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katekoda's review against another edition
3.0
It's an old man's book, I thought, for lack of better definition. The narrator is a sad and lonely old man for whom the only story worth telling is the story of love. SPOILERS AHEAD.
When Paul was 19 he fell hard for Susan, nearly 30 years older and very much married with 2 grown daughters.
You'd think it'll be one of those stories where an older smarter and more experienced woman teaches the youngster the wonders of love and then lets him go to a more marriageable woman shedding a quiet bittersweet tear in the privacy of her lonely bedroom. Being British, though, the characters are too unsophisticated, reserved and sexually repressed for that.
They do run away eventually and end up spending 10 or so years together, even though the bliss runs out fairly quickly. Susan's husband's an abuser, she is a rapidly declining alcoholic, Paul is too young and too in love to help. So he "hands her back" like an Amazon purchase he's not happy with and travels the world in search of nothing much at all.
Far be it from me to judge a quitter, but he doesn't provoke much sympathy, and I wonder why that is. Partly, 'cause he is a pretentious mediocre man with rather shallow ideas about love and life, and partly, I guess, because apart from falling in love he doesn't do anything with his life at all. Even his law career, that he studied so hard for, ends before it truly begins, because he is more comfortable being an office manager, of all things. He reminds me of Stoner in this lack of ambition and spinelessness (is this a word?), also a rather unsympathetic character.
In the end she dies, years after they parted ways, and he gets not so much a closure — more something of a break. Like a person relieved from some tedious duty.
The book is well written (when did Barnes ever not write well?), but it gets a little tiresome by the end. Mostly it's because the protagonist's deliberate lack of personality makes it hard to keep an interest in his affairs. Oh, and the constant switch between first, second and third person seems like too tired a trick for a writer of Barns' calibre. Still, it is beautiful in its own way, and Barnes does write women really well, which is too rare to go unnoticed.
When Paul was 19 he fell hard for Susan, nearly 30 years older and very much married with 2 grown daughters.
You'd think it'll be one of those stories where an older smarter and more experienced woman teaches the youngster the wonders of love and then lets him go to a more marriageable woman shedding a quiet bittersweet tear in the privacy of her lonely bedroom. Being British, though, the characters are too unsophisticated, reserved and sexually repressed for that.
They do run away eventually and end up spending 10 or so years together, even though the bliss runs out fairly quickly. Susan's husband's an abuser, she is a rapidly declining alcoholic, Paul is too young and too in love to help. So he "hands her back" like an Amazon purchase he's not happy with and travels the world in search of nothing much at all.
Far be it from me to judge a quitter, but he doesn't provoke much sympathy, and I wonder why that is. Partly, 'cause he is a pretentious mediocre man with rather shallow ideas about love and life, and partly, I guess, because apart from falling in love he doesn't do anything with his life at all. Even his law career, that he studied so hard for, ends before it truly begins, because he is more comfortable being an office manager, of all things. He reminds me of Stoner in this lack of ambition and spinelessness (is this a word?), also a rather unsympathetic character.
In the end she dies, years after they parted ways, and he gets not so much a closure — more something of a break. Like a person relieved from some tedious duty.
The book is well written (when did Barnes ever not write well?), but it gets a little tiresome by the end. Mostly it's because the protagonist's deliberate lack of personality makes it hard to keep an interest in his affairs. Oh, and the constant switch between first, second and third person seems like too tired a trick for a writer of Barns' calibre. Still, it is beautiful in its own way, and Barnes does write women really well, which is too rare to go unnoticed.
yvettekeller's review against another edition
3.0
Beautiful writing to make maudlin
This is a book for readers who want to read about sadness and tragedy; about characters philosophizing their angst into interesting excuses. It is about domestic desperation, caused by British culture, and it all ends badly. The main character is, admittedly, a good-hearted person who is fun to be with, but the author’s choice of using first, second, and third viewpoints deliberately separates the reader from the protagonist. An extremely well written book about a terrible love affair, the book’s language and structure provides the reader with a parallel experience of a bad “book affair.” Fun to read at first, then painful, then agonizing, then simply resigned to finishing. Admirable from a writerly place; not an enjoyable, entertaining, or (I project, though I suppose we shall see) memorable read.
This is a book for readers who want to read about sadness and tragedy; about characters philosophizing their angst into interesting excuses. It is about domestic desperation, caused by British culture, and it all ends badly. The main character is, admittedly, a good-hearted person who is fun to be with, but the author’s choice of using first, second, and third viewpoints deliberately separates the reader from the protagonist. An extremely well written book about a terrible love affair, the book’s language and structure provides the reader with a parallel experience of a bad “book affair.” Fun to read at first, then painful, then agonizing, then simply resigned to finishing. Admirable from a writerly place; not an enjoyable, entertaining, or (I project, though I suppose we shall see) memorable read.
dayrepresent's review against another edition
1.0
The book is about as exciting as the suburban upper middle class English lifestyle it presents. More could have been done with the themes in the book.
The use of time as a narrative factor is however quite interesting.
The use of time as a narrative factor is however quite interesting.
jneudorf's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
sve100's review against another edition
5.0
Мисля, че майсторството на един писател си личи по способността му да разкаже една обикновена, дори малко банална любовна история, по вълнуващ начин. Барнс е наистина брилянтен разказвач, дори в последната част на романа, която звучи малко объркано и какафонично. И най-хубавото че е безкрайно честен, описвайки тъмната страна на чувствата - не притъпява болката, не дава прошка с лека ръка и не украсява историята от дистанцията на времето.