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The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

By julian barnes, a well-crafted, elegant novel on the vagaries of memory.

Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending opens with a list of memories and an almost ominous warning, “But what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.” It is a deceptively simple book — in that it’s not simple at all and to get it, you have to think hard about it, and re-frame what you think you know over and over, but you won’t end up with a clear answers. I should warn that there will be some spoilers here, but I’ll give a warning before they start.

The book itself is not lengthy and the premise seems straightforward, as is the writing. The language of the book is clear and precise. Tony Webster is at the end of his life and reflecting upon certain events in the past, namely his first girlfriend, the mysterious Veronica, who ends dating one of his childhood friends, Adrian, after they break up. Adrian was the intelligent and serious one of their group, and he commits suicide not long thereafter.

At first glance, the questions presented by the novel seem simple though thoughtful — it is a rumination on the vagaries of memory, on nostalgia, on how memory is shaped by self-preservation, on how memory fails you, on how memories can be resurrected and reshaped. Additionally, the book considers how people are shaped by their past, is it additive? Multiplicative?

The book discusses these themes throughout, and it even lays these questions out, but slyly, to you in various ways. For example, in the beginning of the novel there’s a scene with Tony and Adrian in class. In that conversation, Adrian describes history as “that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” — which becomes key to what this book is really being about, though you won’t understand it fully until very literally the last page. But, with these considerations in mind, the book proceeds as Tony reflects upon a visit with Veronica’s family (where her mother warns him not to let Veronica get away with too much), his behavior towards Adrian upon finding out about his new relationship with Veronica, and so on.

(Spoilers begin here.)

Towards the end, however, the book gets increasingly confusing and it’s clear that the book’s ruminations are more than just errant thoughts, but rather a barrier to understanding the events. Tony attempts to meet up with Veronica, now graying and in her sixties, to get from her Adrian’s diary, which confusingly enough has been willed to him by Veronica’s mother upon her death, along with 500 pounds. Veronica is cold to him, but it’s unsurprising given that their relationship once upon a time ended with them breaking up, her finally sleeping with him, and then him refusing to take her back anyway.

As Veronica’s behavior and that of her brother get more and more incongruous and inexplicable, it’s clear that we’re trying to piece together answers that we have no way of getting because Tony is our narrator and his memory is all we have, and he doesn’t get it. In fact, Barnes tells us this repeatedly through the voice of Veronica who chastises Tony “You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying.”

However, before revealing itself, the book tricks you and presents a false ending (hence, the title, The Sense of an Ending ). Tony learns that Adrian killed himself after fathering a child who has down syndrome or some type of genetic disorder. At this point, as the reader, you feel the book has resolved itself. You believe that the point of the story is that Tony has been recasting his relationship with Veronica in his memory. He is still in love with her, but she had always preferred Adrian and she has been angry because Tony was mean to them when they got together, and she must have had a hard life as a single mother after that. So he writes her a final apology, a true heartfelt one, and can let this go. Or so you think, since this type of ending is what most books give you. A small reveal, and then a relief from the tension that’s been building up.

(P.S. Seriously, stop reading if you don’t want me to ruin it for you.)

But that’s not the end. Fact is, by the end, we don’t fully get it. And we all probably never will, though the book leaves us hints. The last page reveals that Tony had drawn an incorrect conclusion, and that Adrian’s child was actually with Veronica’s mother , with whom he presumably had an affair. From there, the book ends suddenly, leaving the reader to reconsider the whole book in that light and recasting the events, yet again, based on what we know now.

Upon reflection, the book leaves a number of hints, but very little certainty, regarding what actually happened back in those days. Tony mentions early on that be believed Veronica had been damaged somehow, even when he first meets her, but he never knew how. Tony describes Veronica’s father as seeming red-faced when they meet — was he an alcoholic? Veronica’s brother is obviously intelligent but is lacking in seriousness in a way that hints at some type of psychosis. And Veronica’s mother, well, they clearly have a bad relationship but it’s impossible to what the boundaries of it are. Has her mother tried to seduce another of her boyfriends before? Why does Veronica leave him alone with her mother on purpose one morning — was it a test? When Tony meets Adrian’s son, he identifies himself as a friend of Veronica’s, which scares him. What did Veronica become after having to welcome this child into her family? Did Veronica really burn the diary? If she did, was it an unspoken act of kindness toward Tony since he didn’t want him to live with the guilt? Did Veronica really prefer Adrian to him or was she trying to hurt him back? Why did Veronica wear a red ring on her fourth finger?

In the end, very little is known for sure, since Tony will never know and his memories seem to betray him sometimes. Veronica clearly harbors a deep-seated resentment not just towards him, but towards life in general, and it is unlikely she will ever provide him or anyone else with the answers. Additionally, Tony himself seems either consciously or unconsciously manipulative of his own memories, whether out of an involuntary self-preservation or something else, his memories are revised and revisited as the book goes along so that it’s not clear what exactly can be trusted. It’s clear that Tony tries to be self-aware, but the novel hints that he is not entirely successful, so conclusions that he presents about certain events can’t be trusted. It’s also entirely possible the “information” Tony receives at the end from the third-party source could be false as well, who knows?

Tony’s last thoughts are about his role in the sequence of events, including a secret gesture Veronica’s free-spirited mother made to him when saying goodbye. His role includes introducing Veronica to Adrian and, in anger, suggesting that Adrian consult Veronica’s mother about her. However the book ends with a note that he feels some sort of responsibility and “great unrest” with regards to Adrian’s death, which hints that maybe there are things we still don’t know about his role.

When I read the last sentence, my first instinct was that it had let me down — I don’t get it, I thought. This book makes no sense. Why did it win the Man Booker prize? It took some rolling around in my head before things started to come together and the little hints that didn’t seem important at the time gained new relevance — for example, Tony muses at one point that even if you do record everything, take photos and write things down, you likely find you didn’t record the right things, etc.

The Sense of an Ending is what a really well-crafted and elegant story is all about. It is unquestionably, to me at any rate, a gem of a novel, even if I was left with a lot of questions — but I guess that’s almost the point. It’s a thinking person’s book, with a simple plot but complicated thought process behind it, and written in a way that feels very respectful of the reader’s time.

Not everyone will appreciate this type of book, I imagine. It’s not a flashy car chase and huge special effects kind of novel, but those who do like these types of things and take the time to read it carefully will be well compensated for their effort.

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Thanks for an excellent review. I agree with most of it but especially with the sensation at the end of the novel. Initially I was shocked but after reflection felt it was probably apt.

The plot of this book intrigues me, just wonder if someone can enlighten me concerning the wider more general humanistic and psychological ramifications of all of this. I believe such a novel with such a theme deserved to win the prize it did, congrats to the author. Thanks Raymond Crane

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THE SENSE OF AN ENDING

by Julian Barnes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 2011

A knockout. What at first seems like a polite meditation on childhood and memory leaves the reader asking difficult...

