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Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.Now Tony is in middle age. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.
This is the second of this years booker shortlist that I have read. It is funny how, as a reader one can be affected by the book one has just finished as much as by the one currently being read. Previous to this novel I read ‘Jamrach’s Menagerie’ another booker shortlisted book. A colourful adventure with memorable imagery and voices. Because of this I think, Julian Barnes novel ‘Sense of an Ending’ paled slightly. This is a huge shame, because it is a beautifully written novel, poignant, minutely and intelligently observed and very clever.
Sense of an Ending is a very slight novel, the only reason I didn’t finish it before is because I was out till bedtime straight from work yesterday. I have read many reviews saying the reader read it in one sitting almost, and I wonder if I would have benefited from not reading it as slowly as I did.
Tony thinks he understands the past, but now in late middle age, retired a grandparent, he must look again at the things he was so certain of. History, memory and philosophy play a big part in this quiet and cerebral novel. I found Tony’s relationship with Veronica, a one time girlfriend, baffling, she’s spiky and difficult, seeming to use him when they are young. The second half of the novel becomes really quite a page turner, as Tony begins finally “to get it” as does the reader. There is a slight mystery at the centre of the story, and the ending – which I hadn’t seen coming, was something of a shock.
heavenali 
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