Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by teresatumminello
Through the Window by Julian Barnes
4.0
Upon immediately finishing this book last night, I'd decided to write only a succinct review, something like:
'I enjoyed this collection of essays, even the ones about authors I'd never heard of (i.e., all the French ones excluding Flaubert) and of books I haven't read (e.g. [b:Parade's End|777824|Parade's End|Ford Madox Ford|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1450231478s/777824.jpg|2244425]). Even without having read Hemingway's [b:Homage to Switzerland|18741518|Homage to Switzerland|Ernest Hemingway|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1383141306s/18741518.jpg|26620700], I perceived and appreciated the layers in the one short story included here.'
The End
Instead I had trouble sleeping while sentences flowed through my head, as they did the night before when I'd finished reading Barnes' critique of Lydia Davis' translation of [b:Madame Bovary|2175|Madame Bovary|Gustave Flaubert|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1335676143s/2175.jpg|2766347]. (My dreamed-sentences that night kept ending inexplicably on the word 'Spain.') This all reminded me of how I felt while reading [b:The Sense of an Ending|10746542|The Sense of an Ending|Julian Barnes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1311704453s/10746542.jpg|15657664] and how just about anything I read of Barnes gets to me like this, even apparently his nonfiction here that elucidates by placing the reviewed author in his own time period clearly and without pseudo-academic jargon (reminding me of the main character in the short story who mentions that he is not an academic, though he is teaching). I also enjoyed reading of the tensions between English and French literature.
The ending of that short story, "Homage to Hemingway," had me paging backwards, a sure sign of a good story for me, as I realized why Barnes used a certain technique, thus another layer. The story also includes the theme of not judging a work based on biography, which leads to a thought on the last essay: Though nowhere in his review of Oates' [b:A Widow's Story|8703772|A Widow's Story|Joyce Carol Oates|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1288782203s/8703772.jpg|9989353] does he mention his own loss, anyone who knows of his wife's death will know where his empathy comes from and will feel for him.
As I said of [b:The Pedant in the Kitchen|45371|The Pedant In The Kitchen|Julian Barnes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447155503s/45371.jpg|2122450], I'd read his grocery list.
'I enjoyed this collection of essays, even the ones about authors I'd never heard of (i.e., all the French ones excluding Flaubert) and of books I haven't read (e.g. [b:Parade's End|777824|Parade's End|Ford Madox Ford|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1450231478s/777824.jpg|2244425]). Even without having read Hemingway's [b:Homage to Switzerland|18741518|Homage to Switzerland|Ernest Hemingway|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1383141306s/18741518.jpg|26620700], I perceived and appreciated the layers in the one short story included here.'
The End
Instead I had trouble sleeping while sentences flowed through my head, as they did the night before when I'd finished reading Barnes' critique of Lydia Davis' translation of [b:Madame Bovary|2175|Madame Bovary|Gustave Flaubert|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1335676143s/2175.jpg|2766347]. (My dreamed-sentences that night kept ending inexplicably on the word 'Spain.') This all reminded me of how I felt while reading [b:The Sense of an Ending|10746542|The Sense of an Ending|Julian Barnes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1311704453s/10746542.jpg|15657664] and how just about anything I read of Barnes gets to me like this, even apparently his nonfiction here that elucidates by placing the reviewed author in his own time period clearly and without pseudo-academic jargon (reminding me of the main character in the short story who mentions that he is not an academic, though he is teaching). I also enjoyed reading of the tensions between English and French literature.
The ending of that short story, "Homage to Hemingway," had me paging backwards, a sure sign of a good story for me, as I realized why Barnes used a certain technique, thus another layer. The story also includes the theme of not judging a work based on biography, which leads to a thought on the last essay: Though nowhere in his review of Oates' [b:A Widow's Story|8703772|A Widow's Story|Joyce Carol Oates|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1288782203s/8703772.jpg|9989353] does he mention his own loss, anyone who knows of his wife's death will know where his empathy comes from and will feel for him.
As I said of [b:The Pedant in the Kitchen|45371|The Pedant In The Kitchen|Julian Barnes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447155503s/45371.jpg|2122450], I'd read his grocery list.