A man’s closest-held beliefs about a friend, former lover and himself are undone in a subtly devastating novella from Barnes.

The author’s slim 11th novel (and fourth to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize) shouldn’t be mistaken for a frivolous one: It’s an intense exploration of how we write our own histories and how our actions in moments of anger can have consequences that stretch across decades. The novel’s narrator, Anthony, is in late middle age, and recalling friendships from adolescence and early adulthood. He’s focused on two people in particular: Adrian, a brilliant but gloomy schoolmate who routinely questioned the certainties of his history teachers, and Veronica, a harridan with whom he has a brief and tempestuous affair. After the breakup, Adrian and Veronica begin their own relationship. Anthony dashes off a bitter letter to Adrian, and when Adrian kills himself soon after, Anthony is willing to credit it to depression. But a letter he receives years later complicates the story. The novel has a love-triangle structure—one of its mysteries has to do with where Veronica’s affections resided. But its focus is more intellectual, as Anthony considers how much of his past history he’s failed to face up to, how willing he is to confront his mistakes and to what degree his own moral failings affected others. Decades after their breakup, Anthony and Veronica are forced to reconnect due to some legal tussling over Adrian’s diary, and their parrying at times becomes painfully intense. The brutality of those exchanges, coolly presented, speaks to Barnes’ skill at balancing emotional tensions and philosophical quandaries.

Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-307-95712-2

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011

LITERARY FICTION

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More by Julian Barnes

ELIZABETH FINCH

BOOK REVIEW

by Julian Barnes

THE MAN IN THE RED COAT

HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad.  The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized).  As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses).  Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture.  Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

More by Mark Z. Danielewski

THE LITTLE BLUE KITE

by Mark Z. Danielewski

HADES

THE SECRET HISTORY

by Donna Tartt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 1992

The Brat Pack meets The Bacchae in this precious, way-too-long, and utterly unsuspenseful town-and-gown murder tale. A bunch of ever-so-mandarin college kids in a small Vermont school are the eager epigones of an aloof classics professor, and in their exclusivity and snobbishness and eagerness to please their teacher, they are moved to try to enact Dionysian frenzies in the woods. During the only one that actually comes off, a local farmer happens upon them—and they kill him. But the death isn't ruled a murder—and might never have been if one of the gang—a cadging sybarite named Bunny Corcoran—hadn't shown signs of cracking under the secret's weight. And so he too is dispatched. The narrator, a blank-slate Californian named Richard Pepen chronicles the coverup. But if you're thinking remorse-drama, conscience masque, or even semi-trashy who'll-break-first? page-turner, forget it: This is a straight gee-whiz, first-to-have-ever-noticed college novel—"Hampden College, as a body, was always strangely prone to hysteria. Whether from isolation, malice, or simple boredom, people there were far more credulous and excitable than educated people are generally thought to be, and this hermetic, overheated atmosphere made it a thriving black petri dish of melodrama and distortion." First-novelist Tartt goes muzzy when she has to describe human confrontations (the murder, or sex, or even the ping-ponging of fear), and is much more comfortable in transcribing aimless dorm-room paranoia or the TV shows that the malefactors anesthetize themselves with as fate ticks down. By telegraphing the murders, Tartt wants us to be continually horrified at these kids—while inviting us to semi-enjoy their manneristic fetishes and refined tastes. This ersatz-Fitzgerald mix of moralizing and mirror-looking (Jay McInerney shook and poured the shaker first) is very 80's—and in Tartt's strenuous version already seems dated, formulaic. Les Nerds du Mal—and about as deep (if not nearly as involving) as a TV movie.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1992

ISBN: 1400031702

Page Count: 592

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992

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THE GOLDFINCH

by Donna Tartt

THE LITTLE FRIEND

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guardian book review the sense of an ending

Man Booker Prize 2011

BOOKS / See also: BIOGRAPHY / RESOURCES

The Sense of an Ending

Winner of the man booker prize 2011.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers.

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they navigated the girl drought of gawky adolescence together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they swore to stay friends forever. Until Adrian's life took a turn into tragedy, and all of them, especially Tony, moved on and did their best to forget.

Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a marriage, a calm divorce. He gets along nicely, he thinks, with his one child, a daughter, and even with his ex-wife. 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. The unexpected bequest conveyed by that letter leads Tony on a dogged search through a past suddenly turned murky. And how do you carry on, contentedly, when events conspire to upset all your vaunted truths?

"Its effect is disturbing - all the more so for being written with Barnes's habitual lucidity. His reputation will surely be enhanced by this book. Do not be misled by its brevity. Its mystery is as deeply embedded as the most archaic of memories." - Anita Brookner, Daily Telegraph

"a highly wrought meditation on ageing, memory and regret" - justine jordan, the guardian, "it's a harsh tale rich in humane resonances" - peter kemp, the sunday times.

EDITIONS & TRANSLATIONS / INTERVIEWS / REVIEWS

EDITIONS & TRANSLATIONS

English editions.

The Sense of an Ending . London: Jonathan Cape, 2011

The Sense of an Ending . London: LRB Bookshop, 2011 (Limited edition of 100) [75 of which have been quarter-bound in Tusting Chestnut fine grain leather with Rainforest cloth sides, numbered 1 to 75, and 25 copies fully bound in the same leather, numbered i to xxv.]

The Sense of an Ending . Random House Canada, 2011

The Sense of an Ending . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011

Designing the Cover Art for The Sense of an Ending

Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at Vintage Publishing, discusses her process for designing the cover of Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending. The video shows numerous examples from her earliest design thoughts through the final cover. Suzanne Dean also designed the jacket for Julian Barnes's recent collection of short stories Pulse.

Audio Editions

The Sense of an Ending . Audible Studios, 2011: Read by Richard Morant - UK & US [Unabridged, 4 hours, 40 minutes]

Translated Editions

Bulgarian - (The Sense of an Ending) . Sofia: Obsidian Press . Pp. 170 [1]. ISBN: 9789547692848

Catalan - El sentit d'un final . Barcelona: Angle Editorial , 2012. Pp. 160. Translated by Àlex Gombau Arnau. ISBN: 978-84-15695-05-9

Dutch - Alsof het voorbij is . Amsterdam/Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Atlas, 2012. Pp. 160. ISBN: 9789045022673.

French - Une fille, qui danse . Collection Bibliothéque étrangère, Mercure de France , 2013. Translated by Jean-Pierre Aoustin. ISBN: 9782715232495.

Galician - O sentido dun final . Rinoceronte Editora , 2012. Pp. 164. Translated by Xesús Fraga. ISBN: 9788492866427.

German - Vom Ende einer Geschichte . Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch , 2011. Pp. 192. Translated by Gertraude Krueger. ISBN: 9783462044331.

Romanian - Sentimentul unui sfarsit . Bucuresti: Nemira , 2014. Pp. 178. Translated by Radu Paraschivescu. ISBN: 9786065796713.

