Amazon.com
A real tour de force from masterful author Julian Barnes is Arthur & George, which was short-listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize.Late-Victorian Britain is brought to vivid life in the true story of the intersection of two lives: one an internationally famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the other, an obscure country lawyer, George Edalji, son of a Parsi Midlands vicar and a Scottish mother. They start out very differently.Arthur pursues a career in medicine before he discovers that he is really a writer; George, on his way to becoming a lawyer--near-sighted, timid and friendless--is victimized by locals because he is easy to scapegoat--a half-Indian in lily-white Great Wyrley.

The victimization of George takes the form of nasty letters, the theft of a school key, and finally, the accusation that he has mutilated animals.Meanwhile, Arthur is becoming more and more famous for creating Sherlock Holmes, whom he tries to kill off once and is forced to resurrect because of his fans' outcry.He marries, fathers two children and then, when his wife is invalided by consumption, falls madly in love for the first time with Jean Leckie.

The novel's style is smoothly revelatory.We slowly come to realize that George is half-Indian, that Arthur is the famous Doyle, that the woman he loves, chastely,is not his wife and, sadly, that George will not prevail over the forces ranged against him.

When George, desperate to resume his law career after imprisonment, sends Arthur the sad chronicle of his history, Arthur sees immediately that he could not be guilty and sets out to clear his name.This case of George's lifts Arthur from the slough of despond into which he has sunk after his wife, Touie, dies.He is guilt-ridden, constantly wondering if he was attentive enough, if she could possibly have known about Jean.Realizing the immense injustice George has suffered, he is shaken out of lethargy and, in Holmesian fashion, sets out to solve the case.

Julian Barnes is a gifted writer of enormous accomplishment.This novel is thoroughly engrossing, filled with Barnes's trademark themes of identity and love, longing and loss, and ultimately, an examination of man's inhumanity to man. --Valerie RyanBook Description
As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world’s most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife–their fates become inextricably connected.

In Arthur &George, Julian Barnes explores the grand tapestry of late-Victorian Britain to create his most intriguing and engrossing novel yet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (76)

Excellent
This is a wonderful book. Smart, well-written and somehow gripping in its pace and style.

An artfully crafted, fascinating, tale
I should begin by saying that while I am a great admirer of Barnes' literary skills, I have not always counted his essays, novels and stories among my favorites; there always seems to be a sneering undertone, a condescension towards the characters, those he disagrees with, Americans, and even the reader. Thus it was I resisted reading this book for a long time, even after a friend proclaimed it the best book she'd read in a decade.

I don't know that I'd go that far, or even as far as calling it the best book I'd read in a year, but Arthur and George is certainly among the top ten. The story is well known, at least among Conan-Doyle fans; famous titled writer takes an interest in what he sees as a miscarriage of justice. But Barnes approaches the story in an unusual- for him- way. He starts with a pair of parallel tales that don't intersect until well into the novel. (Fans of Richard Powers' novels will see strong parallels here.) And unusually (I think) for Barnes, his treatment of the main characters is uncommonly kind and sympathetic- especially so for Conan Doyle, who had many unlikable traits and opinions.

I won't go into the plot, as much of the pleasure in this book depends on the unexpected turn and surprise. Suffice it to say that this is a very involving, meticulously crafted, tale that will drag the reader along to the end, and will not disappoint.

Interesting concept, boring execution
Julian Barnes keeps things interesting from the childhoods of the two men leading up to their adult lives. During that time I could barely put the book down. But then the writing starts to drag. Arthur's details become insignificant. George's story continues to intrigue, but by then everything is a bit predictable. Barnes rushes through the what should have been the best part of the book - when Arthur finally clears George's name. After getting past that, I could barely bring myself to finish the book. In fact, I don't think I did.

Sadly disappointing
Julian Barnes is a wonderful writer but, sadly, this novel does not use his gifts to his advantage. Had it been by another author, I'd have put it down for good about a third of the way through. It was only my previous experience w/ Barnes's work that kept me plowing ahead.

The plotline has been recited in many other reviews; suffice it to say that Barnes did a lot of research -- probably too much for him to turn away from this work in midstream, which he should have. The novel is disjointed, too long, plodding, and lacking in a satisfying ending. Rather than "Arthur and George," read something else by Barnes.

Arthur May Have Been the Celebrity, but This Book Belongs to George
This fascinating piece of historical fiction documents the intersection of the lives of Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji.The author, in alternating passages, relates the stories of each as they grow up.Arthur with his precise mind and daring imagination becomes the renowned author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.George, a shy and unimaginative child of mixed ethnicity, is bullied and abused until he is finally convicted of a crime he did not commit.His case comes to Arthur's attention and gives new life to the man who is grieving over the death of his wife and his inability to commit to the woman he truly loves.They each have a dramatic effect on the other's life and their real-life encounter led to the establishment of the appeals process in the court system.

However, the strength of this book lies in the telling of their individual lives from young boy to the final years.George, in particular, will pull at your heart strings as he struggles with finding his identity in a hostile England.His unusual childhood, his unjust imprisonment, and his fight to reclaim his life as a member of the legal profession will open the reader's mind to the damage racism can do and how lives can be shattered because of bigotry.

Filled with well-researched scenes from the life of the famous Conan Doyle and poignant, heartbreaking moments from the life of the much lesser-known but equally real George Edalji, this book offers a penetrating look at the imperfect world that was 19th century England.
... Read more

Amazon.com
Oliver, Stuart, and Gillian have been friends and lovers. But it's been 10 years since this backbiting trio, which Julian Barnes first introduced in Talking It Over, last met--and a lot has changed. For starters, Oliver has married Gillian, and Stuart, his erstwhile best friend, hates him for it. Not just because Stuart was once married to Gillian, but because he still loves her and has never ceased to regard himself as her savior. Under the guise of repairing old friendships--"all blood under the bridge"--this mild-mannered third wheel insinuates himself into the couple's life by offering advice, providing support, and even giving Oliver a job. Once he's maneuvered his nemesis into a crippling depression, Stuart unveils his master plan.

In Love, Etc. Barnes adopts the same technique he used in the earlier installment, allowing his characters to speak their innermost thoughts and secrets directly to the reader--and just about everybody gets some good lines. (Oliver: "Yes, everything went swimmingly, which is a very peculiar adverb to apply to a social event, considering how most human beings swim.") But the book is also a bewitchingly intimate excursion into betrayal and jealousy. With painstaking detail, Barnes creates a vibrant portrait of a modern love triangle--as funny as it is cruel, as absurd as it is deep. Few contemporary writers can portray Middle England, with all its temptations, so darkly. --Matthew BaylisBook Description
Twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Julian Barnes continues to reinvigorate the novel with his pyrotechnic verbal skill and playful manipulation of plot and character. In Love, etc. he uses all the surprising, sophisticated ingredients of a delightful farce to create a tragicomedy of human frailties and needs.

After spending a decade in America as a successful businessman, Stuart returns to London and decides to look up his ex-wife Gillian.Their relationship had ended years before when Stuart’s witty, feckless, former best friend Oliver stole her away.But now Stuart finds that the intervening years have left Oliver’s artistic ambitions in ruins and his relationship with Gillian on less than solid footing. When Stuart begins to suspect that he may be able to undo the results of their betrayal, he resolves to act. Written as an intimate series of crosscutting monologues that allow each character to whisper their secrets and interpretations directly to the reader, Love, etc. is an unsettling examination of confessional culture and a profound refection on the power of perspective. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

(3.5): Solid, But Not Quite Fully Formed
I love Julian Barnes and believe he is one of the best writers producing fiction today (along with Coetzee, Murukami, and McEwan). With that in mind, I had very high hopes for this novel, and as much as I whipped through it and enjoyed it (I read it over the course of two evenings), I have to say that there's something missing. The premise is simple enough - guy marries girl, girl leave guy for best friend, time passes, but raw emotions do not. Now, Barnes chooses to write this in a series of interconnected monologues (see also Hornby's "A Long Way Down," a more successful version of this literary style, as well as portions of "King Lear") where characters are limited to what they can see, but in connecting all of their reflections, you get a wonderful picture not only of what is going on, but how the characters interact with one another and really misunderstand what is taking place around them. So on that level, in terms of its completeness of vision and its readability, the book is classic Barnes, but after thinking over my reading experience, I can't help but think that maybe the whole venture was not a complete success. If this were a writing exercise, it would be perfect in every way, but as a novel, I think it comes up short. There is something too staged and unbelievable about the situation and one of the motivations of one of the characters, Stuart, becomes so blatantly obvious that it takes away the subtlety that works so well through much of the novel. But with one of the three protagonists being too much of a cookie-cutter personality, and with the novel being all about voice, I couldn't help feel a little disappointed with the outcome. I would definitely tell Mr. Barnes to read Hornby's "A Long Way Down" to see a more successful and interesting version of what he seems to be trying to accomplish.

