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antmarques's review against another edition
2.0
Neste "Elizabeth Finch" de Julian Barnes, acompanhamos Neil (narrador) que resolve frequentar um curso de Cultura e Civilização para adultos, leccionado por Elizabeth Finch. Uma mulher algo excêntrica, mas extremamente inteligente e inspiradora. Alguém que não respeita convenções e incentiva o livre pensamento. Alguém que Neil respeita e admira. Mas é também uma mulher conservadora, reservada e misteriosa, mesmo na morte quando deixa a Neil as suas notas pessoais e livros.
Esta obra é dividida em três partes, sendo a primeira a mais interessante, onde conhecemos as personagens e as bases da trama.
Na segunda parte, Julian Barnes apresenta uma espécie de experiência literária... introduz no meio de uma ficção, um ensaio biográfico sobre Juliano, o último imperador romano pagão. O nosso narrador entende-o como um desejo póstumo de EF, que tinha um fascínio por essa figura. Um trecho que parece despropositado e que lentifica de sobremaneira a leitura.
Na terceira parte, a narrativa retoma mas o mal está feito. Além disso, as personagens são vagas, envoltas numa névoa de conceitos e frases filosóficas. "Sabes como ela era.. uma mistura de candura absoluta e dissimulação súbita. Além de compreensão absoluta e distanciamento ocasional."
Esta é uma jornada de descoberta por parte de Neil. Pessoalmente, retenho a ideia de que nunca conhecemos verdadeiramente os que nos rodeiam e que procuramos completar as peças do puzzle com nossos preconceitos ou desejos. A premissa interessante está lá e a escrita é bela mas o livro não me prendeu. Trata-se de um romance altamente filosófico que convida à reflexão, mas onde por vezes a narrativa fica emaranhada numa rede de interrogações e ideias abstractas. Não é um mau livro, mas a leitura não foi a mais cativante. Julian Barnes terá uma nova oportunidade para se redimir. Quanto a EF, digo-lhe adeus e já de costas voltadas duvido que venha a ter saudades.
Esta obra é dividida em três partes, sendo a primeira a mais interessante, onde conhecemos as personagens e as bases da trama.
Na segunda parte, Julian Barnes apresenta uma espécie de experiência literária... introduz no meio de uma ficção, um ensaio biográfico sobre Juliano, o último imperador romano pagão. O nosso narrador entende-o como um desejo póstumo de EF, que tinha um fascínio por essa figura. Um trecho que parece despropositado e que lentifica de sobremaneira a leitura.
Na terceira parte, a narrativa retoma mas o mal está feito. Além disso, as personagens são vagas, envoltas numa névoa de conceitos e frases filosóficas. "Sabes como ela era.. uma mistura de candura absoluta e dissimulação súbita. Além de compreensão absoluta e distanciamento ocasional."
Esta é uma jornada de descoberta por parte de Neil. Pessoalmente, retenho a ideia de que nunca conhecemos verdadeiramente os que nos rodeiam e que procuramos completar as peças do puzzle com nossos preconceitos ou desejos. A premissa interessante está lá e a escrita é bela mas o livro não me prendeu. Trata-se de um romance altamente filosófico que convida à reflexão, mas onde por vezes a narrativa fica emaranhada numa rede de interrogações e ideias abstractas. Não é um mau livro, mas a leitura não foi a mais cativante. Julian Barnes terá uma nova oportunidade para se redimir. Quanto a EF, digo-lhe adeus e já de costas voltadas duvido que venha a ter saudades.
sarahbrowell's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
Part 1: Barnes captures the energising magnetism of Elizabeth Finch’s intelligence. she was a character I enjoyed becoming captivated by through Neil.
Part 2: a rather long essay on Julian the Apostate.
Part 1: Barnes captures the energising magnetism of Elizabeth Finch’s intelligence. she was a character I enjoyed becoming captivated by through Neil.
Part 2: a rather long essay on Julian the Apostate.
donasbooks's review against another edition
3.0
So...What have you got for me, then?
Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf, and Recorded Books for the ARC audio book of ELIZABETH FINCH by Julian Barnes.
The line I quoted above is one of the most titillating lines I've ever heard spoken from a female character, and it marks the intensity between two people sharing and enjoying an unrequited love affair. Unrequited love is one of my favorite tropes, and I love that this book explores this sort of love with courage, and without the burden of agrandizing or effacing self-analysis.
Barnes writes ELIZABETH FINCH in an arguably experimental form, which I typically enjoy, but didn't in this case, for its blockiness. One long section, for example, removes entirely from the narrative and delivers an essay on Julian the Apostate, which is essentially a literary metaphor Barnes uses throughout the book. Yes, very clever and meta, but difficult. The section could be interpreted romantically, as a metaphor also for Neil, the narrator's, affection for Elizabeth Finch. But the narrator is so unrelentingly dry that it's difficult to read into this very academic material and see the romance.
In the end, I enjoyed this book, but didn't love it. I wish Barnes had spent more time developing Elizabeth Finch. I still feel like i don't know enough about her. But Bob, my turtle
Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf, and Recorded Books for the ARC audio book of ELIZABETH FINCH by Julian Barnes.
The line I quoted above is one of the most titillating lines I've ever heard spoken from a female character, and it marks the intensity between two people sharing and enjoying an unrequited love affair. Unrequited love is one of my favorite tropes, and I love that this book explores this sort of love with courage, and without the burden of agrandizing or effacing self-analysis.
Barnes writes ELIZABETH FINCH in an arguably experimental form, which I typically enjoy, but didn't in this case, for its blockiness. One long section, for example, removes entirely from the narrative and delivers an essay on Julian the Apostate, which is essentially a literary metaphor Barnes uses throughout the book. Yes, very clever and meta, but difficult. The section could be interpreted romantically, as a metaphor also for Neil, the narrator's, affection for Elizabeth Finch. But the narrator is so unrelentingly dry that it's difficult to read into this very academic material and see the romance.
