The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (2011 Booker Shortlist)

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. – pg. 18

The Sense of an Ending is about just that — the imperfections of memory. What we remember and what someone close to us remembers may be two very different things. And sometimes those differences are immense.

The novel begins with Tony’s school age years, describing primarily his relationships to his school chums, particularly his highly intellectual friend Adrian. We then learn of his relationship with his girlfriend Veronica in college and his eventual marriage and child with Margaret. Along the way a tragedy occurs, and then post retirement comes and he is faced with those memories once more. But are his memories accurate? Tony isn’t an unreliable narrator (I don’t think), and he doesn’t have Alzheimer’s. But memories are almost always skewed by the one remembering them, and Tony realizes and is faced with some facts which do distort the memories he had.

Here are some passages I noted:

This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn’t turn out to be like Literature. –pg. 16

I survived. “He survived to tell the tale” — that’s what people say, don’t they? History isn’t the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It’s more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated. –pg 61

Someone once said that his favourite times in history were when things were collapsing, because that meant something new was being born. Does this make any sense if we apply it to our individual lives? To die when something new is being born — even if that something new is our very own self? Because just as all political and historical change sooner or later disappoints, so does adulthood. So does life. Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. –pg. 115

I enjoyed this book very much and was particularly drawn to some of the writing. I did have a quibble with a phrase that is repeated over and over that I think could have been written differently, but overall, I thought it a very worthy addition to the Booker shortlist.

2011, 163 pp.

FTC Disclosure: I obtained this book from my local public library.