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A review by yvettekeller
The Only Story by Julian Barnes
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.