Spanish - El sentido de un final (The Sense of an Ending) . Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama , 2012. Pp. 192. Translated by Jaime Zulaika. ISBN: 9788433978523.

10/02/2014 - The key is gaining the reader's trust: An evening with Julian Barnes - Laura Dunbar, The Saint

08/10/2012 - Julian Barnes: The Sense of an Ending - Kurt Andersen, Studio 360

11/08/2011 - Conversation: Julian Barnes, Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize - Jeffrey Brown, PBS Newshour Art Beat

11/08/2011 - Speak, Memory: 'An Ending' That Uncovers The Past - Linda Wertheimer, NPR Weekend Edition

11/04/2011 - Julian Barnes - Carol Off, As It Happens ["I had learnt the ins and outs of not winning the Booker...so it was nice to see the other side," Barnes tells As It Happens host Carol Off during a recent interview.]

10/19/2011 - Man Booker Prize won by Julian Barnes on fourth attempt - Tim Masters, BBC News

10/18/2011 - At a glance: Man Booker shortlist 2011 - BBC News [ Rebecca Jones , BBC Today ]

10/18/2011 - Julian Barnes on his 'gratifying' Man Booker Prize win - Gavin Esler, BBC Newsnight [Julian Barnes has talked to Gavin Esler on Newsnight about what it feels like to win the Man Booker Prize, after making the shortlist for the fourth time with his winning novel "The Sense of an Ending".]

10/16/2011 - Life in Smoke and Mirrors - Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

10/16/2011 - The Sense of an Ending By Julian Barnes - Jane Juska, San Francisco Chronicle

10/13/2011 - Julian Barnes Searches For 'Sense' In A Hazy 'Ending' - Heller McAlpin, NPR Books

10/13/2011 - With 'The Sense of An Ending' Julian Barnes' writes a novel for the ages - John Freeman

10/11/2011 - The Sense of an Ending - A. J. Kirby, New York Journal of Books

10/10/2011 - The Sense of an Ending By Julian Barnes - Jeff Turrentine, Washington Post

08/14/2011 - Review - The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes - Ion Trewin, Scottish Sunday Express

08/13/2011 - An all too human story of great unrest. - Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

08/12/2011 - The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes - Sandra Martin, The Globe and Mail

08/08/2011 - Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending - Andrew P Street, Time Out (Sydney)

08/08/2011 - The Sense of an Ending - Leo Robson, New Statesman

08/06/2011 - Julian Barnes presents something to be frightened of - Geordie Williamson, The Australian

08/06/2011 - Misty watercolour—and flawed—memories - Jill Wilson, Winnipeg Free Press

08/06/2011 - Perils of the stiff upper lip. - Ian McGillis, The Gazette Montreal

08/06/2011 - The Sense of an Ending - Michael Prodger, Financial Times

08/06/2011 - The Sense of an Ending By Julian Barnes - James Grainger, The Toronto Star

08/05/2011 - Journey into the past. - Kalgoorlie Miner (Western Australia) p.12

08/05/2011 - The Sense of an Ending, By Julian Barnes - Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

08/01/2011 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes: review - Toby Clements, The Telegraph

08/00/2011 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - Robin Leggett, TheBookbag

07/30/2011 - Death and hand-cut chips. - Ruth Scurr, The Times

07/30/2011 - The Forgetting Game. - Justine Jordan, The Guardian Review

07/29/2011 - Book review - The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes - Christopher Bray, Scottish Express

07/29/2011 - Literary Fiction. - Michael Arditti, Daily Mail London

07/26/2011 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - Justine Jordan, The Guardian

07/25/2011 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes: review - Anita Brookner, Daily Telegraph

07/24/2011 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times

07/21/2011 - Economically-told novella from the master storyteller - Brian Donaldson, The List

07/21/2011 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - review - Nicholas Lezard, Evening Standard

Spanish Translation

11/28/2012 - El balance de Julian Barnes - Elena Hevia, El Periódico

11/28/2012 - A medida que me hago mayor desconfío cada vez más de la memoria - la Razon

11/27/2012 - Julian Barnes - David Morán, ABC

11/27/2012 - "Ya no confío en mi memoria, por eso escribo ficción" - Vis Molina, El Cultural

11/27/2012 - ¡Habla, memoria! (pero sin engañar) - Carles Geli, El País

11/19/2012 - Cuando la memoria es frágil y arrastra el peso de la culpa - Luis M. Alonso, LNE

11/2012 - El tiempo lo destruye todo - Sergi Sánchez, El Periódico

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Review: ‘The Sense of an Ending,’ and the Elusiveness of Truth

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guardian book review the sense of an ending

By Glenn Kenny

  • March 9, 2017

Adapted from a brief but emotionally potent 2011 novel by Julian Barnes, “The Sense of an Ending” initially honors its source material by taking clever, inventive cinematic liberties with it. The book, a first-person account of its aged protagonist, Tony Webster, has a bifurcated structure: “how I remembered these events” and “what really happened.” Flashbacks arrive in blink-and-you-miss-them bursts that then expand to explain the significance of a look or a gesture; memory becomes a form of time travel, putting Tony (Jim Broadbent) inside his own recollections, taking the place of his young self.

Movie Review: ‘The Sense of an Ending’

The times critic glenn kenny reviews “the sense of an ending.".

In “The Sense of an Ending,” a man is forced to grapple with his past when he receives a letter and a diary. In his review Glenn Kenny writes: In this film, memory becomes a form of time travel, putting the main character Tony played by Jim Broadbent, inside his own recollections, taking the place of his younger self. The film maintains intrigue and emotional magnetism as its mystery unfolds. Unfortunately, the movie goes pretty wobbly in the last quarter, as Tony’s refusal to face up to his past actions begins to look less willful and more stupid. At this point, the film totters into a redemptive sentimentality that wouldn’t even play if it were made to seem more earned.

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An unexpected legacy touches off reminders of his student days, his first love, his most significant friendship. All of these seem far away from the life he has come to live, as a tidy, proper and emotionally detached camera shop owner, mostly in the company of his ex-wife (Harriet Walter) and daughter (Michelle Dockery). We suspect there are sad reasons for this; we soon learn they are worse than sad, and Tony will have to face his part in them.

Freya Mavor and Charlotte Rampling are hauntingly enigmatic and ravishing as his former love, young and old, and Joe Alwyn as the ex-friend is charismatically cerebral. Directed by Ritesh Batra from a screenplay by Nick Payne, the film maintains intrigue and emotional magnetism as its mystery unfolds. Unfortunately, it goes wobbly in the last quarter, as Tony’s refusal to face up to his past actions begins to look less willful and more stupid. The film then totters into a redemptive sentimentality that wouldn’t even play if it were made to seem more earned.

Rated PG-13 for language and sexuality. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes.