As an aside, the thoughts on love are quite comprehensive and interestingly put. Barnes covers the specturm in terms of the range of emotions people can feel for one another as masterfully as he has done in his other work.

Real-time
This is a rather unique situation: ten years passed since "Talking It Over", ten years passed in the author's life, in our lives, in the lives of Gillian, Oliver and Stuart. It is not often that we see a sequel developing at normal real-time pace. Imagine "Star Wars, Episode II" being filmed (with the same actors) not just a couple of years after Episode I, but after, how many was that, I'm not really a fan, let's say twelve years.

And it looks awful. Really awful. I identified myself with Oliver pretty much while reading the first book; after all, he's smart, quick-witted, and loves long words such as "crepuscular" (I've noticed that Barnes is personally extremely fond of this word himself; there's rarely a novel which goes without this word). But look what life has done to him. And how Stuart matured and vintaged, if this is a valid word.

And worst of all, it is so bloody realistic. Can't any of us count several Olivers, bright and brilliant, with high hopes (both their own and imposed on them by others), and utterly devastated and reduced to near-nothingness by the age when one should be in one's creative prime?

This does not spur me into going for ecological trade, or banking, or whatever it is what Stuart is or was doing. But this novel is an earnest warning to all us Olivers out there.

A fascinating and acute social observation
Julian Barnes always impresses me with his accurate character portrayal of both the British and the French, as well as with his generally poignant social commentary.
"Love Etc", for me, was a literary drug as addictive as his previous works, though I was left with a greater sense of sadness than I have felt when reading past Barnes' masterpieces. Perhaps it is my memory playing tricks on me, but it seems that the ten years that passed between this work and "Talking it Over" in the lives of both the characters and Mr. Barnes himself, have paid a toll. The work starts with the same ironic and captivating humour of the past, but as it unfolds, the sadness of reality overwhelms the humour. The general lack of optimism left me feeling very numb at times. Whilst captivating, and easy to read because it is in dialogue form; a slightly bitter accuracy of the character portrayal makes it painful to digest the work at times.
This is not to say that the overall impression created by this novel is any less intelligent, measured or fascinating than former works of Barnes. "Love Etc" is a fabulous and thought-provoking reflection of many marriages and friendships through these well-developed, now matured characters whom we met ten years before in "Talking it Over".

Impressive
I remembered "Talking Things Over" as a neat trick, a clever exercise in stretching the boundaries of the novel form, and I expected more of the same when I bought this one (on the day of its release, as I buy all of Barnes' books).I was delighted to find that Barnes has once again raised the bar, this time by using the "talk-around" form to draw even deeper, more intimate, and more harrowing portraits of these three characters.I only hope that I don't have to wait another ten years for my next visit with Oliver, Gillian and Stuart.

Not Recycled But Recreated
I have read and enjoyed all of the work that Mr. Barnes has published. There are works that stand out and distinguish themselves better than another, but overall he writes at a skill level that most contemporary writers only dream about. Based on, "Love, etc", a book written 10 years after, "Talking It Over", with events taking place 10 years later as well, is one of the best of his works I have read.

Mr. Barnes could have taken the road already successfully traveled and just recycled the same primary characters of the first book. They were all very well done, and the resulting second work would have been good as well. However 10 years is a long time, and just as his characters have changed and become more complex through experience, I believe Mr. Barnes probably spent a good deal of time bringing not just the next installment of these lives to us, but raising the level of his writing, and greatly expanding the number of players. Some new voices are only cameos, others as integral to the plot as the original trio of Stuart, Gillian, and Oliver.

I may be in the minority, but I did not see the original work as being unfinished. Many books could have additional chapters or sequels, and the first was not any type of cliffhanger. That said this continuation is excellent, and I hope he does not wait another decade to expand this to a triptych.

Without spoiling anything, Stuart has progressed, Oliver has become too clever for even himself, and Gillian is Gillian albeit a bit more of an enigma that serial marrier as in the first book. This piece is certainly darker than the first; some may even find it violent. However as with the first work the events that unwind are shared with the reader by those involved, so the accounts must be weighed. It is probably a bit like being a juror, who do you believe?

I enjoyed the first book, I loved this one, and I believe the Author will be hard pressed not to continue the saga. He has now established that the end is not that at all, and further, that he can take material that appears complete, expand it, and give it new life. Extremely well done, and worth the time to read.

On a final note Mr. Barnes added children to this book, and they added immeasurably to the work. ... Read more

Book Description
Anyone who loves France (or just feels strongly about it), or has succumbed to the spell of Julian Barnes’s previous books, will be enraptured by this collection of essays on the country and its culture.

Barnes’s appreciation extends from France’s vanishing peasantry to its hyper-literate pop singers, from the gleeful iconoclasm of nouvelle vague cinema to the orgy of drugs and suffering that is the Tour de France. Above all, Barnes is an unparalleled connoisseur of French writing and writers.Here are the prolific and priapic Simenon, Baudelaire, Sand and Sartre, and several dazzling excursions on the prickly genius of Flaubert.Lively yet discriminating in its enthusiasm, seemingly infinite in its range of reference, and written in prose as stylish as haute couture, Something to Declare is an unadulterated joy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Personal Francophilia
Julian Barnes is probably the British writer most associated with French influence over his literature. Most of his novels are influenced by France in one way or another, especially his acclaimed 1984 masterpiece, Flaubert's Parrot.

In the introduction to these essays, Barnes traces his personal affiliation with France. From nervous childhood holidays with his parents, to his immersion in French language and culture while studying Languages at Oxford, ending with a 1997 trip across the Channel to deliver the ashes of his parents. He cheerfully admits a bias towards French culture over his native Anglo-Saxon and this fact permeates the essays here.

The first part of the book features a range of essays on obscure French singers, the film director Francois Truffaut, Elizabeth David's cookery writing and, best of all, a lenghty piece on drug taking in the Tour de France.

In the second half of the book, the emphasis shifts to Flaubert, Barnes's self professed literary idol. The essays span the full range of Flaubert's life and his associations: his biographers, his mistresses, his relationship with other writers and film versions of Madame Bovary. Flaubert was given extensive fictional treatment in 'Flaubert's Parrot' and these pieces perhaps read like a reworking of the research notes for that novel.

Unlike most wannabe British continentals who think that to become au fait with European Culture one just has to eat at The River Cafe and take the occasional jaunt to Paris or Rome, Barnes has clearly read many pages of French literature and watched many metres of film. His depth and range of knowledge is impressive and the style is (as with all Barnes's writings) erudite, crisp and piercingly intelligent.

