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I’ll say it right away: This review of The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes, was inspired fully – believe it or not – by its… ending. Quite frankly, it’s so atrocious that it should be taught in literature classes as an example of what not to do.

But let’s take a step back.

It all began when, looking for something to read, I noticed this short novel and was encouraged by its blurb that promised an elliptical and ambiguous narrative (more of this in a moment) with clear literary-fiction vibes. I was far less encouraged by the fact that this book in particular and the author in general have received plenty of awards and praise. Quite frankly, I’m thoroughly suspicious of such things.

In any case, I thought to give it a shot, and the result was exceedingly peculiar, as you’ll discover in this review.

Review of The Sense of an Ending: Genre, Plot, Narrative

Let’s begin with the elliptical, ambiguous blurb, as offered by the relevant Wikipedia entry:

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.

Sounds like anything could happen, right? For some people it might even sound bland and pointless. Actually, the blurb was what encouraged me to give it a shot.

As I mentioned above, The Sense of an Ending is basically literary fiction. It involves plenty of reflection and states of mind, though generally they’re not particularly deep or literary. That is to say, things are a little bit too direct, occasionally even linear, lacking much symbolism or poetic force.

The novel is divided into two parts, of about equal length. Virtually all of the first part describes the protagonist’s teenage years and early adulthood, and his romantic engagement with Veronica – an enigmatic young woman. The last 10% or so of the first part (and after certain dramatic events have occurred) makes a temporal jump. The protagonist describes in more or less a few paragraphs that he grew up, got married, divorced, and now tries to pass his retirement years in some sort of peace.

Then the second part begins and throws everything into disarray – including, sadly, the whole narrative cohesion

Narrative Disintegration

The second part describes the protagonist’s attempts to retrieve the old diary of his friend Adrian, which is actually kept by Veronica. The progression is fairly acceptable for the most part (though still somewhat lacking in persuasion), but it literally falls apart in the crucial last third.

Trouble began already earlier, when a photocopied page of the diary is presented to the protagonist, and its content is so outlandishly ludicrous that it ought to have been a warning – a warning that the author didn’t seem quite confident in what would eventually happen.

Not only is the direction followed eventually pointless, but it becomes virtually incoherent by showing a “resolution” literally on the last page. Just think of the worst “alien space bats” ending (minus the supernatural), and you’d be fairly close. The ending of… The Sense of an Ending is squarely in “surprising-and-avoidable” territory, as I describe in my post on narrative endings.

Review of The Sense of an Ending: Characters

The character that matters the most is of course Tony, being the narrator and the protagonist. He’s generally well written, though as I mentioned above there could be a little bit more persuasion and depth in his reflections. Veronica could be seen, in some sense, as a narrative antagonist, and in that role she is a little bit too good. That is to say, she comes across without the necessary subtlety required by literary fiction.

There are other characters too, and they are all rather boringly depicted, in that they are too black-and-white, too absolute, without any nuance or point of view. To an extent this is inevitable in a first-person narrative (indeed, one of a purposefully unreliable narrator), but that doesn’t rescue the narrative.

Review of The Sense of an Ending: General Impression

I can’t say The Sense of an Ending was a waste of time – its short length means you won’t waste much of it, at least.

It’s generally well written, with a few poignant expressions and aspects that can trouble the thinking reader. The protagonist’s suggestion that life prepares us for its inevitable loss by making itself as boring and pointless as possible is philosophically intriguing – as well as existentially revealing.

Having said that, the way the narrative unfolds in the second half is extremely problematic, and the ending is utterly inexcusable. It’s literally the kind of stuff you expect from a 15-year-old writing fan fiction.

The worst part is that the ending itself could have been be palatable, if only the author had troubled himself enough to prepare the narrative before it. In its current form, it comes across as something the author came up with just a day before the deadline, trying to offer “a sense of an ending” to a narrative that was clearly going nowhere.

Suffice to say that much of the second part includes Veronica telling Tony “You still don’t get it, do you?” which inevitably comes across almost as taunting, making fun of the reader who helplessly tries to figure out where the entire mess is headed to.