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Reviews of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio

The Sense of an Ending

by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

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Readers' Opinion:

  • Literary Fiction
  • UK (Britain) & Ireland
  • 20th Century (multiple decades)
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  • Philosophical

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guardian book review the sense of an ending

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Book Summary

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse .   This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about - until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he'd left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he'd understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.

Excerpt The Sense of an Ending

I remember, in no particular order: - a shiny inner wrist; - steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it; - gouts of sperm circling a plughole, before being sluiced down the full length of a tall house; - a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams; - another river, broad and grey, the direction of its flow disguised by a stiff wind exciting the surface; - bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door. This last isn't something I actually saw, but what you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed. We live in time - it holds us and moulds us - but I've never felt I understood it very well. And I'm not referring to theories about how it bends and doubles back, or may exist elsewhere in parallel versions. No, I mean ordinary, everyday time, which clocks and watches assure us passes regularly: tick-tock, click-clock. Is there anything ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

  • What does the title mean?
  • The novel opens with a handful of water-related images. What is the significance of each? How does Barnes use water as a metaphor?
  • The phrase "Eros and Thanatos," or sex and death, comes up repeatedly in the novel. What did you take it to mean?
  • At school, Adrian says, "we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us" (p. 13). How does this apply to Tony's narration?
  • Did Tony love Veronica? How did his weekend with her family change their relationship?
  • When Mrs. Ford told Tony, "Don't let Veronica get away with too much" (p. 31), what did she mean? Why was this one sentence so important?
  • Veronica accuses Tony of being cowardly, ...
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Booker Prize 2011

Media Reviews

Reader reviews, bookbrowse review.

This is heavy business, but Barnes lays it flat out, no stylistic wand-waving, no tricks. He writes in an everyman's lingo with such unapologetic, razor-edged insight, that somehow his prose amounts to a kind of alchemy, putting, as if by magic, words to all those questions simmering away at the back of our minds... continued

Full Review (815 words) This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today .

(Reviewed by Morgan Macgregor ).

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The unreliable narrator.

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The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

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B+ : fine short novel of memory and how we shape our pasts

See our review for fuller assessment.

   Review Consensus :   Almost all very impressed    From the Reviews : "The path to revelation requires adroit handling. The mechanism of the novel is so intricate that one slip and the whole thing would spring apart. Barnes�s writing, though, is founded on precision as well as on the nuances of language. And the secret, when it finally arrives, is breathtakingly unexpected. Just as one explanation seems to become clear, a second arrives with the force of a slap." - Michael Prodger, Financial Times "With its patterns and repetitions, scrutinising its own workings from every possible angle, the novella becomes a highly wrought meditation on ageing, memory and regret. But it gives as much resonance to what is unknown and unspoken -- lost to memory -- as it does to the engine of its own plot." - Justine Jordan, The Guardian "This book is something like a Ruth Rendell; confounding not just readers' suppositions but also those of the narrator. (...) The result is adroit and unnerving and Barnes's keen intellect has rarely been so apparent. He, like his contemporaries, McEwan, Amis and Rushdie, is a gin-and-tonic novelist: his books are crisp, cool and provide a kick to the head, but they seldom, as is the case here, touch the heart. If that's the kind of tipple you enjoy, then The Sense of an Ending is a double on the rocks." - Christian House, Independent on Sunday "The result, in this instance, is an odd and unnerving sort of novel, in which even a description of a lawyer is reduced to the status of feed line" - Leo Robson, New Statesman "Barnes's novel, then, is not about England or about loss, but it is an attempt to find a language and a formal structure in the novel that will allow one man to make sense of things in the abstract, but also in his own voice." - Colm Tóibín, The New York Review of Books " The Sense of an Ending is a short book, but not a slight one. In it Julian Barnes reveals crystalline truths that have taken a lifetime to harden. He has honed their edges, and polished them to a high gleam." - Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review " The Sense of an Ending is a short novel, but one that packs in a lot. Full of insight and intelligence, it is in some ways a more intellectual version of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach , touching on the same themes of youthful sex, inhibition, class, regret and false recollection. (...) (T)his is a very fine book, skilfully plotted, boldly conceived, full of bleak insight into the questions of ageing and memory, and producing a very real kick -- or peripeteia -- at its end." - Justin Cartwright, The Observer "It would be a mistake to dismiss this as a mere psychological thriller. It is in fact a tragedy, like Henry James�s The Turn of the Screw , which it resembles. (...) Do not be misled by its brevity. Its mystery is as deeply embedded as the most archaic of memories." - Anita Brookner, The Telegraph "Barnes is on absolutely top form here. His sentences, each one so simple and precise, are as iridescent as tropical fish, each one individual and distinct, each one expressing a single revelatory insight, thought, image or joke, and yet they work together to produce a perfectly wonderful harmonious shoal, a work of rare and dazzling genius." - Toby Clements, The Telegraph "The way in which we construct our histories, our fictions, is the subject of the novel, which shares its title with Frank Kermode�s critical study of 1967. Poised between a straightforward story and a novel of ideas, Barnes has it both ways, just as he often contrives to be so English and so French at once. He succeeds in this partly because he is too clever to let his cleverness get in the way: the ideas are filtered through a mind less agile than his own, so that theory is always bound by character." - Lidija Haas, Times Literary Supplement "In the longest, dreariest 163 pages in recent memory, Sense of an Ending offers pretentious philosophical musings masquerading as a novel." - Deirdre Donahue, USA Today Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

The complete review 's Review :

You still don't get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying.
I'll finish my food and be off, and none of you will ever see me again.

- M.A.Orthofer , 13 June 2012

About the Author :

       English author Julian Barnes was born in 1946. He is the author of several highly acclaimed novels.

© 2012-2021 the complete review Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links

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The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

WINNER: MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2011

'The Sense of an Ending' is almost more of a novella - it's a slim volume but exquisitely written, as you might expect from Julian Barnes. It starts off describing the relationships between four friends at school, narrated by one of the friends, Tony Webster, but quickly it becomes clear that this is written many years later. Barnes has long been a terrific observer of the English middle classes and his style invariably contains satire and dry humour. And this being Barnes, this school clique is intellectual in interest, as the narrator recalls English and History teachers and student philosophising.

Tony is a middle class everyman. He's unexceptional and his subsequent life has been so conventional as to border on the dull, unlike the catalyst for the story Adrian Finn who is intellectually gifted and a natural philosopher of the human condition. However the friendship falls apart after the friends leave to go to university and Adrian enters into a relationship with Tony's ex-girlfriend. And that would have been that, except that many years later a mysterious letter opens up the past causing Tony to reconsider the actions of his youth.

It's a book about history and how we recall events. Tony has his memories but without evidence or corroboration, how sure can he be? Do the lessons learnt in the History classroom apply to the individual? What starts off in the manner of Alan Bennett's 'History Boys' soon turns into a darker mystery as Tony is forced to face up to the actions of his younger self.