Not What the Title Promises, and Often Excruciating
The title of this book, as you can see, is "Something To Declare: Essays on France and French Culture." The blurbs on the back of my trade paperback version enthusiastically support this title. However, only a quarter of the pages of this book are devoted to adiscussion of "France and French culture." The rest are spent on the very specific topics of particular French artists and authors, most particularly Flaubert and things related to Flaubert. Given that artists and authors often make a point of setting themselves apart from their cultural milieu (especially most if not all of the ones Barnes writes about) and are often, at a minimum, a bit out of touch with the reality of the world around them, writings on these folks can hardly be deemed to reflect "French culture," as promised by the title. Barnes is, of course, perfectly entitled to publish a book composed of these elements; however, it would be nice if the title and blurbs made it clearer that that is what he is doing, for those of us poor unenlightened souls who do not go into a swoon every time we see or hear the name Flaubert -- for those of us who, in fact, would be perfectly happy for the rest of our lives if we could avoid anything more than infrequent passing references to Flaubert. Simply put, the title does not fairly represent the major part of what is in the book. If you are looking for a book on France and French culture, you can do much, much better with your reading time and money. Moreover, the essays that are not general in nature assume an intimate, detailed knowledge of Flaubert and his writing. If you do not have such an intimate, ready-at-your-fingertips, working knowledge, you will often not know what Barnes is referring to and will consequently have no hope of understanding the point he is trying to make, even if you hang in there and read the whole thing, as I did. These essays are intended for an audience of initiates;reading them in a book like this that purports to address a much more general topic will just leave you feeling like an outsider to the club. Oh, and it will be even worse for you if you fail to hold the belief that "Madame Bovary" is worth intense worship as one of the greatest things to ever have come along, both before and after the advent of sliced bread.

Not What I Expected but Brilliant
Firstly, I did not gather all this book had to offer, as I do not have the knowledge that Mr. Barnes requires regarding French popular music of decades ago, including Georges Brassens, Boris Vian and Jacques Brel, and other topics that can only be fully appreciated if you have previous knowledge of them. Another example is his detailed discussion of French Cinema, again, hard to appreciate fully without prior and extensive knowledge. As a testament to his writing skill and style, these barriers did not keep me from reading every bit of this book. Unfortunately I had to read many parts as a novice, but his talent as a writer makes that effort an easy one to make.

There are many essays that will appeal to a wide audience, Edith Wharton, the Tour de France, Henry James, and his discourses on the writers George Sand, Victor Hugo, Stephane Mallarme, and Ivan Turgenev. No book such as this by Mr. Barnes would even be contemplated without a large portion being devoted to Gustave Flaubert, his friends, his actions, and the world he lived in and created. Flaubert is the basis for Mr. Barnes to explore the role of biography, the selective use of historical fact, personal papers, and the revisionist methods that can be employed when even identical source material is used to document the same individual. When Mr. Barnes makes an appearance in the book it is a picture of him standing by the final resting place of his much loved topic, the final resting place of Flaubert.

The topics I mention are not even close to an exhaustive list of the material that is covered. I have read virtually all of the books and essays that Mr. Barnes has published, and this book is decidedly unique. The book falls short of 300 pages only because the author chose to keep it dense. A slightly more verbose pen could easily have doubled the size of the book. You will likely spend more time on these 279 pages than you generally do, whether with Mr. Barnes or another author.

A very different book from a brilliant mind and very talented observer and writer, just be prepared for a very new experience from him this time around. He has not taken his readers on a trip like this before.

A wonderful collection of pieces
Barnes's collection falls into two halves. The first is a collection of pieces that might be said to have a French theme: a review and appreciation of Edith Wharton's account of a car journey taken through France, a piece of French songsters of the sixties, a very entertaining look at the perils of the Tour de France. The second half is nearly all given over to Flaubert, Barnes's obsession. The essays on the great writer are fascinating, especially those centered around his correspondence. Barnes's love for the writer and the man is contagious. I had no great enthusiasm for Flaubert, despite having loved Barnes's 'Flaubert's Parrot', but since reading this book I have read 'Madame Bovary' with a great deal of pleasure and have begun looking into the correspondence. All the essays are scrupulously and stylishly written and are worth reading for the prose alone.

It's not about France
"Something to Declare" is a clever title for a book about travel abroad; but, beyond its opening pages, that's not what this book is about. "Essays on France" is an equally misleading subtitle, for the book's erudite essays (beyond the opening chapter) are not on France but on a narrow selection of French writers and related movers and shakers, and one fictional character: Madame Bovary. After a fast-paced, dazzling opening sequence, hilariously describing the teen-aged Barnes' first encounters across the English Channel, we slow down to pick through some highlights in the lives of some of the top French authors, poets, filmmakers and other cultural icons, eventually easing to a crawl through exhaustive detail regarding the author's main interest, Flaubert and his world. If Madame Bovary is your cup of tea, you may enjoy steeping yourself further in Barnes. For me it was just too much. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Lovely
I read this book whilst living in Berlin shortlly after the wall went down.Perhaps this time period influenced my views of the book, however, I loved it.(I am actually looking for a British copy at the moment) being such a long time ago, I do not remember a lot of specifics regarding the story, just the effects which it had on me.I do however remember the wonderful imagery of the pilot flying into the sun.Being a World War II scholar perhaps also has a lot to do with my feelings for the book.If you like Julian Barnes as a writer, you will like this novel, but it is not Flaubert's Parrot.If this is what you are expecting, you may be disappointed.

Not Vintage Barnes
The first two thirds are the biography of an English woman who leads a drab monotonouslife. She has a brief friendship during World War II with a fighter pilot who has mildly mystical tendencies (a laAntoine de St Exupery) marries a policeman, leaves him and has a child.I suspected (having read Flaubert's Parrot) that Barnes was setting out to rival Flaubert's "Un Coeur Simple" by showing us that an account of a drab monotonous life could be interesting.She eventually acquires a little sophistication and money and does some traveling and becomes philosophical.The last section switchesinto science fiction by having her survive into a dystopic twenty-first century.
It lacked the bite and wit and penetrating insights of vintage Barnes. The futurology was unoriginal by science fiction standards - I don't think it would have made it into publication in Asimov's.- and the mysticism was run-of-the-mill.
Not up to Barnes's standard, but that's a very high standard.

Not One of his Better Ones
I am a Julian Barnes fan and was rather disappointed at this early effort. His writing is as precise as ever and his wit is there. But somehow the story line following a naive woman protagonist from childhood to age 100 somehow never gets going. There are interesting side characters, true, but the heroine and her listless and lost son do not spark any empathy or understanding but mostly annoyance at their passiveness. The story does get better as it goes along, but it's not enough to rescue the book.

Absolute Beauty
I could write a deeply analytical critique on the book, but frankly, I don't think it is necessary.Staring at the Sun speaks for itself.It is an essential book for the modern reader.Julian Barnes has the most profound and simply put insights on just about anything from the most abstruse to the most mundane of topics, especially in the most fundamental aspects of life: sex and death.Get it now!

Maybe There Is An Absolute
There are some questions that men and women have been asking since questions were formed and given their name. And for these questions there still are no answers, no proof that a person who has fears can rely on, can take absolute unconditional comfort in. For me this is what Mr. Julian Barnes was addressing in his book, "Staring Into The Sun", for you it may be different, but I believe you will share the enjoyment I had.

This is the 9th book I have read by this Author. While I would not presume to claim I know what his message has been on the other 8 books, I do feel I had a better grasp with those I previously read than with this novel. All of the writer's work leaves plenty of room to drill down and experience his books as a reader. This time he was not just exercising his talents creating either a uniquely interpretive work, or a wholly original one, rather he was addressing what is common to us all.

Jean Sarjeant is described on the jacket as, "having an extraordinary disdain for wisdom". Another character in the book describes her as abysmally stupid. This book tracks her life for a century, and she is many things, however not those descriptions I have just mentioned. Jean is extremely inquisitive; she also is unconventional to the point that some may find her a bit eccentric. In the course of the book she has a son that shares all of her disinterest in what normal society defines as normal.

The issues at hand and the answers to the questions they have generated for millennia having nothing to do with conventional wisdom, nor do they shed their answers when confronted by a high I.Q. or the most technologically advanced man-made machine. This is not so much a story about answers, but of differentiating between knowledge and understanding, and acceptance or the rejection of an idea due to lack of definitive information.

The Absolute Truth, which takes the form of T.A.T. in the book, is embraced by many and rejected by Jean. In the latter parts of the book, radical changes have taken place in society's views of death, but death itself never has changed nor does it here. Jean pursues those big unknowns that everyone struggles with at one point or another in her own manner, while her son pursues the quest he is on through technology.

