Good Company
Headline from newsmax.com: “Unemployment Falling Faster in States Cutting $300 Jobless Benefit.” Duh.
Born in England, Julian Barnes, 75, has had a fantastic literary run. He first worked for the Oxford English Dictionary, then as a reviewer and critic. His debut novel was published in 1980. He now has 13 to his credit under his own name, as well as nine works of non-fiction, three collections, two translations, and five works of fiction under a pseudonym. I am privileged to have read The Sense of an Ending, published in 2011, winner of the Man Booker Prize. It’s the first person account of a guy trying to get through life with a minimum of pain and hassle. It begins at a London high school, final year. He and two friends accept a new arrival, a serious student, into their fold. They graduate and at first stay in touch regularly but eventually go their separate ways. The protagonist marries, has a child, divorces but remains on good terms with his ex. The narrative is filled with intelligent observations on the human condition. The main focus is a brief relationship that did not end well that the protagonist had while at college. He is baffled as to why the mother of the girl, whom he met just once 40 years ago, included him in her will. The fiction I admire most is that which gets the bittersweet mystery of life right, not in an explanatory sense but behaviorally and psychologically, the inner desperation, the errors in judgment. Barnes nails it. Here are excerpts: “History isn’t the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured old Joe Hunt. I know that now. It’s more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated.” And: “The history that happens under our noses ought to be the clearest, and yet it’s the most deliquescent.” I had to look up that last word, which I haven’t encountered often: “deliquescence — the process by which a substance absorbs moisture from the atmosphere until it dissolves in the absorbed water and forms a solution.” Another excerpt: “Start with the notion that yours is the sole responsibility unless there’s powerful evidence to the contrary.” And: “Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” And: “Who was it that said the longer we live, the less we understand.” The quote is actually the protagonist’s, an amalgam of others including one by Einstein. It sums up my thinking these days on the mystery of life, its meaning or lack of. The prose and dialogue are solid, although I had a little difficulty in spots with the UK English and a few more instances of unfamiliar words. I hope I’m not making it sound pretentious — it’s not. The 163 pages of the hardcover edition read like considerably less. The novel concludes with a sort of double twist that would make mystery writers green with envy. 3600+ users at Amazon have rated The Sense…, forging to a consensus of 4.1 on a scale of five. I’d go a bit higher. To my surprise, there is a film adaptation — and to my greater surprise — I’ve already viewed it, rating it three stars at Netflix. I’ll take another look. Here’s a quote by Barnes’ I really like: “When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.” That’s what I hope to accomplish in my own work. It’s nice to know someone is having great success writing such fare.
Here’s non-fiction that will be available tomorrow at Amazon:
The floating book shop is a go at some location except for rain or extreme cold. I did make a foolish mistake today, however. I should have left the two heaviest boxes in the car, decrease the toil a bit. If I’m lucky enough to survive until tomorrow’s session, I’ll do that even though it’s impossible to tell what passersby might want. Meanwhile, my thanks to Ira, who bought the large pictorial Stay Tuned and brought me a bottle of water; and to the young woman who purchased a huge Webster’s College Dictionary; and to Wolf, who took home The Summons by John Grisham and two paperbacks by Colleen McCollough; and to the gentleman who went for the three-for-a-buck deal, snapping up Hotel by Arthur Hailey, The Naked Streets by Vasco Pratolini and Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss; and to The Quiet Man, who selected three mixed bag CDs I burned long ago. Despite all that, the highlight was Gonzo strolling by singing Bad Company (Simon Kirke/Paul Rodgers). Although my brain felt like mush due to the heat, I managed to feed him a line: “Always on the run…,” to which he replied: “A destiny, oh it’s the rising sun…”
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
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