It's a joy to read. Thought provoking, beautifully observed with just enough mystery to keep you turning the pages to find out what happened. Books that involve the narrator examining their own actions can get too easily bogged down, but by keeping it brief, this never happens with Barnes. There's insight into the human condition and gentle philosophy without it becoming too introspective. It's very readable literary fiction.

Older readers in particular will relate to Tony's struggle with the modernities of the current day.

It's a terrific little book and is highly recommended.

Our thanks to the kind people at Jonathan Cape for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

I'd whole heartedly recommend anything from the Julian Barnes backlist - why not try Arthur and George for a start?

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Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.

  • Julian Barnes
  • Reviewed by Robin Leggett
  • 4.5 Star Reviews
  • Literary Fiction
  • August 2011
  • Books In Top Tens

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guardian book review the sense of an ending

The Sense of an Ending

Julian barnes, everything you need for every book you read..

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Sense of an Ending: Introduction

The sense of an ending: plot summary, the sense of an ending: detailed summary & analysis, the sense of an ending: themes, the sense of an ending: quotes, the sense of an ending: characters, the sense of an ending: symbols, the sense of an ending: theme wheel, brief biography of julian barnes.

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Historical Context of The Sense of an Ending

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  • Full Title: The Sense of an Ending
  • When Written: 2011
  • Where Written: United Kingdom
  • When Published: 2011
  • Literary Period: Contemporary
  • Genre: Novel
  • Climax: Tony realizes that Adrian’s son is the child of Sarah Ford rather than Veronica
  • Antagonist: Tony seems to think of Veronica as his nemesis for most of the novel, following their relationship—he takes solace in identifying her as manipulative and selfish, so as to excuse his own actions. But Tony comes to realize that he has been his own worst enemy: he struggles to overcome certain intractable character traits that he doesn’t like and yet cannot seem to shed.
  • Point of View: First person: the narrator, Tony, is telling the story of his life. The way he narrates it—what he includes and leaves out (consciously or otherwise)—suggests that he is not an altogether reliable narrator.

Extra Credit for The Sense of an Ending

Look it Up. During his time working at the Oxford English Dictionary , Julian Barnes once claimed to have been assigned to the “sports and dirty word department.”

I Spy?   In the 1980s, Julian Barnes indulged his grittier side by publishing a series of crime novels featuring a bisexual detective, Duffy, under the pseudonym “Dan Kavanagh.”

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Movie Reviews

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guardian book review the sense of an ending

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“The Sense of An Ending” is a decent, take-your-mom movie (or take your grandma, if you’re a lot younger than I am). It’s got a strong, esteemed British cast ( Jim Broadbent , Charlotte Rampling , Harriet Walter , Michelle Dockery , Emily Mortimer .) It’s based on a Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Julian Barnes . And it’s about returning to a dramatic event from decades earlier in the hopes of finding closure.

And indeed, the screening I attended was packed with older filmgoers—a woefully underserved audience beyond the occasional " The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ” movie and the like—to the extent that the woman sitting three seats down from me kept answering her phone when it rang and having loud conversations.

Not to sound derisive, but there’s definitely a target audience here. What they’ll get will be mildly satisfying: a film that’s well-acted but tastefully restrained to a fault, with gentle humor about aging and a central mystery that isn’t all that engaging.

Maybe it works better on the page. Barnes’ 2011 novel, at just 163 pages, has been acclaimed for its elegance, precision and for the gripping nature of its unreliable narration. Director Ritesh Batra ’s film, based on a script by Nick Payne , jumps back and forth in time as the pieces of a previously unexamined life snap into place. Characters and bits of dialogue from one period intriguingly appear in the other to signify the fluid nature of memory. But when you stand back and consider the truth Jim Broadbent’s character is chasing, it’s hard to understand why it matters now, after all this time.

Broadbent stars as Tony Webster, the divorced owner of what has to be the tiniest and most specific shop in all of London: a narrow storefront where he fixes and sells classic Leica cameras. Batra efficiently establishes the quiet, daily rhythms of his isolated existence: the tidy home where he brews a coffee pot for one in the morning, the park bench where he eats lunch by himself in the afternoon. This is a man who’s clearly very particular about everything but Broadbent, great as always, imbues the character’s loneliness with an awkward sweetness.

He still has a cordial relationship with his ex-wife, Margaret (Harriet Walter), and the scenes in which the two banter with a warm familiarity are the film’s finest. (“Why did you leave me?” Tony asks Margaret at one point; she rolls her eyes at him in response.) She is the voice of reason—the one connected to the outside world, a force Tony clearly still needs in his life. And the two share a strong bond with their daughter, Michelle Dockery’s matter-of-fact Susie, who’s extremely pregnant and on the verge of having her first child on her own.

The arrival of a certified letter disrupts his routine. It turns out the mother of his first love, Veronica, a vivacious young woman he met in college, has died. She has willed him an item that Veronica, whom he hasn’t seen in over 50 years, now refuses to give him. As Tony tries to track it down, he shares with Margaret the story of this young romance, as well the friendship with a fellow classmate that came to a tragic end.

“The Sense of An Ending” glides back and forth between a series of conversations between the exes, each of which ends with Margaret growing exasperated with Tony, and the events from the early ‘60s themselves, starring Billy Howle and Freya Mavor as the young Tony and Veronica. Working with cinematographer Christopher Ross , Batra shoots these flashback scenes warmly in contrast to the crisp cloudiness of contemporary London. There’s a smoky, faded quality that suggests the haziness of memory.

Mortimer is vibrant in just a few scenes as Veronica’s perky, playful mother, while Joe Alwyn (“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”) leaves a melancholy impression as Adrian, the mutual friend who deeply affected Tony and Veronica’s blossoming relationship.

But the most powerful scene of all comes courtesy of Rampling, which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s familiar with the veteran actress’ work. Along those lines, “The Sense of An Ending” surely will call to mind 2015’s “ 45 Years ,” which deservedly earned Rampling an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That film also followed the domestic destruction caused by a letter with news from the past. Here, in one exquisitely sad and tense moment with Broadbent at a café, Rampling provides a brief glimpse into what all the fuss is about.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Sense of an Ending movie poster

The Sense of an Ending (2017)

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, a violent image, sexuality and brief strong language.

108 minutes

Jim Broadbent as Tony Webster

Harriet Walter as Margaret

Michelle Dockery as Susie

Charlotte Rampling as Veronica Ford

Billy Howle as Young Tony

Joe Alwyn as Adrian Finn

Freya Mavor as Young Veronica

  • Ritesh Batra

Writer (novel)

  • Julian Barnes

Cinematographer

  • Christopher Ross
  • John F. Lyons
  • Max Richter

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Film Review: ‘The Sense of an Ending’

A guilt-stricken divorcé is reluctant to accept that his impact on the lives of two old friends might have been less than he's grappled with all these years.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Sense of an Ending

A couple years back, festival audiences fell in love with Indian director Ritesh Batra ’s genuine gem of a debut, “The Lunchbox,” in which an accountant on the brink of retirement exchanges intimate notes with the complete stranger who has been cooking for him each day. That low-key treasure displayed Batra’s unique touch for the subtle sense of longing and mystery that can haunt men of a certain age, and proved to be an ideal precursor to the director’s first English-language film, “The Sense of an Ending,” a well-acted, if somewhat trickier dish to digest, focusing on a British divorcé’s futile search for closure to a long-ago relationship.