I found it interesting that I finished this novel just as we embark on the year 2001, a date that has been anticipated for so long due to Arthur C. Clarke and his Space Odyssey. We have not reached the levels of technology that he envisioned, and I believe the same may be said for our own development as well. Mr. Clarke delved into the most fundamental of issues, and Mr. Barnes takes his turn here. This time the story stretches to 2021, the issue is what more have we learned if we have learned anything at all.

The book is striking, and the special sunrises and a sunset are very dramatic. The questions may be old, and they may also never be answered. However as long as the topic is dealt with using the talent of Mr. Barnes and others, their ideas will always be interesting to read.

As to the absolute comment, it may be that certain questions have never had answers, and that they never will. ... Read more

Book Description
This is, in short, a complete, unsettling, and frequently exhilarating vision of the world, starting with the voyage of Noah's ark and ending with a sneak preview of heaven! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (56)

Cursing!
The stories are well told on this audiobook; we are a homeschooling family.Imagine my shock when I was in the next room as my son was listening to this in his room, and I hear the "f" word, not once, but used repeatedly in one of the stories on disc 6!I could not believe it.I do not need audiobooks suggesting this type of language to my son!I was shocked and replayed it, and there it was, repeatedly.Be warned.

Delightful Collection of Interelated Stories
Julian Barnes has crafted a fascinating book out by intertwining stories that times seem to have little to do with each other but actually make a fascinating whole as well as a statement about the world we live in.

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
When I read the first two chapters of this book I was blown away.The first is absolutely hysterical, and the second begins that way, but leaves you staring at the book in disbelief, unsure what to make of what just happened.I couldn't wait to read the rest, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed.
While each story is very clever, and the connections that run through the book are fun to find, I found myself getting a little bored.The chapter titled "The Mountain" seemed to go on for much too long, and wasn't as witty as the others.
Nonetheless, I think this one is definitely worth reading.Even if it does become a bit slow in places, I can't argue with the mastery of Barnes in connecting all of these seemingly unconnected chapters, and in his ability to really make you think about the world around you.

hmm... that's it?
Not as good as I expected it to be. I don't judge books by name or cover (like many do) but a title like this screamed to explored for fully. The first chapter about a woodworm and Noah's Ark was simply classic, however. I wish it would have been part of a book with similar short stories. I enjoyed the read, but the author could have done a lot more with his material. Lastly, the half chapter on love is beautiful -it's deep, soppy and infinitly heart-felt.

Interesting and unusual
This is an odd little book, composed of, I surmise, 11 distinct stories that have a very tenuous connection to each other. They are all well written and hold the interest of the reader. We go from the Deluge to the present day in various tales, and one inner dialogue. There's really no overarching plot, except most of the stories mention woodworms, which appears to be the link that binds most of this work together. It's an interesting book to read, and can stretch your mind a bit, which is actually a good thing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

coda to Braithwhaite's ruminations on France and life
The Brits abroad often bring to mind images of endomorphic, bawling, sunburned men drunkenly marauding in the south of Spain, or perhaps at an England football away match. Not, of course, in the hands of Julian Barnes, who strictly demarcates his fiction between the crass and vulgar (his pulp 'Duffy' detective novels under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh) and his more regular literary output which often focuses on questions of France, and its relationship with Barnes's native Britain.

Barnes is a phenomenally cultured Francophile (for a manifestation of this, check out his essay collection 'Something to Declare') and his prose at its best is playful, witty and detailed. Barnes, the linguist, and former lexicographer and law student has a keen eye for the curious details of life. He can spin fictional gold out of a simple engraving on a stone, or a bottle of wine, or an elegant account of Medieval Religious persecution. This he did to great effect in his 1984 novel, Flaubert's Parrot, which is one of the most elegant and playful novels ever written, and to lesser, but still successful effect, in his 1989 big canvas novel 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters'.

Cross Channel takes the themes developed in these two novels - love, history, art, food, persecution, memory - and adds to them a sort of coda in the form of ten elegant, formally sophisticated stories. It should be said at the outset that Cross Channel is not as accomplished a book as the previous novels mentioned, but is still worth reading as form of the most elegant type of travel literature.

All of the stories feature British (and Irish) people in France. The first, and maybe best story, Interference concerns an elderly English composer who wants his wife to hear his final compositional masterpiece on the radio but can't get decent reception unless everyone else in their isolated French village is silent. Junction is a fairly flat story telling the story of the Paris - Rouen railway, partially built by British navies. Experiment is a tongue in cheek pastiche of surrealism: a young man tries to unravel the story of his lumpen, heavy drinking uncle's participation in a sexual experiment with Andre Breton and pals. Melon is another fairly disappointing story which revolves around an aristocratic man's unawareness of the origins of his food, and a cricket match around the time of the French Revolution. Evermore is a cracker, a poignant story about an elderly woman who makes annual pilgrimages to northern France where her son was killed in the First World War. It is a quiet, reflective piece on the difficulties of maintaining memory over the years, with the ghost of Kipling lingering beneath the surface.

Gnossiene is a short piece that doesn't quite come off about a man travelling to a literary conference to a destination that seems to be a hoax. Barnes here has fun, based on his own experiences being interviewed by literary critics in France, with contrasting the French and Anglo Saxon mindsets 'so Monsieur Clements, le mythe et la realite?'. Dragons takes us back a while (there is great historical sweep in these stories) to a time when ignorance, superstition and religious persecution ruled in Medieval France. Brambilla brings us back to modern themes with some riffs on the Tour de France - including the tale of the drug raddled cyclist who offered his girlfriend's urine as a sample: 'the good news is you're clean. The bad news is you're pregnant'. Hermitage is a quintessential Barnes tale of women and wine set in the late 19th Century - two English spinsters buy a vineyard in France and set about creating their own version of an idyll copied a century later by middle class Brits: 'Idling glances proposed a different life: in a timbered Normandy farmhouse, a trim Burgundy manoir, a backwater chateau of the Berry.'

The final story, Tunnel, stretches the timescale into the future (sometime soon after 2009 I think we are meant to surmise judging by the vintage of wine drunk in that story). Barnes seems to be fond of setting his stories in the near future - he used the same trick in 'Staring at the Sun, published in 1985 but the time frame for the end of that novel soon approaching). Perhaps he plans to read over these stories in his old age and see how they have stood the test of time. The narrator of Tunnel is an elderly English novelist (Barnes himself perhaps?) who reflects on ageing and France on a Eurostar trip from London to Paris. Here's a passage from that story which could only come from the pen of Julian Barnes:

'He turned away form himself and began to speculate about his immediate neighbours. To his right were three fellows in suits plus a chap in a striped blazer; opposite him an elderly woman. Elderly: that's to say, about the same age as himself. He said the word again, slid it around his mouth. He'd never much cared for it - there was something slimy and ingratiating about its use - and now that he was himself what the word denoted, he liked it even less. Young, middle-aged, elderly, old, dead; this was how life was conjugated. (No, life was a noun, so this was how life declined. Yes, that was better in any case, life declined. A third sense there too: life refused, life not fully grasped. 'I see now that I have always been afraid of life,' Flaubert had once conceded. Was this true of all writers? And was it, in any case, a necessary truth: in order to be a writer, you needed in some sense to decline life?'...

This Time 10, Not 10.5ý
Mr. Julian Barnes wrote his History of the world in 10 and one half chapters. In this collection of short stories he decided to be a bit more conventional, and confine his 10 stories to only 10 chapters. It is here the similarity stops, for while this Author is not the only writer to have published shorter versions of their written thoughts, just like his novels they are special, unique, and share place with only a few peers.

The commonality here is not as apparent as in his "History Of The World", or other collections that carry a continuous thread. There is the consistency of the experiences of the English and the French, and the events they share, memorialize, desecrate, and impose upon one another. The most interesting manner by which these stories are linked is literally explained in the final sentence. It is not a clumsy device, but a bit of insight typical of Mr. Barnes.

While a given story may not encompass a great swath of time, when taken as an assemblage the reader tours the Centuries ranging from the 17th to the 21st. And while not heavy handed, he manages to bring together the farthest stretches of time in his stories to common points. They are often subtle, other times less so, but always inventive. Two aspects I enjoyed were the use of "The Dragons", and the part wine played in this writing.

