and more than one suicide is discussed more than one time. For a significant portion of the book one suicide is depicted as a positive action - specifically discussed as almost the highest act a man could do, and proof of intellectual superiority.charleshasalibrary's review
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, and Pregnancy
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