As source material goes, “The Sense of an Ending” is rather more literary, adapted from Julian Barnes’ 2011 novel by playwright Nick Payne, and one can feel the ideas knocking about behind the deceptively simple-looking facades of its characters. Fusty curmudgeon Tony Webster ( Jim Broadbent ) appears content to have traded his ambitions as a poet for a life spent tending a tiny vintage camera shop. It was an early girlfriend, Veronica (Freya Mavor), who gave Tony his first Leica camera, though the humiliation of losing her to an old schoolmate also seems to have shaped his younger self (played by Billy Howle). But whose love was Tony more devastated to lose: hers or the golden boy they both admired?

“The Sense of an Ending” wallows in such ambiguities for much of its running time, even as it comes straight out and states its thesis early on, when Adrian (“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” star Joe Alwyn) recites in class: “History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.” Adrian claims to be quoting a scholar named Patrick Lagrange to explain why he considers it futile to ascribe responsibility to a fellow student’s suicide. Lagrange, as it turns out, does not exist, but then, isn’t that the film’s point? This flashback to Tony’s school days has been lifted directly from his memory, which is itself distorted not only by time, but by a sort of deliberate rewriting on Tony’s part, for he must find a way to live with himself after what happened to his good friend. As it turns out, he doesn’t know the half of it.

Tony’s rather unflattering plunge into self-absorption begins with the receipt of a letter, and like those wonderful thoughts that take shape only gradually over the course of several days in “The Lunchbox,” he takes rather a long time to get around to reading it. In places, “The Sense of an Ending” seems almost frustratingly uninterested in establishing, much less solving, the riddles at its core, when in fact, it’s merely uninterested in pandering to those who lack the patience to appreciate its nuances. Its most receptive audiences will almost certainly be older, with enough life experience to recognize the mix of curiosity and regret that ensnares us like so many wild brambles each time we hazard a stroll down Memory Lane.

The letter refers to a diary, which once belonged to Adrian but had since passed into the hands of Veronica’s mother, Sarah (Emily Mortimer, by far the liveliest presence amid all the film’s flashback scenes), for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — though in bequeathing it to Tony, Sarah dredges the past back up again. The movie, which fairly pulses with a latent homoeroticism just beneath the surface every time its hot-blooded young characters look at one another, teases us with possible explanations: What exactly is the nature of Tony and Adrian’s past relationship? Does Tony fancy both Veronica and her mother, or perhaps it’s her brother who occupies his solitary late-night fantasies? And what does his ex-wife (Harriet Walter) — or their very pregnant daughter (Michelle Dockery) — make of all this?

The explanation is at once simpler and more complicated than any of these questions could suggest, and it is revealed only after the last of the onion’s layers has been peeled away. It works to the film’s advantage that someone as benign as Broadbent should be playing Tony, since it offsets what a disagreeable character he might otherwise have been: Despite not being a particularly interesting or clever person in his own right, Tony is single-mindedly obsessed with resolving a relationship that played itself out decades earlier, to the point of stalking an ex who had otherwise left all memory of him in the dust.

Charlotte Rampling plays Veronica in the present, though she doesn’t appear until late in the film, like an ace that Batra has been keeping up his sleeve. Still beyond his grasp, Veronica has intercepted Adrian’s diary and has no intentions of returning it to Tony, which drives him crazy, sending him deeper into the spiral of his own narcissism — a far more unpleasant space to share if it weren’t for the wry way that Walter’s character (augmented significantly from the novel) has of humoring him. And Max Richter’s seductive score turns potential revulsion into a sort of unrequited melancholy.

Like a male-centric counterpart to Iain McEwan’s “Atonement,” Tony’s journey offers a poignant commentary on how each of us attempts to make meaning of our lives, distorting memories and destroying documentation to suit agendas we can’t entirely rationalize. It’s a fundamental human impulse to seek meaning in things, and yet, as Tony ultimately realizes, the corollary to the butterfly effect — where the smallest incident can have a seismic impact on other people’s lives — is admitting that sometimes we’ve left absolutely no impression at all.

Reviewed at Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival (opener), Jan. 5, 2017. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 108 MIN.

  • Production: (U.K.) A CBS Films release, presented with BBC Films, FilmNation Entertainment, in association with LipSync, of an Origin Pictures production. Producers: David Thompson, Ed Rubin. Executive producers: Ben Browning, Aaron Ryder, Glen Basner, Milian Popelka, Norman Merry, Christine Langan, Ed Wethered. Co-producers: Sarada McDermott, Joanie Blaikie.
  • Crew: Director: Ritesh Batra. Screenplay: Nick Payne, based on the novel by Julian Barnes. Camera (color, widescreen): Christopher Ross. Editor: John F. Lyons. Music; Max Richter.
  • With: Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode, Emily Mortimer, James Wilby, Edward Holcroft, Billy Howle, Freya Mavor, Joe Alwyn, Peter Wight. Hilton McRae, Jack Loxton, Timothy Innes, Andrew Buckley.

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I was worried ‘Cabrini’ would be another sappy religious movie. I was wrong.

guardian book review the sense of an ending

Like many a solid New York Catholic, I was taken as a boy to see Mother Cabrini, under glass , at the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine in Upper Manhattan. The bodies of saints, my mother told me at the time, do not decompose. Ah, I thought, that explains it. My sense of dread was replaced by awe.

My sense of dread over the film “Cabrini”? It was replaced by respect, even joy, after encountering this less-than-exhaustive but elevating piece of biographical filmmaking about the immigrant Italian activist, healer and early Manhattan developer (of hospitals and orphanages)—the woman who became the first American saint. Mom may have been wrong, but she told a good story. So does “Cabrini.”

My apprehensions were twofold. The sad fact is, many films with a fervent religious message stress the message and fail to be good movies; “Cabrini,” while certainly a hagiography, is dramatically and cinematically sound and even, now and then, visually breathtaking. (The cinematographer is the Spaniard Gorka Gómez Andreu.) My other worry was the movie’s director and co-writer: Alejandro Monteverde of “Sound of Freedom,” the sensationalistic, QAnon-approved thriller and box-office smash of last summer. No one wants to argue against a movie demonizing child-trafficking, or glorifying the fight against it, but most viewers don’t look forward to being emotionally manipulated either. Would I be told that Mother Cabrini’s pro-Italian campaign in the Five Points slum of 1800s New York was being thwarted by a band of Soros-funded liberals kidnapping children and holding them in the basement of Lombardi’s pizza parlor on Spring Street? Anything can happen. None of this does.