Many of the stories are lighter, highlighting relationships, shared positive experience, and success. Mr. Barnes brings balance to this anthology by also exposing the darker sides of man's history, as well as his attributes. We watch Religious fervor visited with a cruelness that is painfully unique to the religiously persecuted, one person's vision of a time when sacrifice will not longer be remembered much less honored, and the events that the future does unfold.

Memories play a variety of roles even when uttered by the same individual. The reader can decide if the recalled thoughts are revisionary, romanticized, or outright fabrication. But whichever category you choose you will be greatly entertained.

Bittersweet stories about English people in France
The "Channel" in Cross Channel is the English Channel. The common theme in thismasterful collection of short stories, is the experience of British people who have crossed the Channel and spent sometime in France. The time, social and cultural extraction of this people are quite diverse, as are the reasons for their being in France. From the old lady who goes to France every year to remember a loved one killed in WWI and who sees WWII as a threat to the memory of those killed in the First War, to the young man who gets involvedwith French Surrealists in astrange sexual experiment, to the experiences of British workers building sections of the French railway system... all these stories are alive and lively. And they have one more thing in common: they are wonderful! Nobody like Julian Barnes to keep the reader's interest high all the time; he develops each story in such as a way that even the mundane is thrilling and will lead -perhaps- to the unexpected. !The style is impeccable, and Barnes uses a lot of true events as base for the fiction in the stories, so along with their intrinsic beauty, the reader will also learn some interesting historical facts. I don't know if it was Barnes' intention in writing "Cross Channel" to make us realize that as different national psyches England and France appear to have, they also have a lot more in common (the human and emotional factor he so vividly portrays). And, although you may not be particularly interested in comprehending British-French relations, there is afeeling of universality in them that comes through very palpably. These are not superficial stories. They are very charged emotionally, they are sad and funny, tragic and mundane, and in the process they will stir the reader's emotions. If anybody has any doubts about Julian Barnes being one of the most gifted contemporary writers,reading "Cross Channel" will do a lot to dispel them. I highly reco! mmend this book. ... Read more

Book Description
In his widely acclaimed new collection of stories, Julian Barnes addresses what is perhaps the most poignant aspect of the human condition: growing old.

The characters in The Lemon Table are facing the ends of their lives–some with bitter regret, others with resignation, and others still with defiant rage. Their circumstances are just as varied as their responses. In 19th-century Sweden, three brief conversations provide the basis for a lifetime of longing. In today’s England, a retired army major heads into the city for his regimental dinner–and his annual appointment with a professional lady named Babs. Somewhere nearby, a devoted wife calms (or perhaps torments) her ailing husband by reading him recipes.
In stories brimming with life and our desire to hang on to it one way or another, Barnes proves himself by turns wise, funny, clever, and profound–a writer of astonishing powers of empathy and invention. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

THE LEMON TABLE Is Full of Golden Apples
These eleven short stories by Julian Barnes all have one thing in common. They are peopled with characters near the end of their lives and facing death. Some are meek and mild; some do foolish things; others do not go gentle into that good night; one may be the victim of spousal abuse; one has dementia. Another has no qualms about committing adultery, having engaged in an out-of-town affair for twenty-three years although he can no longer "ring the gong three times" in one afternoon. One character keeps engaged in life by complaining about and to the noisemakers at classical concerts, but only after his partner stopped going to performances with him. One man and woman love each other for twenty-three years but, through misunderstanding and the inability to voice their feelings, sadly, their love is never consummated.

Barnes can get as much said about a character into twenty pages or so as any writer I have read. He is the master of beautiful concise description and phrases. One couple "had more time and they got less done." Another couple perhaps may grow old together and "rely, over time, on the hardening of the heart." One character's life can be summed up in "one long cowardly adventure." There are nuggets like these everywhere in every story. They so appeal to the intellect but also go straight to the heart.

One such story, which I read twice, is "Knowing French," as perfect a short story as I remember. The story unfolds through a series of letters written by Sylvia Winstanley to a writer named Julian Barnes. Sylvia, when the correspondence begins in 1986, is a new arrival at an "Old Folkery," her putdown for a retirement home inhabited by the "deaf" and the "mad." She ran across Barnes' name when she decided, in an effort to remain alive and alert, to read through all the fiction in the local library beginning with authors whose names start with "A" and discovered in the "B" fiction FLAUBERT'S PARROT. You will love Sylvia as she wraps herself around your heart. She moves into the retirement home by jumping before she was pushed and before she started scalding herself with Ovaltine. Visiting other like-establishments she is discouraged when she observes "obedient biddies sitting in cheap armchairs while the Box blares at them like Mussolini." Finally, having spent the last two years or so visiting a mother with dementia in a nursing home and all too aware of institutional food, I was undone by Sylvia's craving a croissant and dreaming of apricots. Suicide in her words is vulgar. The main reason for dying is that people expect it of people Sylvia's age. The main reason not to, she has never done what other people wanted her to do.

Now that's a woman you can tip your hat to, preposition or no preposition at the end of a sentence.

Minutely detailed, beautifully paced, and often wryly fun.
Julian Barnes has made an art form of pulling together short stories that add up to a collective meaning greater than the sum of its parts.In his seminal work, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, the book of short stories which Barnes insists is actually a novel, the stories work together, themes repeat, ideas get strengthened as the book progresses, and by the time you've finished, a single overriding theme around life and love comes into focus.A similar tension occurs in Cross Channel, where the individual pieces move around a central core of things French, but ultimately adds up to a whole that once again illuminates what it means to be a human being. Barnes has stated that the origin of each book's he's done was in the previous one. Since he is so prolific, and since his writing takes on a wide variety of genres, from farce to drama to literary criticism to food writing to very literary fiction indeed, one could probably find the origins for this one in his last book of grouped stories, Cross Channel, in his character "The Elderly Englishman" of "Tunnel"who returns home to create "the stories you have just read." As with History and Cross Channel, the stories in The Lemon Table, while able to function separately, add up to a single picture, a totality of expression which has more meaning than any of the stories on their own. You need to stand back to get the full density of the work.

The key theme of The Lemon Table is old age, and some critics have stated that it seems odd that Barnes would write such an epitaph type of work so early in his life, but Barnes has always stated that his work, and all novels, start with life. There is no better way to illuminate life than to take the reader to the end of it. There are eleven stories, each with a different structure. The first, "A Short History of Hairdressing" tells the story of a character through his haircut appointments. You could probably do this kind of perspective taking any recurring event in a person's life, but it is the combination of mundane and regimented - of meditative and vanity ridden - the image in the mirror a tangible reminder of the aging process accelerated at each visit - which makes a haircutting session so appropriate. We watch Gregory, from his first terrified trip to the barber on his own: "Boys didn't tip. Perhaps that was why barbers hated boys. They paid less and they didn't tip. They also didn't keep still. Or at least, their mothers told them to keep still, they kept still, but this didn't stop the barber bashing their heads with a palm as solid as the flat of a hatchet and muttering, `Keep still.' to his twilight victory over the mirror - a tiny revolt in old age.Another story which revisits a meeting point is "The Things You Know" which follows two friends as they have breakfast together at different times and reminisce over their dead husbands .The reader is made aware of the irony through the perspective of time, but the characters don't have that vantage, even when they should.

The stories follow a wide variety of different settings and structures. Love lost, missed, idealised and regretted form the basis of the 18th century Swedish tale "The Story of Mats Isrealson" where the main character mis-tells a story to his neighbour's wife, a woman with whom he has fallen in love, and the two resist the temptation and go their separate ways, living a life of regret and longing. The story culminates in Isrealson`s one chance to make amends before dying.In "The Revival", an aged Turgenevfalls in love with the actress who played Verochka in one of his plays, but is it really love, or just another way of avoiding love? "This is safe. The fantasy is manageable, his gift a false memory." (98).There is Major Jacko Jackson of "Hygiene," who travels regularly to visit his mistress, a retired prostitutein London - his two days of furlough from his wife, "as per," until he finds that aging has caught up with his mistress, as it has caught him.In "The Fruit Cage," we learn about a couple through the narration of their son, a boy who discovers a third party in his parent's marriage. All of these stories have a strong undercurrent of irony - of the human and fairly unattractive needs which are hidden under what we call love in our youth. There is always a twist in the tale - the politics of the ego, the idealisation of beauty, and the vanity of our romantic illusions.

