Reviews

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes

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bub_9's review against another edition

2.0

Yikes. Where is the provocative intelligent Barnes I know and love(d)? I think his weakest book I've read, by far, and a big part of that is just the weird obsession with Julian (authorial hubris?) the Apostate and the dull biographical way in which that section of the book is written. And precisely because the subject-matter is so intellectual, the usual force that Barnes brings with his fabulous use of the device of the unreliable narrator falls rather flat here.

Genuinely rather disappointing.

ruthmaloney's review against another edition

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2.0

Elizabeth Finch is a great character and at the start of this I was really engaged. The middle of the book felt completely out of keeping and the end was a disappointment. His musings on biography and Julian we're lost on me. I wish the character study had gone somewhere more interesting.

mvps85's review against another edition

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2.0

Julian Barnes is my buy blind author. And yes some parts had brilliance in them. But it wasn’t for me. I skipped the Julian the Apostel part. The rest was good…

vyshnevyjcvit's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

bags_and_bookz's review against another edition

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2.0

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Random House Canada, Random House Canada and Julian Barnes for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth Finch is a DNF for me. I was excited to get into a character-based book, to see the build up of Elizabeth Finch, the intellectual, the professor, seen by one of her students, Neil. I was looking forward to embrace the character-based novel with little plot development and dive in in EF character exploration. At first 50 pages, I got what I was in for. However, tiny descriptions about “racy” EF and some fantasies of her male students, who will always be “boys” repelled me from the narrator. It seemed that EF’s intellectual capabilities, which at first appeared to be paramount, turned out to be insignificant compared to the “fantasies” of male students.

Anyway, I do feel like I was the wrong audience for the novel. I wished I enjoyed it more.