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kjboldon 's review for:
Nothing to Be Frightened of
by Julian Barnes
I think this falls between 2 and 3 stars: I liked some parts, the rest was only OK. Read for this month's Gods and Monsters, as some had requested a non-fiction pick. Here's why I don't pick non-fiction--there's not a STORY here, instead Barnes writing about how he's afraid to die, and what a bunch of other people think, including his philosopher brother, and how his parents died, and what his friends think about dying, and all in this loosely connected rather rambling way. Yet there is wry humor, many of the stories are entertaining, he makes interesting distinctions between fiction and non- and mentions the person who was the basis for one of the characters in Sense of an Ending. In the end, though, the humor was so dry it felt chilly and distant, and I felt as if I'd spent 246 pages with Barnes joking charmingly 'round his own fear while revealing little about himself, though writing much about others.