Other stories deal with self-justification and the vanities that become entrenched as we age, such as Vigilance", the story of a man who takes increasingly violent steps to pay back those who are cough or otherwise rude during the concerts he attends. The blackly humorous piece ends with an ironic nod to therich and varied exploration through the pain, frustration, and vanities of aging, of what it means to be alive.
notion of `civilisation.'In another blackly humorous piece, "Bark," Jean-Etienne Delacour's becomes a member of a subscription loan scheme to build the municipal baths. The last man surviving acquires the capital amount. Delacour becomes increasingly neurotic about his food and lifestyle in an attempt to live the longest. Barnes' food writing skills are shown to great advantage as he describes Delacour's former gastronomic excesses.

"Knowing French" brings back the Elderly Englishman, Mr Barnes, as the subject of Sylvia Winstanley's letters.She is working her way through the alphabet at her local library: "Having done Barnes, I move onto Brookner, Anita, and blessed if she didn't appear on the Box that very day." (142) AlthoughWinstanley is a character who is silly at times, the fictional Barnes is clearly affectionate towards her, and this grandparent-grandson relationship is moving. Thefinal story, "The Silence" pulls the previous stories together, as a fictional Sibelius reflects on his life, his work, his silence, and impending death in a number of different ways, through overt discussion:"I join the lemon table at the Kamp. Here it is permissible - indeed, obligatory - to talk about death. It is most companionable." (206), and through sound and motion: "The day was heavy with clouds, but for once the cranes broke from the flock and flew directly towards me. I raised my arms in acclamation as it made a slow circle around me, trumpeting its cry, then headed back to rejoin its flock for the long journey south. I watched until my eyes blurred, I listened until my ears could hear nothing more, and silence resumed." (213)

Barnes' craftsmanship is second to none. Minutely detailed, beautifully paced, and often wryly fun, each of the stories in The Lemon Table can be read on its own. Together however, the book becomes a rich and varied exploration through the pain, frustration, and vanities of aging, of what it means to be alive.

Magdalena Ball is the author of Sleep Before Evening
"There is so much beautiful writing here, soaring passages." Ruhama Veltfort, author of The Promised Land

Julian Barnes ages
Somehow, I was never able to finish Flaubert's Parrot, though I loved Staring at the Sun, A History of the World, and England, England. Why mention that? Well, for anyone who is not uniformly blown away by everything JB writes, I think you'll have no problem enjoying this collection of short stories. Published in the year of his sixtieth birthday, these stories are Barnes's reflections on old age. And it's a bit sobering, but also touching and funny. "Knowing French" and "A short history of hairdressing" are wonderful, as are "The Story of Mats Israelson" and "Hygene". "Vigilance" is hilarious but with pathos lurking in the wings. "Appetite" and "The Things You Know" are a little on the painful side. Can't quite figure out why prostitution kept popping up and never knew JB was so knowledgable about classical music. I listened to this book on CDs and didn't realize that the main character of "Knowing French" had spelling problems until I read it in one of these reviews - a limitation of that medium, but still a good recording.

One Note Wonder
This collection brings together eleven stories written over a span of roughly ten years, six of which were originally published in The New Yorker, and the remainder in venues such as Granta and the TLS. Originally titled "Rage and Age" (per the Dylan Thomas poem), the collection is thematically focused on aging and death and Barnes has said that the stories were intended to counter the notion that life calms down or gets serene in old age. While the collection certainly counters that myth, the thematic concentration results in a certain repetitiveness when the stories are read back to back.

The fairly forgettable "A Short History of Hairdressing" tells the story of a man's life through the framework of three visits to the barber, one as a child, one as a adult, and one as an old man. Set in 19th-century Sweden, "The Story of Mats Israelson" ponders the unconsummated love between a sawmill manager and the wife of the town pharmacist. As is so many period pieces, the two are locked into their social roles unable to express their feelings to each other, leading the a lifetime of yearning for what might have been. Thankfully, this ennui is dispelled in "The Things You Know," in which two widows meet for breakfast. Each is determined to sugarcoat their memories of married life, but each also knows certain nasty truths to the other's marriage, making the entire story very spiky and harsh.

In "Hygiene", a WWII veteran makes his way to London for the annual banquet of his old regiment. This affords him the chance for a yearly meeting with the same prostitute, a tryst which is his sole way of demonstrating his existence to himself. The Russian writer Ivan Turgenev is the protagonist of "The Revival", which reflects upon a brief period of happiness in his later years, spurred by his platonic love for an actress. "Vigilance" is easily the best story of the collection, dwelling on a middle-aged gay Londoner whose anger and frustration with his relationship is sublimated, only to emerge with venom at concert-goers who fail to be suitably quiet. It's both quite funny and sad at the same time. Much less successful is the French-set "Bark," which revolves around a scheme to finance the building of public baths by which twenty or so investors put up the initial funds, and the last living one inherits the proceeds.

"Knowing French" is built on a clever conceit, that an elderly woman reading her way through the library's fiction in alphabetical order, has come to Barnes' much lauded novel "Flaubert's Parrot." She then initiates a correspondence with him, of which we are only privy to her side. It's an effective evocation of the "problem" of elder homes, for which not all elderly people are suited. In "Appetite", a woman reads recipes to her Alzheimers-stricken husband, whose only responses are barks of indignation at vague recipe directions or lewd outbursts. "The Fruit Cage" tackles the confusion of a middle-aged man whose 80-year-old parents suddenly separate. The final story is, "The Silence", in which a fictional version of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius jots down fragmentary reflections on his life and career.

Ultimately, the stories are a clear warning to the reader that one's old age is not likely to be dominated by grandchildren and warm fires, but rather by nostalgia and brooding over mistakes of the past, words left unsaid, deeds left undone. In that sense, the stories are quiet affecting. However, they are perhaps best read one a month or so, as the same note tends to get struck -- albeit by very different characters in very different settings.

Brilliant but brace yourself
"The Lemon Table" is a strong -- no, very strong -- set of tales in which the theme is unified but the styles are varied.Barnes has succeeded in what is a virtuoso examination of the theme of aging and impending death through a variety of (stylistic) lenses.The prospective reader should be warned, though, that the stories are depressing, which is what one would expect given the subject matter.Old age is given only a few of its positive attributes; loss and futility dominate.

In particular, I want to single out "The Story of Mats Israelson" as particularly successful.It made me almost cry; very, very powerful and beautifully written.By itself, it makes the volume worth reading.The first story, about going to a barbershop, is a miniature version of Barnes' terrific first novel, "Metroland."As a big fan of Sibelius, I also want to praise Barnes for getting so many details right in the fragmentary final story, "The Silence", which is about the composer's long final 30+ years when he had abandoned composing.

If this book could get 6 stars, I'd probably give it that.Superb. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Imagine being able to visit England--all of England--in a single weekend. Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall, Harrods, Manchester United Football Club, the Tower of London, and even the Royal Family all within easy distance of the each other, accessible, and, best of all, each one living up to an idealized version of itself. This fantasy Britain is the very real (and some would say very cynical) vision of Sir Jack Pitman, a monumentally egomaniacal mogul with a more than passing resemblance to modern-day buccaneers Sir Rupert Murdoch or Robert Maxwell:"'We are not talking theme park,' he began. 'We are not talking heritage centre. We are not talking Disneyland, World's Fair, Festival of Britain, Legoland or Parc Asterix.'" No indeed; Sir Jack proposes nothing less than to offer "the thing itself," a re-creation of everything that adds up to England in the hearts and minds of tourists looking for an "authentic" experience. But where to locate such an enterprise? As Sir Jack points out,

England, as the mighty William and many others have observed, is an island. Therefore, if we are serious, if we are seeking to offer the thing itself, we in turn must go in search of a precious whatsit set in a silver doodah.