But fear not: There is much to raise one’s ire and indignation in “Cabrini,” concentrating as it does on the sister’s fight against both church and state in trying to better the lives of the unfortunate—while she still has the time. As the screenplay by Monteverde and Rob Barr tells it, Cabrini, born in 1850, nearly drowned as a child, her lungs were damaged, and she was rejected by several religious orders on the basis of ill health. Ultimately, she founded her own Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus , and added Xavier to her name, after the Jesuit saint Francis Xavier.

This movie takes place after all that. Portrayed by a gauntly radiant Cristiana Dell’Anna, Cabrini pursues a plan that would have taken her to the Far East, but having badgered the Vatican about it to no avail—her M.O. in the movie is speaking truth to power and doing so relentlessly —she is finally told by Pope Leo XIII himself (a welcome Giancarlo Giannini) that she ought to go instead to New York. There, an explosion circa 1887 of Italian immigration, prejudice and poverty was creating a particular kind of hell for their exported countrymen. You can do much good by going west, she is told by the pontiff—who in fact, if not the film, rebuked the New York archbishop, Michael Corrigan (David Morse), for his mistreatment of his Italian congregation, which Corrigan viewed as no such thing.

Corrigan becomes one of Cabrini’s nemeses, along with the Irish and the N.Y.P.D., which were basically the same thing; various functionaries who just get in her way; and Mayor Gould (a terrific John Lithgow), with whom the nun plays political chess, to the mayor’s surprise and chagrin. (The name Gould doesn’t correspond to a real-life New York mayoralty but is an intriguing choice for the character’s name, given the robber-baron era in which “Cabrini” is set.) Her allies include the prostitute Vittoria (Romana Maggiora Vergano), a traditionalist’s Mary Magdalene to Cabrini’s slowly martyred Christ figure; and Theodore Calloway (Jeremy Bobb), a New York Times reporter who publishes exposes on the plight of the Five Points (“Rats have it better”)—stories that probably have been more likely in the World or Herald, but the film doesn’t take many liberties, and there are few notable omissions.

It’s curious that Jesus is never named in the film (unless he simply never made it into the abundant English subtitles) and that Cabrini’s miracles can’t be mentioned, as they occurred after the movie’s timeframe—although her discovery of drinking water on the land she received from the Jesuits, where they had failed to find any, passes as one.

Archbishop Corrigan gets something of a whitewash by the end of the movie, though its depiction of the Five Points slum—which David McCullough, in his masterful The Great Bridge , called the most notorious in American history and which has been recreated by the likes of Martin Scorsese—seems starkly real. The site of the former Collect Pond, a onetime source of water for New York, the neighborhood was a subterranean, purgatorial pit in which a succession of immigrant groups and Black Americans would live, suffer and die, all under the nose of Gilded Era Manhattan. The portrait is infernal, ambitiously cinematic and makes the work of Cabrini and her sisters all the more impressive, and thoroughly absorbing.

guardian book review the sense of an ending

John Anderson is a television critic for The Wall Street Journal and a contributor to The New York Times.

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Imaginary review – a shoddy and unimaginative creepshow

Blumhouse has churned out some critical and commercial hits, yet continues on a losing streak with a sloppily put together horror about an imaginary friend

I t’s yet another sub-par day at the Blumhouse factory, production line operating at full, breakneck speed, yet machinery on the perilous verge of total collapse. The house of horror, behind hit franchises like Insidious, Paranormal Activity and The Purge, has become something of a franchise in itself, a branded string of low-budget films making a high profit, yet quality control has forever been an issue and in the last year or so, it’s barely existed.

On the first cursed weekend of January 2023, usually home to the most unintentionally horrifying horror films, M3gan upended critical expectations and scored reviews as impressive as its box office total. But normality soon resumed with a limp Insidious sequel , a junky time travel slasher , a loathed Exorcist reboot , an astonishingly dull video game adaptation and, most recently, a soggy haunted pool horror . Yet somehow, the very worst was yet to come and now here it is, crash-landing into cinemas with an embargo so late some preview audiences will have already started watching it. Imaginary, teased by an audio-first, cinema-only trailer far smarter than the movie itself, is a shameless grab bag of stolen parts clumsily stitched together with such carelessness, it’s a miracle it’s even getting a theatrical release. The bar might have fallen to its lowest ever point for studio horror but it’s still a surprise to see just how bad things can really get.

I was kinder than most about writer-director Jeff Wadlow’s first Blumhouse offering, the gimmicky yet fun franchise non-starter Truth or Dare , which worked just about enough in a low stakes kinda way, a Final Destination rip-off for the sleepover crowd. His follow-up Fantasy Island was a disordered mess, trying and failing to do far too much and there’s a similar level of unearned confidence on display in his latest, world-building done with an unsteady hand and an unfocused mind.

Things start off in familiar genre territory as a woman named Jessica (played by DeWanda Wise) returns to her childhood home with new family in tow, husband Max (British actor Tom Payne) and his two children from a former marriage. Both Jessica and Max have some sort of trauma in their past – her absent father, his mentally unwell ex-wife – and both are hoping that a new start will help them heal. But when youngest daughter Alice (Pyper Braun) finds an old teddy bear and claims it as her new imaginary friend Chauncey, their dream home becomes a nightmare.

While red flags start to fly pretty early on – some bad acting, some even worse dialogue – the build-up is at the very least competent, if entirely derivative, recalling the 2005 Robert De Niro thriller Hide and Seek as well as Poltergeist and M3gan, a child falling into dangerous fantasy dragged deeper by a nefarious presence. But like so many horror films these days, it’s a logline scrawled on a napkin rather than a fully-formed and fully thought-out script and so when the plot inevitably thickens, the cracks turn into chasms and a two-star time-waster descends into a one-star catastrophe.

Along with the year’s other Blumhouse misstep Night Swim, Imaginary feels like the sort of bottom-shelf shocker that would have littered video stores decades ago, modernised only by its almost parodic obsession with trauma, the word that has ruined many a horror film of late. The last act, as drip-drip creepiness turns into flash flood chaos, is a laughably incoherent string of question marks – how did they, how could she, what was that – which plays out as if it were being made up on the spot, sloppy enough for a refund, Wadlow and his co-writers Greg Erb and Jason Oremland in need of a stern sense-checker. There’s such lumbering gracelessness to how rules are introduced – characters stumbling over nonsensical realisations and reveals – and such shamelessness to how other, better films and shows are copied. There are too many to list but you can feel elements of It, Beetlejuice, Housebound, Come Play, Stranger Things and most obviously Coraline with a visual trick so brazenly similar, legal action should follow.

