The Sense of an Ending

The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes
Read in November 2018
Rating: 5/5

If you know that you are smarter than those around you, you surround yourself with an equally smart group of intelligent, competent people, but not too much, you spend a lot of time analyzing your thoughts and run what-if scenarios in your brain - not the kind that make you anxious but those that bring you closer to the analysis you eventually settle with, you are interested in talking philosophy and reason with logic, you will find this book an iota more relatable than if you are just a normal modern day human being. Because there is not much difference between the you and the rest of us. Almost all of our inner conversations stay inside us, what we speak is not what we think, it gets contorted by words. What makes this book highly relatable to everyone is Julian Barnes’s writing which brings out those inner conversations on paper. And how well it does that!

You play Tony Webster. You have two friends with whom you share common interests and enjoy being with, but you know you are slightly better than them. You have plans of conquering the world with your knowledge, wit and sheer brilliance but that will come when it has to come. But then comes along another guy in the picture who is more intelligent, articulate, clever and a more different thinker than you are. You feel the unique crown moving to his head now. You don’t feel superior anymore, you do not want to be superior anymore. You become a friend. There is envy but his brilliance seeks admiration and gets it. He is the Ranchoddas Chanchad. You’re a group of four now. You have engaging conversations about time, meaning, history and everyone acknowledges how smart Ranchoddas is. Too smart. And you are you. You have your taste in music, books and life choices. You are not good with girls because you haven’t ever truly tried. Now there’s a girl in the picture. You go out with her. Things eventually run their course, the members of the group of four move their ways amicably and you’re with someone else now. Feels real till now?

Where you are in life decides when you’ll get hooked to the story. You better be in your twenties before pretty soon after that life moves at lightning speed and you will have all the major life events behind you, all but few people you once knew far apart from you, and the grand plans still pristine, dusty, untouched, untested and old.

This book will show you how your life will be. How much things matter in life - not much, and how you were still the same person with same thoughts and flaws in future as you are in the current past. Gain a new perspective on time, love, history and the human condition from this thrilling psychological mystery