Customer Reviews (35)

Theme park Britain
In England, England, Julian Barnes inhabits similar territory to that of Unswaorth's Losing Nelson, but humorously. One character lists quintessences (there are more than five) of Englishness and many, perhaps most, are myth, by nature or association. And the purpose of identifying these icons of Englishness is to facilitate the construction, by Sir Jack Pitman on an eventually independent Isle of Wight, of an England Theme Park, packed with imitation and reproduction experience, collected together to take the strain out of tourism. Theme Park England becomes, itself, the quintessence (just one) of corporate identity and presence, with the products on offer being seen and marketed as "better" than the originals. It's all a great success until, that is, the imitations begin to adopt their assigned identities. Smugglers become a problem when they start smuggling. Dr. Samuel Johnson changes his name to - guess what? - Dr. Samuel Johnson and begins emulating the behaviour of the historical figure, along with a few of his own improvisations for added effect. The King thinks he's a king and Robin Hood and his Merrie Men yearn to be real outlaws. They are all in breach of contract. Through humour, the book asks questions about what is essential in national personal identity. The project identifies myths and reproduces them as second order experience which themselves become as capable of fulfilling the role of identity creation, definition and perpetuation as the real thing. So, by extension, the book questions how we create, assume and sustain cultures and their associated values.

"Old England had lost its history, and therefore, since memory is identity, had lost all sense of itself."
(3.5 stars) In this witty satire of English traditions, values, and national identity, the eccentric Sir Jack Pitman gathers a staff of "forward-thinking" consultants and young executives to create the ultimate theme park.Sir Jack intends to relocate (or recreate, if he must) all of England's important tourist sites in one location--the Isle of Wight--creating a"Disneyland" of British history.Time is fluid here--Robin Hood and his band inhabit the woodland while Dr. Samuel Johnson holds forth in the local pub.The Battle of Britain is reenacted while shepherds and farmers cultivate the countryside using the oldest of tools.

The "selling" of the theme park idea to the king, who will appear at functions, and to the Houses of Parliament, which Pitman hopes to move there, is no less ambitious than his plan to challenge the thirteenth century purchase of the Isle of Wight by England so that he himself can govern it as a separate country.Sir Jack hires Martha Cochrane, an ambitious woman nearing forty, to be his primary assistant, along with a cast of eccentric characters, all of whom are determined to produce a new, more compact "England" to which tourists will be drawn in droves.

Throughout this wickedly complex satire, author Julian Barnes examines what constitutes "Englishness," raising issues of how Britons define reality, what role the Church of England plays in real life, how important to present life are the "roots" of ancient history, and more personal subjects, such as how one defines salvation, what constitutes love, and whether integrity can exist within a business environment.Naturally, the concept of the theme park and its reality do not always mesh.The fake smugglers become real smugglers, Robin Hood and his Merry Men really do rob from the rich, and Dr. Johnson turns out to be an inebriated cynic who refuses to socialize at the pub.

Despite the intriguing concept and the pointed satire, this is a very "talky" novel, with little real action.Conferences in the boardroom or Sir Jack's office vastly outnumber scenes in which something actually happens, and the author's self-conscious wit and arch observations pall in the course of the more than four hundred pages.Sir Jack, Martha Cochrane, and her lover Paul Harrison never develop enough human qualities to add genuine humor to the dark cynicism of the satire, and the reader often feels a bit patronized--left out of the joke.Ultimately, Barnes shows the cycle of history repeating as he fantasizes about the future. An idea more interesting in concept than in execution.nMary Whipple

OK for the airplane, but not much more.
This book, as previous reviews point out, develops a great scenario. It puts the reader into a future in which England is falling apart but simultaneously a replica England (replete with Beefeaters, Robin Hood and Dr. Johnson) on the Isle of Wight becomes a huge commercial success, overtaking the original.

The idea is powerful, the imagery vivid, some of the figures engaging, including the female protagonist, and the scenario can be fun, England's entire history condensed into a theme park.

It is, alas, not Julian Barnes' best book. Barnes has a tendency to go for the crude snapshot, which profoundly damages the nuance that he is capable of. I realize that some people find an occasional crass moment refreshing, but I'm personally quite put off.

Also, the theme of a Robert Maxwell-like figure taking over an island and manufacturing pretty history, making it only available to credit-worthy customers is alright, but don't expect a profound examination of authenticity and replica, whatever the blurb says. Part of this examination goes under in a clichéed pirate-capitalist, the rest never fully develops because Barnes goes for the obvious. The corporate intrigue does not unfold as a story, either. For that, the novel is too concerned with the replica scenario, and simultaneously spinning too much around a fairly trite setup. Reading the newspaper about Enron is more exciting than this.

There are people who profoundly like this book, and I understand why. It is okay as a read, but it left me much colder than some of Barnes' previous novels. Some of the stylistic tricks are the same as they used to be, and previously they worked better. I normally dog-ear every page where I find something remarkable. There are lots of dog ears in my copies of some of Barnes' other novels, not a single in this one.

Cynical AND fun AND thought-provoking
This novel puts more than a few interesting ideas on the table (not just the obvious central ones mind you) and theninvestigates one persons reaction to history and ageing. I found it an increasingly poignant book which spoke to me in a few ways - the downshifter in me anyway... Some of the twists are a little far-fetched or hypereal at best but although there are admittedly a lot of English references the key themes will be totally accessible to any internationally minded citizen.

An intriguing post-modern tale.

TNP...

All for money
England is in decline and rather than deal with reality, Sir Jack Pitman (who appears to me to be based on Robert Maxwell) decides to take over the Isle of Wight and create a Disney style England as an independent state.The state of course is for tourists and the pursuit of money, offering the complete England in a sanitised and scaled down version with first class accomodation and no need to travel around to see it.

During the course of the book Sir Jack has the upper hand, loses it through blackmail, is humiliated and then gains it again through bribery, all in hilarious fashion.

Barnes utilizes dry wit and satire most effectively to tell his tale, exposing powerful corporate heads as meglomaniacs, amoral and of course corrupt beings with no soul.Nothing much new in that of course, except for the exceptional skill that Barnes employs doing so.

However as you move through the book you begin to compare the modern high speed world with a now bygone simple age.I found the comparison compelling and while I am not prepared to give up my computer and flat screen tv I confess to being a little wistful about a slower and simpler life.

I have no hesitation in recommending Mr Barnes, give him a try and I don't think you will regret it. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Sixteen-year-old suburbanite Chris Lloyd and his mate Toni spend their free time wishing they were French, making up stories about strangers, and pretending to be flâneurs. When they grow up they'd like tobe "artists-in-residence at a nudist colony." If youthful voyeurism figures heavily in their everyday lives, so, too, do the pleasures of analogy, metaphor, and deliberate misprision. Sauntering into one store that dares to call itself MAN SHOP, Toni demands: "One man and two small boys, please."

Julian Barnes could probably fill several books with these boys' clever misadventures, but in his first novel he attempts something more daring--the curve from youthful scorn to adult contentment. In 1968, when Chris goes off to Paris, he misses the May événements but manages, more importantly, to fall in love and learn the pleasures of openness: "The key to Annick's candour was that there was no key. It was like the atom bomb: the secret is that there is no secret." The final section finds Chris back in suburbia, married, with children and a mortgage, and slowly accepting the surprise that happiness isn't boring. "It's certainly ironic to be back in Metroland. As a boy, what would I have called it: le syphilis de l'âme, or something like that, I dare say. But isn't part of growing up being able to ride irony without being thrown?" Far from renouncing the joys of language, this novel wittily celebrates honest communication. --Kerry FriedBook Description
Only the author of Flaubert's Parrot could give us a novel that is at once a note-perfect rendition of the angsts and attitudes of English adolescence, a giddy comedy of sexual awakening in the 1960s, and a portrait of the accommodations that some of us call "growing up" and others "selling out." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Lacking in originality, wit and sharpness
This was the first of Julian Barnes's novels, but I came to it after reading a selection of his later essays in 'Letters from London' and the 'Pedant in the Kitchen' as well as his intellectual postmodern history novel 'A History of the World in Ten Chapters'.

