"The Sense Of an Ending" by Julian Barnes

Author: Julian Barnes.

  

Publisher: Vintage Books.

  

Price: Rs.499 (Hard Cover) and Rs.299 (Paperback)

  

Pages: 150

My Rating: 5/5

Masterpiece – is the right word to describe this Booker Prize Winner “The Sense Of An Ending” by Julian Barnes.

Blurb:

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.

My opinion:

Tony, sixty years old, divorced in middle age, living alone maintaining a friendly relation with his ex-wife, is the protagonist of this novel (or you may call novella). The book starts with Tony’s memories in school and then in college with his friends Colin, Alex and Adrian. He recollects how his relation with Veronica, his girl friend in college, and with Adrian ended after introducing Veronica to his friends one day.

While Tony was leading a peaceful life in his old age, he receives a letter, from a lawyer, which again pokes his forgotten memories. The letter says that Veronica’s mother left a small amount of money for him after her death. This issue leads Tony to the facts that happened in the past, which he never even dreamt of.

Read the book to know...What is the thing that Tony came to know?? Is that letter just about money left to him or does it have anything else with it?? Why did Veronica’s mother leave money to Tony?? What happened to Adrian’s life?? 

Some of the lines I liked are…

• When we are young we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old we invent different pasts for others. 
• If you want to make people pay attention to your voice you don’t raise your voice but lower it: that is what really commands.
• Most of us make an instinctive decision, then build up an infrastructure of reasoning to justify it.
• Marriage is a long dull meal with the pudding served first.
• Reward of merit is not life’s business.
• The less time there remains in your life, the less time you want to waste it.
• History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

I picked this one seeing the beautiful cover page and the “Man Booker Prize Winner" tag. Though the story is waferthin the author beautifully portrayed the minute emotions of an old person.This will leave you wanting for more. 

The Author will take the reader on a journey deep into Tony's memories and his reflections on them. Each and every sentence in the book has prose, purpose and adds value to the story. The book starts as a collection of memories of an old person but picks up pace and ends in thriller style.

Conclusion:

Insightful. Unputdownable. Go for this. Worth reading again and again. Enjoy. 

You can get the paperback on Flipkart for just Rs.224 here and hard cover for Rs.349 here.

The White Tiger - Review

   The novel White Tiger is a dark story about India, written by Aravind Adiga, is about the letter written over a period of seven nights by Ashok alias Balaram, an entrepreneur in Bangalore to Wen Jiabao, premier of China, to tell him about the true India, while Wen Jiabao is planning to come to India and meet few successful entrepreneurs. 

      There are two types of India - India in Light and India in Darkness and this novel focuses on the later. The letter is about Balaram’s life, son of a rickshaw puller, born in Bodhgaya, drops out from school and works in a Tea stall. Balaram later finds a job as a driver cum servant in Ashok’s house in Dhanbad. Ashok is an NRI, returned to India along with his wife to look after his family business. In desperation to come out of his poverty and selfishness, Balaram kills his master and runs away with the money. He goes to Bangalore and starts his own business and becomes successful. So finally a murderer becomes entrepreneur.

     The writing style is excellent and except in one or two places this is gripping overall, can be finished in two days. The Author focuses on known-to-everyone problems in India like the slave mentality of Indians, the caste discrimination, the corruption, the lack of minimum facilities in villages, the political system, the difference between haves n haves not, etc… by describing Balaram’s living conditions, his village, how Ashok’s family treated him, etc. Except few exaggerations wh­­atever author said about India is quite true. Don’t read this book if you hate or get bored by the stuff the shows Indian poverty/problems. I dint understand why the protagonist wants to tell all this to someone in China and how this will benefit that guy.

       Title " the white tiger " here means a rare type. This novel is a winner of The Man Booker Prize 2008.