2012-09 - The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes

09 - The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes, Random House, 150 pages, 2011
WHY I PICKED IT:  It won the Man Booker
ELAPSED TIME: 2 days
RATING: Not Good

Wow, what a pain in the butt to read!  This is the tale of Tony Webster ... looking back on his youth, his friendships, his loves, ... striving to uncover a truth about some history, whilst acknowledging that his memory is fundamentally flawed.

Barnes either writes old people really well (slow and meandering), or he is a thoughtful considered person whose friends suffer through long meandering explanations ... so despite a few great thoughts and phrases, the tale is a painful bore to get through.

The great thoughts and phrases include:

a) "The fact that we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us" ... awesome thought (and applies equally well to journalists, no?).

b) "History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation." ... love it.  (and it's Barnes' quoting someone else).

Regardless... If you're asking me, spend your time and money somewhere else.