The sharpness, wit and originality prevalent in the aforementioned works I found to be sadly lacking in Metroland. The story seemed to be implausible and trite. The narrator is Chris Lloyd, a sensitive teenager growing up in a part of suburban London served by the Metropolitan line - hence the book's title. With his friend Toni, he peruses the world with a mixture of cynicism, scorn, curiosity, cheekiness and boredom. In the middle third of the novel, Chris comes of age, finding the traditional intellectual shelter spots of Paris coming to his rescue as he loses his virginity to an attractive French girl and meets his future wife. The final third highlights Chris's maturity into the mellow contentment of middle age - a condition acidly mocked by Toni, who is still trying to remainin true to the bohemian, artistic ideals of their shared adolescence.

The coming of age theory is one that has been tackled by virtually every well known male novelist, usually early in their career, and there is no shame in this. But first novels should be a fresh, energetic footprint on the existing field of literature. Metroland is a mere scrabbling in the soil. It is a neat, clever book, but the prose bumbles along in a bland, bored manner, reminiscent of the Metropolitan tube line itself. The themes covered for instance include:

Teenage Chris and Toni going into a mans shop and asking for 'One man and two small boys please' - come on Julian, you can write better jokes than this surely.

Chris nervously chatting up a French girl in a cafe by asking her about the book she is reading - a trite cliché if ever I saw one.

Chris comparing his emotional state at various stages in his life by considering the objects around him - notorious critic, Dale Peck's assertion that Barnes is motivated by little more than boredom and hubris begin to hold some resonance here.

Chris in middle age going to a school reunion and reflecting on how his peers have grown up and matured - please, is this not a theme covered a thousand times in navel gazing contemporary literature? even in great novels such as 'American Pastoral', the school reunion scene is rarely treated originally or creatively.

Julian Barnes did go on to become one of Britain's foremost novelists and essayists, and deservedly so. But you wouldn't think so from this uninspiring debut.

It simply won't do Julian.
I was immensely disappopinted with this novel. In contrast to the thoughts of most other reviewers it was the opening third which irritated me most. The two central characters as children were quite preposterous. Whilst recognising that Barnes wished to track the arc of their development from immature pretentions through to adult acceptance (in Chris's case) I really don't think he carried it off well. Unless these children attended a school for the outstandingly gifted, I suspect they could not have reched such a level of erudition and linguistic profficiency. I also found that the author pandered (perhaps unwittingly) to a certain strata of reader. Yes, the novel examines some universal themes, but much of it is devoted to the angst of the unknowingly privileged and after a while I found my face twitching as I read. As for Barnes' reputation as a witty and observant writer, if his Man Shop anecdote is his best attempt at humour, I suggest he sticks to the plays on words. Barnes' brand of humour is slick and clever, as you would expect, but it seems far too constructed and simply isn't amusing. Like most readers I admire Barnes greatly for his brilliant use of language and his insightful thoughts on the human condition, however this novel is ridden with hubris and an overall dillusion of applicability to the world in general. As a teenager in Newcastle I learned French at school. Most of the time I could barely remember the days of the week, and yet, compared to most kids, I was thought of as fluent! Perhaps this genius generation only ever existed in the Home Counties of England, but then since Englishness is defined, de facto, by those counties I suspect this offering is regarded as a representative piece of 'English' fiction. All in all, a highly insulated view. Posh twaddle - avoid if at all possible.

As good a debut as it gets
Les evenements? What?

The secret shame of the book's main character is having been in Paris through May of 1968 and not even noticing the student revolution, much less participating in it.

But then, he was in love.

This book lays foundation for almost every recurring theme of Barnes's future writing: the anxiety of growing up, the middle-class identity, the French connection, sex, love, etc.

It is less enthralling than "Talking It Over" or "Before She Met Me", but still an excellent novel.

Oh, and yes! It must have been noted already, and probably many times, but for me it was a small personal revelation. In "Flaubert's Parrot" the narrator ridicules the author of some first novel or other, who mentiones in his book the first forbidden edition of "Madame Bovary". The narrator's sting points at the fact that there have never been such a thing, and the poor chap must have meant "Les fleurs du mal".

The passage ridiculed in "Flaubert's Parrot" is taken from "Metroland".

Postmodernism rules. Or does it?

passage of time
Metroland is a very intimate and enchanting novel written in the first person. The reader is drawn into Chris, the narrator's, world at the very outset and from that point on, we are taken on a journey through life, time and age.
We start out in the mind of a 16 year old boy, feeling all his hopes and ideals alongside him, sharing his philosophies and questions with his closest friends in a haven of teenage, mutual, intellectual exchange.
Then comes Paris, May '68. Chris has matured. We sense that he has begun to live, and has become increasingly uncertain of how the realities of life fit in with his childhood ideals.
As the work draw slowly to a close the narrator is experiencing "real" life to the full; the marriage, the mortgage and the child, and yet the need to question seems to have been appeased. We now sense his readiness to live life day by day, without too much forward-thinking. With age, he no longer really asks why things happen, he merely accepts.
The ageing process we feel in the novel is fascinating, in particular when we consider the relationship between the two childhood "best friends", Chris and Toni. As children they seem to parralel so closely, with similar beliefs and concerns, yet as time passes their priorities and goals move in conflicting directions. Chris adapted his ideals to reality. Toni, on the other hand, tried to live by his childhood ideals as an adult, torturing himself in the process in the hopes of being true to his past self and his broken dreams.
Some of us mature and develop and some are children forever ....who is happier?

Metroland
The thoughts and conversations of the two teenage boys and this book are certainly not typical of those of 'real' children. The device used by the author in attributing such sophistication to adolescents parallels one of the themes of the book, that of utilty versus aesthetics.
In the first conversation we read between Chris and Tony since Chris' marriage, Chris asks Tony to explain to him the use of their childhood, heartfelt, agonising studies of reactions to the arts.
As adolescents, the boys have no power but no responsibility - Tony, it seems, never develops responsibilty and is embittered by his subsequent lack of influence on the real world or, indeed, on the literary world.
Chris accomodates real responsibility with a gradual softening of his views on other peoples jobs and lives, (see school reunion,)and the novel ends with Chris looking at the effect of a sodium light - this time he doesn't worry about it turning the colour of his clothes brown, but is content that his daughter is comforted by the light outside her window.
Art has no 'use' other than to sustain our spirits and give support to our more duties as adults.
There is no 'selling out' in this novel, just a wish to avoid the bitterness, loneliness and futility of a life driven by criticism and cynicism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A satisfying and complex morsel
Barnes wasn't joking when he entitled this book with the word 'pedant' in it to describe his obsession with things culinary. This text is littered with illustrations of just how particular he is, not just about cooking, but also about accuracy, both in the details of recipes and what impressions he draws from other's works or opinions and how they affect him.

"Of course, this still leaves you faced with preparing 'an excellent dinner' for 'those one is fond of'.Again, listen to Pomaine: `For successful dinner there should never be more than eight people.One should prepare only one good dish.'These are his italics, not mine.Don't they make the heart lift?" (p117)

Barnes injects humour into his preoccupation with food preparation and consumption: its ingredients, how they are sourced, their preparation, their origins and any quirky historical fact associated that might add piquancy.

In this book Julian Barnes excels at two things:

1. Unearthing interesting and slightly obscure facts about people, vegetables and the mundane experiences of maintaining a kitchen.

"But then there is the other drawer - the one where items of sporadic usefulness live, the one where everything is tangled up and furtive, into which you insert a tentative hand, not knowing where sharp edges lurk.When did I last empty it?Ten years ago?" (p121-122)

2. Analysing ideas and reflecting wittily on things other than food.

"We might as well suggest that current American military zeal is a consequence of that nation's love of fast food - in which case, an infantryman's widow would probably have a lawsuit against the nearest burger outlet.And if anyone is tempted to believe in an automatic link between protein and aggression, don't forget that Hitler was a vegetarian." (p133-134)

Barnes is an idealist and experiences angst in his desire to reach perfection in the kitchen.Gladly he recognises this and employs self-deprecation, along with sprinkles of culinary history to make this a small but satisfying