Wise can be a charming presence elsewhere but there’s only so much that can be done with the suffocatingly soapy dialogue she’s lumped with and she quickly gets lost in the murk surrounding her. Even the promise of Betty Buckley playing a mysterious neighbour frantically ranting about demonic mythology isn’t as much fun as it should have been.

Wadlow has spoken of his desire to make a four-quadrant horror intended for a broader audience, the likes of which audiences saw more of in the 1980s, operating like a rollercoaster that’s exciting in the moment but unlikely to leave a mark. It’s an admirable mission statement and given how self-serious so many horror films can now be, aiming for more fun is no bad thing but Imaginary is far too dumb and ungainly to move at the pace required and bring the thrills it should, a theme park ride that should be closed for repairs.

Imaginary is out now at cinemas

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COMMENTS

  1. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - review Justine Jordan Tue 26 Jul 2011 12.15 EDT I n Nothing to Be Frightened Of, his family memoir cum meditation on mortality, Julian Barnes admits...

  2. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    Sat 30 Jul 2011 19.04 EDT The Sense of an Ending is a short novel, but one that packs in a lot. Full of insight and intelligence, it is in some ways a more intellectual version of Ian McEwan's...

  3. Julian Barnes on The Sense of an Ending: 'I learned to do more by

    Julian Barnes on The Sense of an Ending: 'I learned to do more by saying less' The author on maturing as a writer, the power of concision - and the reviews that claimed he was inspired by...

  4. The Sense of An Ending

    The Sense of An Ending - By Julian Barnes - Book Review - The New York Times Advertisement Julian Barnes and the Emotions of Englishmen By Liesl Schillinger Nov. 10, 2011

  5. Julian Barnes's 'Sense of an Ending'

    By Julian Barnes 163 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $23.95. A version of this article appears in print on , Section C, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Life in Smoke And Mirrors.

  6. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    178,197 ratings18,674 reviews Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Fiction (2011) By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse.

  7. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes: review

    The Sense of an Ending, the new novel by Julian Barnes about the fortunes of a group of school friends, is brief but masterful, says Anita Brookner. Memory, individual rather than collective ...

  8. Book Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    Book Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - The Bibliofile Main / Books / The Sense of an Ending The Sense of an Ending By Julian Barnes, A Well-Crafted, Elegant Novel on the Vagaries of Memory By Jenn Marie on Dec 15th, 2014 (Last Updated Sep 21st, 2018 )

  9. The Sense of an Ending

    The Sense of an Ending is a 2011 novel written by British author Julian Barnes. The book is Barnes's 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.

  10. All Book Marks reviews for The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    The Sense of an Ending is dense with philosophical ideas and more clever than emotionally satisfying. Still, it manages to create genuine suspense as a sort of psychological detective story.

  11. THE SENSE OF AN ENDING

    A man's closest-held beliefs about a friend, former lover and himself are undone in a subtly devastating novella from Barnes.

  12. Julian Barnes: The Sense of an Ending

    "a highly wrought meditation on ageing, memory and regret" - Justine Jordan, The Guardian "it's a harsh tale rich in humane resonances" - Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times EDITIONS & TRANSLATIONS / INTERVIEWS / REVIEWS EDITIONS & TRANSLATIONS NOTE: When possible, editions are linked to entries in the online Julian Barnes Bibliography.

  13. Review: 'The Sense of an Ending,' and the Elusiveness of Truth

    Ritesh Batra Writers Julian Barnes (novel), Nick Payne Stars Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode Rating PG-13 Running Time 1h 48m Genres Drama,...

  14. The Sense of an Ending review

    Broadbent and Harriet Walter With his very nicely judged performance - lugubrious, droll, self-pitying and slightly scared - Broadbent controls the pace and tone of every scene, and the film as a...

  15. Reviews of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    Book Summary. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that ...

  16. The Sense of an Ending

    Julian Barnes general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author Man Booker Prize, 2011 - Return to top of the page - Our Assessment: B+ : fine short novel of memory and how we shape our pasts See our review for fuller assessment. Review Consensus: Almost all very impressed From the Reviews:

  17. The Sense of an Ending Reviews, Discussion Questions and Links

    REVIEWS: The Sense of an Ending The NY Times The Guardian GoodReads Book Companion Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, this intense novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present.

  18. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    'The Sense of an Ending' is almost more of a novella - it's a slim volume but exquisitely written, as you might expect from Julian Barnes. ... You can read more book reviews or buy The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, ...

  19. The Sense of an Ending Study Guide

    The Sense of an Ending takes its name from a 1967 book of literary criticism by Frank Kermode, which studies how fiction imposes cohesive structures and coherent narratives onto what might otherwise seem like chaos, especially in uncertain times of history. Barnes's novel is similarly concerned with how all people, not just writers, construct certain selective narratives about themselves and ...

  20. The Sense of an Ending movie review (2017)

    Powered by JustWatch. "The Sense of An Ending" is a decent, take-your-mom movie (or take your grandma, if you're a lot younger than I am). It's got a strong, esteemed British cast ( Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Michelle Dockery, Emily Mortimer .) It's based on a Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Julian Barnes.

  21. 'The Sense of an Ending' Review

    Film Review: 'The Sense of an Ending'. A guilt-stricken divorcé is reluctant to accept that his impact on the lives of two old friends might have been less than he's grappled with all these ...

  22. Julian Barnes: 'I told the film-makers to throw my book ...

    The Sense of an Ending is a short, sharp novel about a man who tells his own story and then comes to doubt it. Written by Julian Barnes, it's a book in two halves (construction;...

  23. The Sense of an Ending review

    Sun 16 Apr 2017 03.00 EDT T his pensive but not entirely faithful adaptation of Julian Barnes's Booker prize-winning novel is seeded with recurring images of circles.

  24. I was worried 'Cabrini' would be another sappy religious movie. I was

    As the screenplay by Monteverde and Rob Barr tells it, Cabrini, born in 1850, nearly drowned as a child, her lungs were damaged, and she was rejected by several religious orders on the basis of ...

  25. How to Be Somebody Else by Miranda Pountney review

    It is a book founded on the anxiety that undermines our drive towards attachment and stability, and it thrives on a constant sense of slippage and precarity, a jumpy exploration of what it might ...

  26. Fiction

    Butter by Asako Yuzuki review - a tasty exposé of fatphobia and trauma In this Japanese bestseller based on a real-life case, food unites a journalist and a cook turned murderer in a frequently ...

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    A train full of family secrets, a witty and poignant memoir about kinship and loss, and sniffing out the disappearance of our favourite prickly mammal

  28. The Hunter by Tana French review

    The Hunter opens two years on; under Cal's guidance Trey, now 15, is on her way to becoming an accomplished carpenter and shaking off her family's bad name. So when her feckless father, Johnny ...

  29. Imaginary review

    Both Jessica and Max have some sort of trauma in their past - her absent father, his mentally unwell ex-wife - and both are hoping that a new start will help them heal. But when youngest ...