The Sense of an Ending is a 2011 novel written by British author Julian Barnes. The book is Barnes’ eleventh novel written under his own name (he has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh) and was released on 4 August 2011 in the United Kingdom. The Sense of an Ending is narrated by a retired man named Tony Webster, who recalls how he and his clique met Adrian Finn at school and vowed to remain friends for life. When the past catches up with Tony, he reflects on the paths he and his friends have taken. In October 2011, The Sense of an Ending was awarded the Man Booker Prize. The following month it was nominated in the novels category at the Costa Book Awards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sense_of_an_Ending
We read this in March 2013.
Jills report of discussion by 11 people who attended our meeting:
Most people enjoyed this book even if only mildly and felt that it was fairly interesting as a study of the unreliability of memory. It was a short book and a fairly easy read while remaining for most a book that would not be long remembered. A couple of members felt that as soon as they finished they wanted to start again and several commented that they frequently found themselves going back to previous paragraphs to check their own memory.
Scores ranged from 4 to 10 with an average of just over 7.
There was a lot of conflict over members’ opinion of what had ‘really happened’ – who were the parents of the disabled child – conflict over both the possible mother and the father – what was meant by ‘you just don’t get it’, why Adrian killed himself, etc. This all lead to what several members said was one of our better discussions.
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