In the end, I enjoyed this book, but didn't love it. I wish Barnes had spent more time developing Elizabeth Finch. I still feel like i don't know enough about her. But Bob, my turtle
sarales_'s review against another edition
Estoy confused la verdad. Es la primera vez que quiero poner una estrella y cinco al mismo tiempo wtf.
ewormuth's review against another edition
3.0
Welllll, I wanted to enjoy this book because I've loved several of Barnes' other books, but no. I enjoyed the teacher/student story, and I found the Julian the Apostate history interesting enough, but somehow my poor pea brain just couldn't fit the two parts together in a way that made sense to me. Probably my own fault.
stuart78's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting how many of these reviews hate on pt. 2. It is so critical to the core ideas of this book. How our reputations can change and how much of that change is out of our control. Both Julian the Apostate and Elizabeth Finch fight doomed battles against cultural hegemony (Christianity and modernity). Both are judged, but both finally die on their own terms, accepting what is and is not within their control.
Very solid consideration of the actual meaning of stoicism, which has recently been so throughly co-opted by hustlers pitching coins and watered down Epictetus.
Very solid consideration of the actual meaning of stoicism, which has recently been so throughly co-opted by hustlers pitching coins and watered down Epictetus.
jeffrossbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Nobody writes like Barnes. You always expect one thing, and get something very different. Elizabeth Finch is no different. It's a book of ideas and the ways that these ideas become imprinted on us. How we accept or reject truths. I feel I'll be returning to this novel again and again, as I have many of Barnes' past works.
patti_pinguin's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
hannagg's review against another edition
4.0
“She stood before us, without notes, books, or nerves.”
This is the first sentence of Julian Barnes’s new novel and the introduction of Elizabeth Finch, a writer, and an adult education teacher. “She was, quite simply, the most grown-up person I have met in my life. Perhaps I mean the only grown-up person.” according to her favorite student and the novel’s narrator Neil.
Neil is fascinated by Elizabeth’s persona. Eventually, he persuades her to meet for lunches every few months, and this unusual relationship continues for 20 years, never progressing behind their intellectual meals that follow the established formula. Neal is a failed actor and a failed husband; his children call him “the King of Unfinished Projects.” And yet it seems that Elizabeth Finch will be one “project” he finishes. Thanks to her, he learns about Julian the Apostate, who was the last pagan Roman emperor. After Elizabeth dies, Neal inherits all of her papers, journals, and books. He decides to write about Julian the Apostate, an intriguing ruler who, as much as he tried, couldn’t stop the coming of Christianity. The essay makes part 2 of the novel, about 50 pages. In part 3, he struggles with a question – who was that charismatic woman? Meeting with Elizabeth’s brother and talking to her students, Neal doesn’t learn much, just details he cannot explain. Who was the mysterious man she was seen with? And – surprise! – she was an excellent swimmer although he and other students couldn’t imagine her wearing beachwear.
Recently, I read another novel on a similar subject by another great British writer and Julian Barnes’ friend, Ian McEwan. In his “Lessons’, Miriam, a music teacher, affects the narrator’s life as much as Elizabeth impacts Neal’s. Thanks to Elizabeth, our narrator, being by nature, not an intellectual man, becomes involved in deep research on Julian the Apostate. He doesn’t want to be like people about whom Elizabeth said, “They choose to understand nothing.”
This is a short novel, and with beautiful language, Julian Barnes tells just enough to leave us thinking about a mystery that people present when we try to understand them. Will this book evoke the memory of our favorite teacher? Will it make us reflect on what’s important in life? In any case, we should choose to understand.
This is the first sentence of Julian Barnes’s new novel and the introduction of Elizabeth Finch, a writer, and an adult education teacher. “She was, quite simply, the most grown-up person I have met in my life. Perhaps I mean the only grown-up person.” according to her favorite student and the novel’s narrator Neil.
Neil is fascinated by Elizabeth’s persona. Eventually, he persuades her to meet for lunches every few months, and this unusual relationship continues for 20 years, never progressing behind their intellectual meals that follow the established formula. Neal is a failed actor and a failed husband; his children call him “the King of Unfinished Projects.” And yet it seems that Elizabeth Finch will be one “project” he finishes. Thanks to her, he learns about Julian the Apostate, who was the last pagan Roman emperor. After Elizabeth dies, Neal inherits all of her papers, journals, and books. He decides to write about Julian the Apostate, an intriguing ruler who, as much as he tried, couldn’t stop the coming of Christianity. The essay makes part 2 of the novel, about 50 pages. In part 3, he struggles with a question – who was that charismatic woman? Meeting with Elizabeth’s brother and talking to her students, Neal doesn’t learn much, just details he cannot explain. Who was the mysterious man she was seen with? And – surprise! – she was an excellent swimmer although he and other students couldn’t imagine her wearing beachwear.
Recently, I read another novel on a similar subject by another great British writer and Julian Barnes’ friend, Ian McEwan. In his “Lessons’, Miriam, a music teacher, affects the narrator’s life as much as Elizabeth impacts Neal’s. Thanks to Elizabeth, our narrator, being by nature, not an intellectual man, becomes involved in deep research on Julian the Apostate. He doesn’t want to be like people about whom Elizabeth said, “They choose to understand nothing.”
This is a short novel, and with beautiful language, Julian Barnes tells just enough to leave us thinking about a mystery that people present when we try to understand them. Will this book evoke the memory of our favorite teacher? Will it make us reflect on what’s important in life? In any case, we should choose to understand.